Taiwan climbed to its highest position in global export rankings in more than three decades last year, buoyed by demand linked to artificial intelligence (AI) that lifted shipments of semiconductors and technology products, Ministry of Finance data released yesterday showed.
Taiwan accounted for 2.4 percent of global exports last year, or about US$640 billion, ranking 12th worldwide, the data showed.
That was up four places from a year earlier and marked the nation’s best ranking since 1994, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
Taiwan’s share of global exports rose by 0.5 percentage points from the previous year, the largest increase among major economies, reflecting the nation’s strong position in the semiconductor and information and communications technology supply chains amid the rapid expansion of AI-related applications, it said.
Overall global trade also improved last year as AI-driven demand fueled shipments across industries, WTO data showed.
Global exports rose 7.2 percent from a year earlier to US$26.3 trillion, the data showed.
China retained the largest share of global exports at 14.4 percent, followed by the US at 8.3 percent, Germany at 6.7 percent and the Netherlands at 3.8 percent, the WTO said.
Hong Kong was fifth with a 2.9 percent share, climbing three places from a year earlier, while Japan slipped one place to sixth with 2.8 percent, it said.
South Korea fell two positions to eighth, with exports totaling US$709.3 billion, or a 2.7 percent share of the global total, while Singapore placed 14th with a 2.2 percent share, advancing one spot, it said.
On the import side, among the so-called Asian Tigers, Hong Kong and South Korea ranked sixth and 12th respectively, while Singapore placed 18th and Taiwan slipped one spot from a year earlier to 19th.
Combining exports and imports, Taiwan ranked 15th in global trade last year, improving three positions from the previous year and posting its best performance since 2003, the ministry said.
The export shares of Hong Kong and Singapore increased by 0.3 and 0.1 percentage points respectively, the ministry’s data showed.
By contrast, export shares for China, the US, Germany, Japan and South Korea declined by 0.1 to 0.2 percentage points, the ministry data showed.
Compared with a decade earlier, Taiwan and China recorded the most notable gains in global export share, rising 0.7 and 1.3 percentage points respectively, the ministry said.
Over the same period, the shares of Germany and Japan fell by 1.6 and 1.2 percentage points respectively, while the US and South Korea posted declines of 0.7 and 0.4 percentage points respectively, it said.
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