Exports last month spiked 18.1 percent from a year earlier to US$37.19 billion, as demand for artificial intelligence (AI) products gained fast traction and the timing of the Lunar New Year holiday also lent support, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.
“AI demand is exceeding imagination and just in the beginning stage,” Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) said, citing Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker.
TSMC, whose clients include AI graphics processing unit suppliers Nvidia Corp and Advanced Micro Devices Inc, as well as smartphone vendor Apple Inc and other technology titans, is posed to file record-high revenue this quarter despite the low season, Tsai said.
Photo: CNA
The Hsinchu-based firm yesterday posted revenue of NT$215.7 billion (US$6.88 billion) for last month, the highest ever for the month of January in the company’s history. Last month’s figure suggested a 22.4 percent hike from December and a 7.9 percent pickup from a year earlier.
The ministry’s latest data showed exports of electronics increased 7.5 percent year-on-year to US$13.67 billion, with chip shipments growing 7.1 percent to US$12.63 billion.
Shipments of information and communications technology (ICT) products more than doubled to US$9.42 billion, thanks to strong demand for AI servers, graphics cards and memory storage devices, Tsai said.
In the absence of the base effect, exports would advance a mild 1.6 percent, extending a steady recovery for technology products seen from the fourth quarter of last year, Tsai said, adding that growth could pause this month due to fewer working days, but would gain evident momentum from March.
Exports to the US jumped 56.6 percent year-on-year to US$8.4 billion last month, overtaking ASEAN markets as the second-largest export destination, as US tech firms aggressively develop and build AI capacity, Tsai said.
Shipments to China logged a 17.2 percent annual increase to US$12.24 billion last month, ending 17 months of declines, she said, adding that uncertainty linked to global inflation, monetary tightening and geopolitical tensions, though lingering, have stabilized, which is favorable for cross-border trade.
Exports of non-tech products still left much to be desired in light of a 26.6 percent annual slump for auto and bike parts and a 7.5 percent uptick for plastic products, Tsai said.
The latest trade data also showed that imports staged a faster 19 percent recovery to US$34.7 billion last month, emerging from an 18-month slowdown.
The showing came after EVA Airways Corp (長榮航空) and China Airlines Ltd (中華航空) purchased new aircraft against a 4.6 percent fall in imports of capital equipment, Tsai said.
Imports of transportation tools surged 3.5 times while ICT equipment nearly doubled, offsetting a 49.9 percent drop in imports of semiconductor equipment, the ministry said.
The latest export and import data gave Taiwan a trade surplus of US$2.49 billion last month, rising 6.5 percent from a year earlier, it said.
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