Export orders last month expanded 39.5 percent year-on-year to US$72.92 billion, the 10th straight month of double-digit percentage growth and the highest for a single month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Last month’s figure increased 5.1 percent from the previous month, exceeding the ministry’s estimate of US$66.7 billion to US$68.7 billion, due to stronger-than-expected server and chip orders, Department of Statistics Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
In the first 11 months of the year, export orders grew 24.2 percent annually to US$666.65 billion, also the largest for the period, the ministry’s data showed.
Photo: CNA
Order momentum is expected to remain strong this month thanks to robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications, Huang said.
The ministry forecast export orders this month to reach US$72 billion to US$74 billion, or an annual increase of 36.1 percent to 39.8 percent, and projected orders in the fourth quarter to rise between 33.4 percent and 34.6 percent year-on-year to between US$214.3 billion and US$216.3 billion.
Full-year orders are expected to hit a new high, rising 25.3 percent to 25.6 percent year-on-year to US$738.7 billion to US$740.7 billion, it said.
The annual total could exceed US$750 billion when orders this month reach US$83.35 billion, if server makers’ order momentum continues to grow, Huang said.
Regarding Mexico’s new tariffs on goods from countries, including Taiwan, that do not have a free-trade agreement with it, Huang said the impact would be limited after the new policy takes effect next year.
Taiwan’s exports to Mexico account for only about 3 to 4 percent of its total exports and about 70 percent of the goods consisting of information and communications technology (ICT) products are exempt from the tariffs, he said.
The Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations yesterday announced that it had secured unchanged or reduced tariffs for 82 items, further easing the potential impact, he added.
Last month, export orders for electronic components surged 47.9 percent year-on-year, driven by demand for ICs and memory chips for AI and high-performance computing applications, as well as a surge in memory prices, the ministry said.
Orders for ICT products rose 69.4 percent, as AI and cloud service development boosted order momentum for servers and networking products, while machinery orders rose 6.9 percent due to strong demand for automation equipment in semiconductor production, it said.
Optoelectronic orders fell 2.4 percent, ending a 13-month streak of growth, as demand for flat panels and backlight modules weakened, it said.
In traditional industries, export orders for plastic and rubber products fell 15.8 percent, orders for base metals dropped 0.5 percent and those for chemical products decreased 12.5 percent, the ministry said.
US tariffs have continued to weigh on orders for plastic and rubber products, as well as machine tools, while base metal and chemical products remain under pressure from low-priced competition from China, Huang said.
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