Export orders last month fell for the 13th consecutive month, dipping 15.6 percent year-on-year to US$51.4 billion as a weak global economic recovery and supply chain inventory issues dampened demand for electronic gadgets, chips and components made by local manufacturers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
Export orders last quarter totaled US$145.16 billion, plummeting 14.5 percent year-on-year, ministry data showed.
For the first three quarters, orders fell 18.7 percent to US$413.73 billion from the same period last year.
Photo: CNA
With conflict between Israel and Hamas adding to a macroeconomic slump and an inventory correction cycle, export orders this month are likely to contract again, but at a slower pace of 4.3 to 7.9 percent, boding well for a revival this quarter, the ministry said.
Local exporters might receive orders totaling US$51 billion to US$53 billion this month, it said.
“Export order data are moving toward a positive trend thanks to new product launches by global brands and year-end shopping sprees,” Department of Statistics Director Huang Yu-ling (黃于玲) said by telephone. “There is a chance that export orders will stage a technical rebound in November, given the low base last year.”
With a new catalyst in artificial intelligence (AI)-related chips, servers and other components, the ministry hopes that export orders would swing into positive territory in the fourth quarter, Huang said.
However, the Gaza conflict could be the next “black swan” event, she added.
Last month, information and communications products shrank 19.2 percent annually to US$16.45 billion, as inflationary risks and higher interest rates damped demand for laptops, smartphones and networking devices, the ministry said.
However, demand for AI servers increased last month from a year earlier, partly offsetting some declines, it said.
Orders for electronic products plummeted 17.21 percent year-on-year to US$17.21 billion last month, attributable to lower demand for memory chips, foundry services and printed circuit boards as customers were in the process of digesting excessive inventory, it said.
However, chip designers have reported a rebound in the past few months, the ministry said.
Orders for optoelectronics products grew 7.3 percent year-on-year to US$1.82 billion, the only segment to rise last month, it said.
Price rises for large TV panels helped the expansion, it said.
Orders for basic metals, mainly steel, slumped 14.1 percent year-on-year to US$1.92 billion last month due to weak demand, it said.
Machine tools orders dipped 19.1 percent year-on-year to US$1.56 billion as manufacturers grew wary about investing in new equipment amid a global economic slowdown, the ministry said.
Orders for plastic products dropped 12.8 percent annually to US$1.55 billion, while chemical product orders fell 10.1 percent to US$1.5 billion amid lower average selling prices and supply increases, it added.
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
RSS