The value of export orders dropped 5.9 percent annually and 4.1 percent monthly to US$35.79 billion last month, dragged down mainly by declining orders from China and Hong Kong, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The value of orders from China and Hong Kong fell by US$1.17 billion from a year earlier to US$8.98 billion last month, accounting for 52.7 percent of the US$2.22 billion annual drop in overall export orders last month, the ministry said.
“The increasing localization of supply chains in China is an issue that we have to face seriously,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference in Taipei, adding that last month’s data on orders from China and Hong Kong marked the fifth consecutive month of decline, excluding Lunar New Year holiday factors.
Photo: CNA
Weaker-than-expected growth in China has also affected demand for Taiwanese goods, Lin said. She said it would be worth observing if the annual decline in export orders from China and Hong Kong would extend throughout the year, citing the faster-than-expected rise of supply chains in China.
“Aside from flat panels, we noticed that Taiwan’s integrated circuit design, packaging and testing service sectors have also been facing increasing challenges in China,” Lin said.
In addition, the weak demand for PCs in Europe and handheld devices in emerging markets also affected the performance of the nation’s electronics and precision instruments industries, Lin said.
Apart from the information and communication technology industry, which saw a 2.3 percent annual increase in orders to US$9.7 billion, the ministry’s report showed broad declines in orders for electronics, precision instruments, basic metals, petrochemicals and machinery products last month from the same period a year ago.
By country, the US was still Taiwan’s largest export destination, with orders increasing 5.2 percent to US$9.79 billion from the same period a year ago, Lin said.
However, the annual growth rate for US orders was slower than the 14 percent registered a month earlier, an indicator of weakening demand as the product cycle for Apple Inc’s iPhone nears a refresh, Lin said.
Orders from China and Hong Kong, Europe, ASEAN and Japan all saw an annual decline last month, with orders from China and Hong Kong and Japan plunging by double-digit percentage points from a year ago, Lin said.
Lin said the ministry forecasts the value of this month’s export orders to be flat or decline from last month’s US$35.79 billion. As such, the value of export orders this month will likely decline from last year’s US$38.82 billion, she said.
The value of export orders totaled US$180.47 billion in the first five months of this year, 0.6 percent less than in the same period last year, the ministry’s data showed.
The total value for the first half of this year is expected to be less than the US$220.47 billion in the same period last year, Lin said.
However, Lin said the ministry remains optimistic on export orders in the second half of this year, citing the upcoming launches of Microsoft Corp’s Windows 10 operating system and new Apple products.
Three cases of Candida auris, a fungus that can cause a yeast infection known as candidiasis in humans, have been reported in Taiwan over the past few years, but they did not display drug resistance, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Philip Lo (羅一鈞) said yesterday. Lo made the statement at a news conference in Taipei, one day after the Washington Post reported that the potentially deadly fungus is spreading in US hospitals. The fungus was first discovered in Japan in 2009 and poses a danger to immunocompromised people, with an estimated mortality rate of 30 to 60 percent, Lo
SWITCH TO BEIJING: The government severed diplomatic relations about an hour after Honduras announced the move, saying that no semi-official ties would be maintained Taiwan severed diplomatic ties with Honduras and ended all cooperation with the Central American country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday, about an hour and a half after the Honduran Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Twitter at 8am Taiwan time that the nation would cut its ties with Taiwan. Honduran President Xiomara Castro on Wednesday sent Honduran Minister of Foreign Affairs Eduardo Enrique Reina to Beijing to negotiate the establishment of diplomatic relations. She announced the plan on March 14 on Twitter. “To safeguard Taiwan’s sovereignty and dignity, Taiwan is terminating diplomatic ties with Honduras with immediate effect” after communication with
MEDIA, SOCIETY FOCUS: Doublethink Lab said that Beijing is trying to coerce countries that rely on China economically to pursue policies in its favor China has stronger influence over Taiwan’s media and society than any other country, the Taipei-based Doublethink Lab think tank said yesterday, as it announced its China Index gauging Beijing’s global influence. Taiwan ranked 11th overall among 82 countries assessed, but first in terms of social and media influence, Doublethink Lab chairman Puma Shen (沈伯洋) told a news conference in Taipei. More than 200 experts and academics participated in the project, including some highly influential figures, Shen said. The index collects information from countries worldwide to gauge China’s influence and assess how Chinese policies affect them, Shen said. In terms of Chinese
TRADE MISSION: After Fijian elections in December last year, pro-democratic parties formed a coalition and overruled a name change imposed by the former government The Taipei Trade Office in Fiji has been restored to its former name, the Trade Mission of the Republic of China (Taiwan) to the Republic of Fiji, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said yesterday. Fiji on Friday last week issued a note verbale to the office saying that the name change was retroactively effective from March 15, Department of East Asian and Pacific Affairs Director-General Wallace Chow (周民淦) told a news conference in Taipei. The mission’s diplomatic privileges have been reinstated as stipulated in Fiji’s Diplomatic Privileges and Immunities Act, which was enacted in 1971, Chow said. Taiwan set up a trade
RSS