Exports jumped 20.5 percent year-on-year last month as trade with Asian countries remained active despite an economic slowdown in the US, Taiwan’s second-largest trade partner, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The export volume hit US$23.6 billion last month, the second highest in history, while imports stood at US$21.38 billion, or a rise of 17.6 percent from a year ago, said Hsu Ray-lin (許瑞琳), deputy director of the ministry’s Department of Statistics.
Both figures have been on the rise since last September and it is the 27th consecutive month the country posted a trade surplus that widened to US$2.21 billion last month from a revised US$1.4 billion a year earlier, the ministry’s report said.
Hsu attributed the trend to rising demand from Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Japan, India and Southeast Asia that rallied more than 23 percent.
Shipments destined for Europe also picked up 10.7 percent, he said.
Hsu depicted the statistics as a sign of continuing export growth, although he noted that shipments to the US declined 3.6 percent last month, after rising 2.2 percent the previous month.
“US economic activities remain weak because of the subprime crisis,” Hsu said.
“But [Taiwan] has continually performed dynamically in foreign trade by increasing its dependence on emerging markets in recent years,” he said.
Exports to India soared 45.5 percent between January and last month, the ministry’s report showed, adding that sales to China and Southeast Asia both shot up 26 percent during the same period.
Financial analysts shared Hsu’s opinion.
“Growing exports to emerging markets in China, Russia, India and elsewhere will help mitigate the impact of a slowdown in the US,” Peter Kurz, head of Taiwan research at Citigroup Inc, said on Bloomberg Television yesterday.
Sales of electronics to China, the world’s fastest-growing major economy, have helped Taiwan weather fallout from the US financial crisis, which has reduced demand for Asian exports, Bloomberg said.
Sales to Japan gained 23.7 percent last month, climbing from 11.7 percent in April, the report said, adding that exports to Europe rose 10.7 percent.
Exports of electronics rose 12.8 percent last month, accelerating from a 3.1 percent gain in April.
Information technology and communications product exports increased 9.1 percent, after gaining 11.4 percent in April.
“The strength is mostly from Asia,” said Alan Liao, an economist at Chinatrust Financial Holding Co (中信金) in Taipei.
“Taiwan’s economy remains stable, yet inflation remains the key risk throughout the region,” he said.
The economy grew 6.06 percent in the first quarter, as Taiwan joined Japan, Hong Kong and Malaysia in reporting expansion that exceeded expectations with Asian trade buoying growth.
Taiwan’s trade and investment with China is poised to improve as President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) government works to lift a ban on direct cross-strait transport.
“As usual, strong demand from emerging markets boosted exports, while energy drove high imports,” Cheng Cheng-mount (鄭貞茂), chief economist at Citibank Taiwan Ltd (花旗銀行) in Taipei, said yesterday.
TECH RACE: The Chinese firm showed off its new Mate XT hours after the latest iPhone launch, but its price tag and limited supply could be drawbacks China’s Huawei Technologies Co (華為) yesterday unveiled the world’s first tri-foldable phone, as it seeks to expand its lead in the world’s biggest smartphone market and steal the spotlight from Apple Inc hours after it debuted a new iPhone. The Chinese tech giant showed off its new Mate XT, which users can fold three ways like an accordion screen door, during a launch ceremony in Shenzhen. The Mate XT comes in red and black and has a 10.2-inch display screen. At 3.6mm thick, it is the world’s slimmest foldable smartphone, Huawei said. The company’s Web site showed that it has garnered more than
CROSS-STRAIT TENSIONS: The US company could switch orders from TSMC to alternative suppliers, but that would lower chip quality, CEO Jensen Huang said Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳), whose products have become the hottest commodity in the technology world, on Wednesday said that the scramble for a limited amount of supply has frustrated some customers and raised tensions. “The demand on it is so great, and everyone wants to be first and everyone wants to be most,” he told the audience at a Goldman Sachs Group Inc technology conference in San Francisco. “We probably have more emotional customers today. Deservedly so. It’s tense. We’re trying to do the best we can.” Huang’s company is experiencing strong demand for its latest generation of chips, called
Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and Episil Technologies Inc (漢磊) yesterday announced plans to jointly build an 8-inch fab to produce silicon carbide (SiC) chips through an equity acquisition deal. SiC chips offer higher efficiency and lower energy loss than pure silicon chips, and they are able to operate at higher temperatures. They have become crucial to the development of electric vehicles, artificial intelligence data centers, green energy storage and industrial devices. Vanguard, a contract chipmaker focused on making power management chips and driver ICs for displays, is to acquire a 13 percent stake in Episil for NT$2.48 billion (US$77.1 million).
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the