Export orders last month increased 1 percent year-on-year to US$50.63 billion, after 14 consecutive months of declines, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a report yesterday.
The growth in orders was short of the ministry’s forecast last month of an annual increase of 1.7 to 5.7 percent, but the data suggest a gradual recovery is under way.
The increase came from a low base of comparison a year earlier because of strict COVID-19 control measures in China, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
It was also due to continued demand related to applications of emerging technologies, such as high-performance computing and artificial intelligence, although falling orders for non-tech goods offset part of the increase, it said.
On a monthly basis, export orders — an indicator of product and component shipments to overseas markets for the following one to three months — decreased 4.2 percent, the ministry said.
Last month’s figure brought combined export orders in the first 11 months of the year down 15.8 percent year-on-year to US$517.23 billion, ministry data showed.
In a recent poll of domestic manufacturers by the ministry, only 15.6 percent of respondents were optimistic that export orders would increase this month from last month, while 58.2 percent said that orders would be flat and 26.3 percent expected them to decline, the report said.
In addition, the diffusion index of export orders — a gauge of manufacturers' expectations on export orders for the following month — fell for the second straight month to 47.8 last month and was below the threshold of 50 which suggests manufacturers' outlook remains weak, it said.
As a result, export orders this month are forecast to decrease 1.2 to 5.2 percent monthly and drop 4.2 to 8 percent annually to US$48 billion to US$50 billion, the ministry said.
For the year as a whole, export orders are expected to total US$565.2 to US$567.2 billion, down 14.9 percent to 15.2 percent from US$666.79 billion last year, it said.
The latest data showed that export orders for information and communications technology products last month grew 10 percent year-on-year, ending nine months of consecutive declines, while orders for electronic goods increased 3.5 percent from a year earlier, after falling for 12 months in a row, as increased shipments of handsets, servers and chips outweighed slowing demand for wafers and printed circuit boards.
Optoelectronics products last month posted a 9.8 percent annual increase as prices of flat panels for TVs were higher than a year earlier and demand for camera lenses continued to increase, the report said.
However, a global economic slowdown and weakening end-market demand continued to pressure firms in non-tech sectors, with export orders for basic metals and machinery goods last month shrinking 0.3 percent and 12.5 percent year-on-year respectively, the report said.
On top of that, increased supply from foreign peers caused export orders for plastics and chemical products last month to post annual declines of 10.2 percent and 7.9 percent respectively, it said.
Last month, orders from Southeast Asia registered the largest annual increase of 69.4 percent, followed by a rise of 8.8 percent in orders from China, including Hong Kong.
Orders from Japan posted the largest annual decline of 29 percent, compared with a drop of 21.1 percent in orders from Europe and 2.4 percent from the US, the report said.
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