The nation’s exports of passive components — including resistors, capacitors and inductors — grew by a double-digit percentage for the second straight year last year to reach US$2.58 billion, the highest since 2003, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Friday last week.
Overseas sales of Taiwan’s passive components were still lower than those from Japan, which rose 11 percent year-on-year to US$7.02 billion last year, but were higher than South Korea’s US$1.87 billion, which grew 25.9 percent from a year earlier, the ministry said.
“Japan remains the world’s top exporter of passive components, as it has the upper hand when it comes to the supply of raw materials and equipment needed to produce such electronic components,” the ministry said in a statement on its Web site.
In the past few years, leading Japanese manufacturers have continued to develop advanced technologies and shifted their focus to high-end products, it said.
Passive components are the basic building blocks of electronic circuits. They are used in a wide range of electronic devices, such as computers, mobile phones, servers, automotive electronics, and communications and networking products.
Due to the global economic slowdown in 2012, which negatively affected end-market demand and caused a supply-demand imbalance, Taiwan’s exports of passive components contracted by 5.7 percent annually that year and registered four consecutive years of negative growth through 2015.
However, growing demand for passive components as mobile devices became increasingly sophisticated and a wider adoption of semiconductors in automotive electronics resulted in Taiwanese exports recording an annual increase of 29.7 percent in 2016.
Last year, exports of passive components rose 13.1 percent year-on-year, with capacitors accounting for 57.9 percent of the total shipments, resistors contributing 23.6 percent and inductors making up 18.5 percent, the ministry said.
The export growth showed no sign of a slowdown in the first five months of this year, with outbound shipments expanding 27.2 percent from the same period last year, it said.
China, including Hong Kong, continued to be the largest destination for Taiwanese exports, accounting for 79.2 percent of overall outbound shipments, while exports to the US accounted for 4.3 percent and shipments to Germany made up 3.3 percent, it said.
In China, Japanese imports held the largest market share of 41.1 percent last year, followed by Taiwanese goods at 11.9 percent and imports from the Philippines at 8.2 percent, the ministry said.
When an apartment comes up for rent in Germany’s big cities, hundreds of prospective tenants often queue down the street to view it, but the acute shortage of affordable housing is getting scant attention ahead of today’s snap general election. “Housing is one of the main problems for people, but nobody talks about it, nobody takes it seriously,” said Andreas Ibel, president of Build Europe, an association representing housing developers. Migration and the sluggish economy top the list of voters’ concerns, but analysts say housing policy fails to break through as returns on investment take time to register, making the
EARLY TALKS: Measures under consideration include convincing allies to match US curbs, further restricting exports of AI chips or GPUs, and blocking Chinese investments US President Donald Trump’s administration is sketching out tougher versions of US semiconductor curbs and pressuring key allies to escalate their restrictions on China’s chip industry, an early indication the new US president plans to expand efforts that began under former US president Joe Biden to limit Beijing’s technological prowess. Trump officials recently met with their Japanese and Dutch counterparts about restricting Tokyo Electron Ltd and ASML Holding NV engineers from maintaining semiconductor gear in China, people familiar with the matter said. The aim, which was also a priority for Biden, is to see key allies match China curbs the US
The popular Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) arbitrage trade might soon see a change in dynamics that could affect the trading of the US listing versus the local one. And for anyone who wants to monetize the elevated premium, Goldman Sachs Group Inc highlights potential trades. A note from the bank’s sales desk published on Friday said that demand for TSMC’s Taipei-traded stock could rise as Taiwan’s regulator is considering an amendment to local exchange-traded funds’ (ETFs) ownership. The changes, which could come in the first half of this year, could push up the current 30 percent single-stock weight limit
NOT TO WORRY: Some people are concerned funds might continue moving out of the country, but the central bank said financial account outflows are not unusual in Taiwan Taiwan’s outbound investments hit a new high last year due to investments made by contract chipmaker Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) and other major manufacturers to boost global expansion, the central bank said on Thursday. The net increase in outbound investments last year reached a record US$21.05 billion, while the net increase in outbound investments by Taiwanese residents reached a record US$31.98 billion, central bank data showed. Chen Fei-wen (陳斐紋), deputy director of the central bank’s Department of Economic Research, said the increase was largely due to TSMC’s efforts to expand production in the US and Japan. Investments by Vanguard International
RSS