Taiwan’s export orders amounted to US$36.96 billion for September, up 2.72 percent year on year, but marking the lowest growth in nearly two years, the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced Oct. 20.
The main engine of growth in export orders last month was information and communications technology products, with orders increasing by 2.89 percent year on year, driven largely by demand for smartphones and Apple’s i-products, followed by machinery and equipment, up 20.03 percent, and textile products, higher by 21.68 percent, according to the MOEA.
“With the EU debt crisis continuing to dampen overseas demand, growth in export orders in the fourth quarter could be even lower than in the third,” said Beatrice Tsai, deputy director-general of the MOEA’s Department of Statistics.
She added, however, that the current situation is not the same as in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, when export orders registered negative annual growth of more than 20 percent.
As for Taiwan’s top three export markets, September orders from mainland China, including Hong Kong, amounted to US$9.73 billion, an increase of 5.67 percent from a year earlier, while orders from the U.S. reached US$8.43 billion, up 9.33 percent, and those from the EU totaled US$6.82 billion, up 2.22 percent. The main increases in export orders from mainland China and the U.S. were for ICT products, while the largest drop in orders from the EU was also for ICT products.
Among emerging markets, export orders from Taiwan’s six trading partners in the Association for Southeast Asian Nations hit US$3.61 billion last month, rising 5.09 percent year on year, with ICT product orders topping the list.
Taiwan Today