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.
CREDIT-GRABBER: China said its coast guard rescued the crew of a fishing vessel that caught fire, who were actually rescued by a nearby Taiwanese boat and the CGA Maritime search and rescue operations do not have borders, and China should not use a shipwreck to infringe upon Taiwanese sovereignty, the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) said yesterday. The coast guard made the statement in response to the China Coast Guard (CCG) saying it saved a Taiwanese fishing boat. The Chuan Yu No. 6 (全漁6號), a fishing vessel registered in Keelung, on Thursday caught fire and sank in waters northeast of Diaoyutai Islands (釣魚台). The vessel left Keelung’s Badouzih Fishing Harbor (八斗子漁港) at 3:35pm on Sunday last week, with seven people on board — a 62-year-old Taiwanese captain surnamed Chang (張) and six
RISKY BUSINESS: The ‘incentives’ include initiatives that get suspended for no reason, creating uncertainty and resulting in considerable losses for Taiwanese, the MAC said China’s “incentives” failed to sway sentiment in Taiwan, as willingness to work in China hit a record low of 1.6 percent, a Ministry of Labor survey showed. The Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) also reported that the number of Taiwanese workers in China has nearly halved from a peak of 430,000 in 2012 to an estimated 231,000 in 2024. That marked a new low in the proportion of Taiwanese going abroad to work. The ministry’s annual survey on “Labor Life and Employment Status” includes questions respondents’ willingness to seek employment overseas. Willingness to work in China has steadily declined from
The number of pet cats in Taiwan surpassed that of pet dogs for the first time last year, reaching 1,742,033, a 32.8 percent increase from 2023, the Ministry of Agriculture said yesterday, citing a survey. By contrast, the number of pet dogs declined slightly by 1.2 percent over the same period to 1,462,528, the ministry said. Despite the shift, households with dogs still slightly outnumber those with cats by 1.2 percent. However, while the number of households with multiple dogs has remained relatively stable, households keeping more than two cats have increased, contributing to the overall rise in the feline population. The trend
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
RSS