Export orders in January expanded 60.1 percent year-on-year to US$76.9 billion, the 12th straight month of double-digit percentage growth and the highest for a single month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The figure rose 0.9 percent from the previous month, exceeding the ministry’s estimate of US$70 billion to US$72 billion, driven by strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing applications, Department of Statistics Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
January’s growth was mainly driven by strong momentum in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, with strong orders for servers and other high-tech products, Huang said.
Photo: CNA
While traditional industries also posted year-on-year growth, the increase was largely due to a lower comparison base, as the Lunar New Year fell in January last year, but in February this year, and whether demand has truly rebounded would depend on last month’s data, he said.
Export orders for last month are estimated to rise 9 to 12.9 percent year-on-year to between US$56.3 billion and US$58.3 billion, Huang said.
While the first two months’ average might fall short of US$70 billion, it does not indicate weakening demand, he said.
Strong AI demand would continue to support order momentum for electronic components and ICT products. he added.
However, the war in Iran poses uncertainty for the order outlook, and a prolonged conflict could push up fuel prices and inflation, potentially affecting global demand and trade activity, Huang said.
If crude oil prices continue to rise, local petrochemical and plastics industries could be the first to be affected, including products such as plastics and chemical materials, he said.
The impact could then spread to broader prices and create inflationary pressure, he added.
In January, export orders rose 78.6 percent year-on-year for electronic components, surged 102 percent for ICT products, increased 40.6 percent for machinery products and climbed 18.6 percent for optoelectronic products, ministry data showed.
The surge in machinery orders — the largest year-on-year increase since July 2021 — was driven by capacity expansion in high-tech industries, which boosted demand for semiconductor production and automation equipment, Huang said.
However, it is not clear yet whether the machinery industry has truly rebounded, he said.
Orders also rose across traditional industries in January, increasing 13.9 percent year-on-year for plastic and rubber products, 8.8 percent for base metals and 10.4 percent for chemical products, ministry data showed.
Shares of contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) came under pressure yesterday after a report that Apple Inc is looking to shift some orders from the Taiwanese company to Intel Corp. TSMC shares fell NT$55, or 2.4 percent, to close at NT$2,235 on the local main board, Taiwan Stock Exchange data showed. Despite the losses, TSMC is expected to continue to benefit from sound fundamentals, as it maintains a lead over its peers in high-end process development, analysts said. “The selling was a knee-jerk reaction to an Intel-Apple report over the weekend,” Mega International Investment Services Corp (兆豐國際投顧) analyst Alex Huang
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is expected to remain Apple Inc’s primary chip manufacturing partner despite reports that Apple could shift some orders to Intel Corp, industry experts said yesterday. The comments came after The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that Apple and Intel had reached a preliminary agreement following more than a year of negotiations for Intel to manufacture some chips for Apple devices. Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院) economist Arisa Liu (劉佩真) said TSMC’s advanced packaging technologies, including integrated fan-out and chip-on-wafer-on-substrate, remain critical to the performance of Apple’s A-series and M-series chips. She said Intel and Samsung
TRANSITION: With the closure, the company would reorganize its Taiwanese unit to a sales and service-focused model, Bridgestone said Bridgestone Corp yesterday announced it would cease manufacturing operations at its tire plant in Hsinchu County’s Hukou Township (湖口), affecting more than 500 workers. Bridgestone Taiwan Co (台灣普利司通) said in a statement that the decision was based on the Tokyo-based tire maker’s adjustments to its global operational strategy and long-term market development considerations. The Taiwanese unit would be reorganized as part of the closure, effective yesterday, and all related production activities would be concluded, the statement said. Under the plan, Bridgestone would continue to deepen its presence in the Taiwanese market, while transitioning to a sales and service-focused business model, it added. The Hsinchu
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) has approved a capital budget of US$31.28 billion for production expansion to meet long-term development needs during the artificial intelligence (AI) boom. The company’s board meeting yesterday approved the capital appropriation plan for purposes such as the installation of advanced technology capacity and fab construction, the world’s largest contract chipmaker said in a statement. At an earnings conference last month, TSMC forecast that its capital expenditure for this year would be at the higher end of the US$52 billion to US$56 billion range it forecast in January in response to robust demand for 5G, AI and
RSS