Exports last month surged 35.1 percent year-on-year to US$36.65 billion, the second-highest level in history, as demand for electronics remained strong, while a low base meant that non-technology products posted faster growth, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
The improving global economy accounted for the impressive showing that is likely to extend into the second half of the year with the arrival of the high sales season, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told an online news conference in Taipei.
“‘Hot’ is the most appropriate word to characterize the state of exports,” Tsai said, forecasting an upswing of 29 to 33 percent for this month year-on-year.
Photo: CNA
In the second quarter, exports grew 37.4 percent year-on-year to US$1.09 billion, while imports rose 36.4 percent to US$915.3 million, both beating last month’s forecasts by the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics.
That suggests that the nation’s export-focused economy is likely to emerge from the domestic COVID-19 outbreak unscathed, despite a sharp decline in consumer activity.
Outbound shipments of electronic products last month grew 29.8 percent to a record US$14.51 billion, as demand for chips hit a new peak, Tsai said.
Exports of optical products, including flat panels and camera lenses, rose 29.5 percent to US$1.12 billion, data showed.
Smartphone camera lens maker Largan Precision Co (大立光) earlier this week said that its sales would pick up this month after an 18.51 percent year-on-year fall last month due to the slow season and the loss of major client Huawei Technologies Co (華為).
Shipments of plastic, base metal, chemical and mineral products registered steeper growth of 46.6 to 87.4 percent, as local firms benefited from increased infrastructure spending by the US and other nations, Tsai said, adding that a low base last year also lent support.
Exports to China, ASEAN, Japan, the US and Europe all grew by double-digit percentage points as vaccination programs enabled the world to gradually shake off the threat of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Imports last month surged 42.3 percent to US$31.51 billion, giving Taiwan a trade surplus of US$5.1 billion, data showed.
Imports of agricultural and industrial materials grew 51.8 percent to US$21.95 billion, while imports of capital equipment increased 24.5 percent to US$5.5 million, the ministry said, adding that local technology firms are expanding their capacity to meet demand.
In the first six months of the year, exports advanced 31 percent year-on-year to US$206.91 billion, while imports expanded 28.6 percent to US$175.1 billion, the ministry said, while adding that uncertainty remains due to the spread of more transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2.
CHIP WAR: Tariffs on Taiwanese chips would prompt companies to move their factories, but not necessarily to the US, unleashing a ‘global cross-sector tariff war’ US President Donald Trump would “shoot himself in the foot” if he follows through on his recent pledge to impose higher tariffs on Taiwanese and other foreign semiconductors entering the US, analysts said. Trump’s plans to raise tariffs on chips manufactured in Taiwan to as high as 100 percent would backfire, macroeconomist Henry Wu (吳嘉隆) said. He would “shoot himself in the foot,” Wu said on Saturday, as such economic measures would lead Taiwanese chip suppliers to pass on additional costs to their US clients and consumers, and ultimately cause another wave of inflation. Trump has claimed that Taiwan took up to
A start-up in Mexico is trying to help get a handle on one coastal city’s plastic waste problem by converting it into gasoline, diesel and other fuels. With less than 10 percent of the world’s plastics being recycled, Petgas’ idea is that rather than letting discarded plastic become waste, it can become productive again as fuel. Petgas developed a machine in the port city of Boca del Rio that uses pyrolysis, a thermodynamic process that heats plastics in the absence of oxygen, breaking it down to produce gasoline, diesel, kerosene, paraffin and coke. Petgas chief technology officer Carlos Parraguirre Diaz said that in
Japan intends to closely monitor the impact on its currency of US President Donald Trump’s new tariffs and is worried about the international fallout from the trade imposts, Japanese Minister of Finance Katsunobu Kato said. “We need to carefully see how the exchange rate and other factors will be affected and what form US monetary policy will take in the future,” Kato said yesterday in an interview with Fuji Television. Japan is very concerned about how the tariffs might impact the global economy, he added. Kato spoke as nations and firms brace for potential repercussions after Trump unleashed the first salvo of
SUPPORT: The government said it would help firms deal with supply disruptions, after Trump signed orders imposing tariffs of 25 percent on imports from Canada and Mexico The government pledged to help companies with operations in Mexico, such as iPhone assembler Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (鴻海精密), also known as Foxconn Technology Group (富士康科技集團), shift production lines and investment if needed to deal with higher US tariffs. The Ministry of Economic Affairs yesterday announced measures to help local firms cope with the US tariff increases on Canada, Mexico, China and other potential areas. The ministry said that it would establish an investment and trade service center in the US to help Taiwanese firms assess the investment environment in different US states, plan supply chain relocation strategies and
RSS