Export orders surged 65.9 percent year-on-year to US$91.12 billion last month, driven by strong demand for information and communications technology (ICT) products amid an artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing boom, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The figure marked a record high for a single month and the first time it exceeded US$90 billion, the ministry said, adding that it was also the 14th consecutive month of annual growth, surpassing the ministry’s estimate of about US$78 billion.
Export orders in the first quarter soared 50 percent year-on-year to US$231.91 billion, marking a record high for a single quarter, ministry data showed.
Photo: CNA
The better-than-expected performance last month was driven by strong demand for ICT and electronic components, fueled by robust global appetite for AI applications, despite a high comparison base last year, Department of Statistics Director-General Huang Wei-jie (黃偉傑) told a news conference in Taipei.
As the transition between old and new server products is largely complete, orders for new products also began to be reflected in last month’s figures, he said.
Export orders this month are expected to rise 47.3 to 50.7 percent year-on-year to between US$87 billion and US$89 billion, Huang said.
Orders in the first four months of this year are expected to grow 49.3 to 50.2 percent to between US$318.9 billion and US$320.9 billion, he added.
More orders are expected in the second quarter, after the first defied the weak-season trend this year on robust AI demand, Huang said.
While tensions in the Middle East pose downside risks to global demand, Taiwan has been cushioned by its role in the AI supply chain, he said.
Citing reports from the IMF and the Asian Development Bank, Huang said that Taiwan’s economic outlook has been revised upward even as global growth forecasts were downgraded by international research institutes, reflecting the “moat” effect of AI-driven demand.
Last month, orders for electronic components rose 73.7 percent year-on-year to US$36.71 billion, driven by growing adoption of emerging technologies that boosted IC production, as well as orders for IC distributors and memory chips, the ministry said.
Orders for ICT products surged 120.9 percent to US$34.28 billion on solid demand for servers and networking devices, along with new notebook computer launches, while orders for optoelectronic products rose 4.2 percent to US$2.03 billion, the data showed.
Traditional industries also reported improving order momentum last month, driven by growth in demand for semiconductor and automation equipment, as well as a surge in global energy prices amid Middle East tensions, Huang said.
Orders for machinery products were up 20.8 percent to US$2.05 billion, he said.
Base metal orders rose 2.9 percent to US$2.2 billion, supported by a rebound in steel demand, and rising demand for copper and copper-clad laminate amid expanding AI applications, while chemical product orders increased 14.7 percent to US$1.67 billion, driven by growing demand from the medical and semiconductor industries, he said.
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
POWER BUILDUP: Powered by Nvidia’s B200 Blackwell chips, the data center would support MediaTek’s computing power demand and business growth, the company said Smartphone chip designer MediaTek Inc (聯發科) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) data center with a maximum capacity of 45 megawatts to meet its rising demand for computing power required to develop new advanced chips for AI applications. The company has completed the first-phase computing power buildup at the data center in Miaoli County’s Tongluo Township (銅鑼), providing 15 megawatts of capacity to support its research and development (R&D) capabilities, despite an industrywide shortage of key components, MediaTek said. Supply constraints have plagued a wide range of key components, including memory chips, solid-state drives, power supply units and central
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
RSS