Taiwan's Exports Hit Record High of US$208.24B in First 8 Months

Thanks to strong market demand for electronic products, Taiwan's exports reached US$28.102 billion in August, a new 3-year monthly high, for a monthly growth of 5% or annual growth of 9.6%, with the first-eight-month export value rising 3.4% from a year earlier to US$208.24 billion, the highest of its kind on record, according to the statistics released by Taiwan's  Ministry of Finance (MOF).

In August exports of electronic products rose to a monthly record high of US$9.23 billion for a sizable annual growth of 20.6% and helped to boost the growth of the total export value. Among electronic items, IC, storage media, and lighting emitting diode (LED) all posted double-digit growths in exports despite a sharp fall of 26.8% in solar batteries.

In the same month imports amounted to US$24 billion, up 14.1% year-on-year and in the first eight months the import value expanded to US$185.37 billion, up 3.6% YoY.

Asia, including China, Hong Kong, Japan and the six ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) members, took the lion's share of US$20.13 billion or over 70% of Taiwan's total exports in August, with the value up a sizable YoY 10.6%. However, the exports to the U.S. experienced a moderate rise of 4.9% to US$3.09 billion and to Europe up 13.5% to US$2.547 billion.

Taiwan's Exports to Top-5 Markets in Aug. & First 8 Months
Market		August		First 8 months
		Value (US$B)	Annual growth (%)	Value (US$B)	Annual growth (%)
China & Hong Kong	China	7.426	7.4	54.791	1.1
	Hong Kong	3.754	11.3	27.653	10.5
	Total	11.18	8.7	82.444	4.1
ASEAN (6 members)		5.379	12.7	39.291	2.8
Japan		1.851	17.8	13.054	3.4
U.S.		3.019	4.9	22.821	5.8
Europe		2.547	13.5	19.411	7.5

Source: MOF