Taipei, Sept. 20 (CNA) Export orders in Taiwan rose by 7.1 percent from a year earlier in August on the back of solid global demand for a wide range of products such as electronic gadgets, machinery and chemical products, according to data released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Thursday.
The data showed export orders received by Taiwanese exporters totaled US$43.68 billion, up US$2.9 billion or 7.1 percent from a year earlier, beating an earlier estimate of a 2.5-5 percent year-on-year increase by the MOEA's statistics department.
This marked the second consecutive month Taiwan's export orders have grown year-on-year after July's 8.0 percent increase, and a 0.1 percent decline in June.
On a month-on-month basis, Taiwan's export orders rose 4.5 percent in August, but after seasonal adjustments the figure fell 0.6 percent, the data showed.
In August, orders received by the information/communication industry rose 10.0 percent to US$11.59 billion, a reflection of strong demand for devices for data center use, while international smartphone brands' efforts to launch new models also attracted buying, the MOEA said.
The ministry said orders for electronics components rose 9.6 percent from a year earlier to US$11.56 billion due to rising demand for wafer chips, memory chips, integrated circuit packaging and testing services, and other electronics parts.
Bucking the upturn, optoelectronics firms posted a year-on-year 13.3 percent decline in export orders totaling US$2.13 billion in August as a spike in flat panel prices turned away many foreign buyers, the data showed.
The data indicated export orders for base metal rose 2.2 percent from a year earlier to US$2.5 billion in August, marking the 25th consecutive month of year-on-year increases, as demand for steel rises.
In the same month, export orders for machinery rose 10.7 percent from a year earlier to US$2.21 billion on growing demand for automation and smart production, while export orders for chemical products were boosted by higher crude oil prices, up 10.5 percent from a year earlier to US$2.0 billion, the MOEA said.
The United States was the biggest source of export orders in August. Orders from the U.S. to Taiwan-based exporters rose 14.9 percent from a year earlier at US$12.44 billion, ahead of China/Hong Kong, which placed orders of US$11.70 billion with Taiwanese exporters, up 7.3 percent from a year earlier, the figures showed.
Export orders placed by the Association of Southeast Asian Nations totaled US$4.22 billion in August, down 6.6 percent from a year earlier, while export orders from Europe and Japan rose 1.1 percent and 4.6 percent, respectively, to US$7.21 billion and US$2.85 billion, the data indicated.
In the first eight months of this year, Taiwan's export orders totaled US$323.91 billion, up 6.9 percent from a year earlier, the MOEA said.
(By Liao Yu-yang and Frances Huang)
Enditem/AW