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Taiwan's Export Orders Hit New High of US$38.87 Bn. in April

2014/05/26 | By Steve Chuang

Immune to seasonal factors, Taiwan's export orders received in April totaled US$38.87 billion, up 8.9% year-on-year and a record high, according to the latest statistics by Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

In terms of product category, MOEA's report shows that orders for electronic products and related services, including wafer contract manufacturing, chipsets, DRAM and semiconductor packaging and testing, reached US$9.76 billion for the strongest increase of 16.6% among others.

The boom is expected to have benefited Taiwan's major tech firms, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (chip foundry), Largan Precision Co., Ltd. (camera lenses and modules), HTC Corp. (smartphones), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co., Ltd. (electronic manufacturing services), Asustek Computer Inc. (PCs and motherboards), etc.

Also, export orders received by local industries of base metals, machinery, chemicals and plastic products this April all showed robust growths, MOEA added.

However, mainly dampened by slack market demand for TVs in China during the Labor Day sales, Taiwanese display panel suppliers witnessed export orders received in the month decline 13.3% year-on-year to only US$2.74 billion as a whole for the 12th consecutive month. In the face of the longest recession in the sector, MOEA officials said that insiders must step up upgrading technologies and improving competitiveness to survive the increasingly challenging market.

More good news for Taiwan's export-driven economy is that of the total, export orders received by domestic companies in April for  filling abroad accounted for 49.9%, down 1.5 percentage points compared to March. This shows, MOEA said, the government's efforts to promote "re-shoring" of investments by overseas Taiwanese enterprises have been gradually paying off.

But notable is that as high as 90.2% of export orders received by the ICT (information and communication technology) sector in the month are still set to be filled in Taiwan, according to MOEA.

For the first four months of this year, Taiwan's cumulative export orders amounted to US$143.62 billion, up 4.3% year on year for a new high. MOEA attributed the encouraging achievement to three factors: a low base, global economic recovery, and, especially, the payoff of Taiwanese electronics and ICT sectors' hard work on upgrading technologies to make  products more competitive in the global market.

MOEA noted that export orders received in May are expected to keep increasing from April in value, and the total for the second quarter to be higher than in the first quarter, given that the officially reported directional movement indexes of export order value for sectors of electronics, ICT products, display panels, base metals, chemicals, plastic and rubber products and machinery all stood above 50 in April (50 and above points to likelihood of export order value growing in the coming month). (SC)

Taiwan's Directional Movement Indexes of Export Order Value by Sector in April, 2014
Sector

Index

Electronics

59.0

ICT Products

58.9

Precision Instruments

54.7

Base Metals

65.7

Plastic and Rubber Products

53.0

Chemicals

56.6

Machinery

50.8

Total

56.7

Source: Ministry of Economic Affairs