Exports orders last month rose 36.3 percent year-on-year, rising for a fifth consecutive month, Ministry of Economic Affairs data showed yesterday.
Combined export orders in the first two months of this year surged 52.9 percent from a year ago to US$57.8 billion, the data showed.
The growth momentum is expected to continue this month on the back of the global economic recovery, which is fueling demand for Taiwanese products such as computers, handsets and TVs.
“Export orders’ momentum is going to be very strong this month,” said Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the statistics department, at a press conference.
Initial tallies by the department showed that export orders this month could exceed US$30 billion and easily surpass those of January, when orders grew 71.8 percent year-on-year to US$30.4 billion.
Export orders serve as an indication of shipments by Taiwanese firms in the next one to three months.
“Companies polled are relatively upbeat on this month’s prospects, and they foresee growth in their orders,” Huang added.
Analysts warned, however, that growth might have peaked.
The 52.9 percent increase in orders in the first two months was almost equivalent to the 52.6 percent growth registered in December, Standard Chartered Bank chief economist Tony Phoo (符銘財) said.
He said this could be a signal that orders “may have reached a peak and will start to cool off in the coming months due to the base effect.”
In addition, the monthly growth last month represented the third time in the past four months that orders slipped from the previous month, Phoo said in a statement issued by Standard Chartered.
Panels, machinery and electrical products were the main growth drivers last month, Huang said.
“Companies [from around the world] are upbeat on business growth prospects, and they are allocating budgets to buy more equipment,” Huang said.
Local firms have also dealt with labor and component shortages and are therefore confident in signing up more orders to meet clients’ demand, he said.
The yen’s strength against the greenback also encouraged some buyers to switch orders to Taiwanese firms, he said.
China, Taiwan’s largest trading partner, placed the most orders at US$7.2 billion, a year-on-year growth of 49.4 percent.
The US came in the second at US$5.6 billion, a rise of 13.5 percent from last year, while Europe placed third at US$4.8 billion, up 22.1 percent from last year, the statistics show.
Japan, however, posted the highest growth among all markets at 101.6 percent, ordering US$3.5 billion in products from Taiwan.
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