Export orders fell 15.7 percent year-on-year to US$46.04 billion last month as lingering inventory corrections and faltering consumer sentiment weighed on sales of electronics, and information and communication technology (ICT) products, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Last month’s figure fell short of the ministry’s estimate of US$47 billion to US$49 billion and marked the 12th consecutive month of annual declines.
Export orders for the first eight months of this year contracted 19.1 percent to US$362.33 billion from the same period last year, the ministry said.
Photo: CNA
However, orders in the next few months would gain support from seasonal upticks in demand for electronics, it said.
“The launches of new products by Apple Inc and other global brands would boost growth of Taiwan’s export orders for the remainder of this year,” Department of Statistics Director Huang Yu-ling (黃于玲) said by telephone.
Another positive sign is that supply chain inventories are improving, with the ministry’s gauge showing a downtrend in June and July, Huang said.
The ministry said that it expects orders this month to pick up by 8.6 to 13.6 percent to between US$50 billion and US$52 billion from a month earlier.
However, on an annual basis, they would be down 14.7 to 17.9 percent, it said.
In the third quarter, orders would shrink about 14 percent to US$145.8 billion, slower than the 20.35 percent decline in the second quarter, the ministry said.
By the end of the year, orders could return to growth on annual and quarterly bases, fueled by demand for new smartphones, artificial intelligence (AI) chips and AI servers, as well as inventory restocking, Huang said.
The latest data showed orders for the ICT products fell 14.6 percent annually to US$12.19 billion last month as inflationary risk and higher interest rates dampened demand for laptops, smartphones and networking devices, the ministry said.
However, demand for servers expanded last month from a year earlier, it said.
Orders for electronic products dropped 17.3 percent to US$15.76 billion due to lower demand for memory chips and printed circuit boards, while chip design orders increased from a year earlier, it said.
Orders for optoelectronic products rose 2.5 percent to US$1.8 billion last month, the first rise in about 18 months, which the ministry attributed to a price uptick of 30 to 60 percent for large TV panels.
Orders for base metals, mainly steel, slumped 14.7 percent to US$2.03 billion due to weak demand, machine tool orders fell 15.7 percent to US$1.61 billion amid manufacturer concern about a global economic slowdown, plastic product orders sank 12.4 percent to US$1.7 billion and petrochemical product orders dropped 17.5 percent to US$1.45 billion amid rising supplies and lower crude oil prices, the ministry said.
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