Taiwan’s exports soared 11.2 percent year-on-year to a record US$32.23 billion last month, as tech firms continued to thrive on the low-contact economy, while most traditional sectors stopped being a drag, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
“The showing is surprisingly strong and might sustain this month and beyond, with demand for 5G devices, advanced chips and remote technology applications poised to gain steam ahead of the high season,” said Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜), who had earlier projected a mild decline for last month due to fewer working days and the disappearance of inventory stockpiling by China’s Huawei Technology Co (華為).
Bloomberg reported that excluding February’s data because of the extended Lunar New Year holiday, last month’s exports rose by the fastest pace since May 2018.
Photo: CNA
Exports are expected to rise by 5 to 8 percent this month, Tsai said, adding that the landscape moving forward looks bright for technology products.
The releases of Apple Inc’s new iPhones and other smartphone brands have been boosting business for local firms that supply their components, she said.
That helped explain why outbound shipments of electronics jumped 21.8 percent to US$12.97 billion, while information and communication products grew 22.2 percent to US$4.64 billion, Tsai said.
Those two categories are set to break records this year and would help avoid an annual decline in overall exports, she said.
Optical devices grew 14.2 percent from a year earlier, buoyed by strong demand for TV panels, which offset a 13.6 percent fall in shipments of smartphone camera lenses, the ministry’s report showed.
Exports of chemical, plastic and base metal products saw increases of 0.4 percent to 8.8 percent, reversing nearly two years of slumps after customers started to rebuild inventory, Tsai said.
The fledgling recovery did not apply to makers of mineral and textile products, which tumbled 61.3 percent and 6.9 percent respectively from their year-ago levels, as the COVID-19 pandemic slashed international travel and hurt their business, Tsai said.
Demand from all major trading partners worldwide picked up last month, lending support to a broad-based recovery, but Tsai said it is safer to watch for a while longer.
Exports to China and Hong Kong rose 16.9 percent, while shipments to the US increased 21.4 percent.
Imports fell 1 percent to US$24.77 billion, giving Taiwan a record trade surplus of US$7.46 billion, an 88.9 percent spike from a year earlier, the ministry said.
Imports of capital equipment rose 8.6 percent, mostly among local semiconductor firms seeking to maintain their global technology edge, the ministry added.
Widening trade surpluses are aggravating Taiwan’s trade imbalance with the US and driving up the New Taiwan dollar against the US greenback, but the NT dollar’s strength appears to have done little to temper overseas demand for Taiwanese products.
For the first 10 months of the year, exports totaled US$280.31 billion, a 3.4 percent increase over last year, dimming the chance of an annual drop for the major growth driver as forecast earlier by the government, Tsai said.
Imports maintained their retreat, slipping 0.8 percent to US$232.53 billion, weighed down by cheaper oil and raw material prices.
Additional reporting by Bloomberg
‘SWASTICAR’: Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s close association with Donald Trump has prompted opponents to brand him a ‘Nazi’ and resulted in a dramatic drop in sales Demonstrators descended on Tesla Inc dealerships across the US, and in Europe and Canada on Saturday to protest company chief Elon Musk, who has amassed extraordinary power as a top adviser to US President Donald Trump. Waving signs with messages such as “Musk is stealing our money” and “Reclaim our country,” the protests largely took place peacefully following fiery episodes of vandalism on Tesla vehicles, dealerships and other facilities in recent weeks that US officials have denounced as terrorism. Hundreds rallied on Saturday outside the Tesla dealership in Manhattan. Some blasted Musk, the world’s richest man, while others demanded the shuttering of his
Taiwan’s official purchasing managers’ index (PMI) last month rose 0.2 percentage points to 54.2, in a second consecutive month of expansion, thanks to front-loading demand intended to avoid potential US tariff hikes, the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. While short-term demand appeared robust, uncertainties rose due to US President Donald Trump’s unpredictable trade policy, CIER president Lien Hsien-ming (連賢明) told a news conference in Taipei. Taiwan’s economy this year would be characterized by high-level fluctuations and the volatility would be wilder than most expect, Lien said Demand for electronics, particularly semiconductors, continues to benefit from US technology giants’ effort
ADVERSARIES: The new list includes 11 entities in China and one in Taiwan, which is a local branch of Chinese cloud computing firm Inspur Group The US added dozens of entities to a trade blacklist on Tuesday, the US Department of Commerce said, in part to disrupt Beijing’s artificial intelligence (AI) and advanced computing capabilities. The action affects 80 entities from countries including China, the United Arab Emirates and Iran, with the commerce department citing their “activities contrary to US national security and foreign policy.” Those added to the “entity list” are restricted from obtaining US items and technologies without government authorization. “We will not allow adversaries to exploit American technology to bolster their own militaries and threaten American lives,” US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said. The entities
Minister of Finance Chuang Tsui-yun (莊翠雲) yesterday told lawmakers that she “would not speculate,” but a “response plan” has been prepared in case Taiwan is targeted by US President Donald Trump’s reciprocal tariffs, which are to be announced on Wednesday next week. The Trump administration, including US Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent, has said that much of the proposed reciprocal tariffs would focus on the 15 countries that have the highest trade surpluses with the US. Bessent has referred to those countries as the “dirty 15,” but has not named them. Last year, Taiwan’s US$73.9 billion trade surplus with the US
RSS