Export orders rose 17.18 percent last month from a year earlier as demand from China offset weaker US sales, government statistics showed yesterday.
Export orders, indicative of shipments in one to three months, amounted to US$31.89 billion last month, up US$4.68 billion compared with November last year, Huang Ji-shih (黃吉實), director of the Ministry of Economic Affairs' statistics department, told a press briefing yesterday.
That was more than the 16.5 percent median estimate of 13 economists in a Bloomberg News survey. October's gain was 18 percent.
"Orders from Hong Kong and China, estimated at US$90 billion by year-end, exceeded orders from the US for the first time, which is expected to reach US$84 billion by year-end," Huang said.
Lucas Lee, an economist at Mega Securities Co (兆豐證券), also credited Chinese orders.
"Demand from the Greater China region is quite strong," he said.
China is forecasting an economic expansion of 11.5 percent this year, the fastest pace since 1994, as investment and exports surge. The US is in the grip of its worst housing recession in 16 years, cooling demand in Taiwan's second-biggest market after China and Hong Kong. For January through last month, orders rose 15.34 percent.
Last year, Taiwan's full-year orders from the US were US$79.33 billion, higher than the US$75.46 billion worth of orders from Hong Kong and China, Huang said.
Orders from Hong Kong and China surged US$1.42 billion, or 20.53 percent year-on-year, to US$8.32 billion last month. In comparison, orders from the US saw a smaller increase of 9.80 percent last month from a year earlier to US$7.57 billion, the report showed.
Orders on electronics, and information and communications technology products, which account for half of the nation's total orders, respectively saw an 18 and 11.03 percent year-on-year growth last month, Huang said.
Meanwhile, the nation's industrial production index grew 11.13 percent year-on-year last month, with the manufacturing industry snapping a 12.40 percent growth. The electricity, gas and water industry climbed 0.77 percent, while the construction industry decreased by 4.42 percent.
ENDEAVOR MANTA: The ship is programmed to automatically return to its designated home port and would self-destruct if seized by another party The Endeavor Manta, Taiwan’s first military-specification uncrewed surface vehicle (USV) tailor-made to operate in the Taiwan Strait in a bid to bolster the nation’s asymmetric combat capabilities made its first appearance at Kaohsiung’s Singda Harbor yesterday. Taking inspiration from Ukraine’s navy, which is using USVs to force Russia’s Black Sea fleet to take shelter within its own ports, CSBC Taiwan (台灣國際造船) established a research and development unit on USVs last year, CSBC chairman Huang Cheng-hung (黃正弘) said. With the exception of the satellite guidance system and the outboard motors — which were purchased from foreign companies that were not affiliated with Chinese-funded
PERMIT REVOKED: The influencer at a news conference said the National Immigration Agency was infringing on human rights and persecuting Chinese spouses Chinese influencer “Yaya in Taiwan” (亞亞在台灣) yesterday evening voluntarily left Taiwan, despite saying yesterday morning that she had “no intention” of leaving after her residence permit was revoked over her comments on Taiwan being “unified” with China by military force. The Ministry of the Interior yesterday had said that it could forcibly deport the influencer at midnight, but was considering taking a more flexible approach and beginning procedures this morning. The influencer, whose given name is Liu Zhenya (劉振亞), departed on a 8:45pm flight from Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) to Fuzhou, China. Liu held a news conference at the airport at 7pm,
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —