Export orders last month dropped 25.7 percent year-on-year to US$46.58 billion, marking the seventh month of consecutive declines, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The decline was larger than the 20.2 to 23.4 percent fall forecast by the ministry a month ago and was also above the 18.3 percent decrease recorded in February.
On a monthly basis, export orders — an indicator of product and component shipments to overseas markets over the following one to three months — increased 10.6 percent, the ministry said in a report.
Photo: CNA
The ministry attributed the weaker-than-expected performance to slowing end-market demand and continued inventory adjustments as the global economy remains under pressure from high inflation and interest rates, while international raw material prices remained below last year’s levels.
Last month’s figure brought combined export orders in the first quarter of the year down 21.3 percent year-on-year to US$136.22 billion, which was also weaker than the ministry’s forecast of a fall of 19.3 to 20.5 percent and represented the largest decline in more than 13 years.
On a quarterly basis, first-quarter orders fell 13.6 percent, the ministry said.
For this month, the ministry forecast that export orders would drop 17.1 to 21.0 percent annually to between US$41 billion and US$43 billion, as external headwinds remain for Taiwanese manufacturers.
Whether second-quarter export orders improve would depend on the pace of inventory adjustments and end-market demand, the ministry said.
In a recent poll of domestic manufacturers, only 17.1 percent of respondents were optimistic that export orders would increase this month, while 57.3 percent said that orders would be flat from last month and 25.7 percent expected further decline, it said.
The latest data showed export orders for information, communications and technology products last month shrank 26.3 percent year-on-year, while orders for electronic goods dropped 29.4 percent from a year earlier as increased shipments of servers were offset by slowing demand for notebook computers, smartphones, graphics cards, chips, printed circuit boards, computer displays and passive components, the report said.
Optoelectronics products last month posted a 35.9 percent annual contraction as flat panels and camera lenses continued to be affected by falling prices and weak customer demand, it said.
Like their peers in the tech sector, firms in traditional sectors also experienced a downtrend amid adverse macroeconomic conditions, with orders for basic metals, machinery goods, plastics and chemical products last month shrinking from the same period last year by 27.3 percent, 21.3 percent, 34.2 percent and 34.2 percent respectively.
Last month, orders from the US, China (including Hong Kong), Europe, Southeast Asia and Japan fell annually, with the Chinese and European markets posting the largest drops of 33.8 percent each, compared with a decline of 20.7 percent in orders from the US, a decrease of 14 percent in orders from Southeast Asia and a retreat of 5.3 percent in Japanese orders, the report said.
Meanwhile, 47.5 percent of all export orders last month received by local manufacturers were for products from overseas factories, down 1.6 percentage points from a year earlier, as more makers of optical equipment, and information and communication goods moved production back to Taiwan, the report found.
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