Taiwan’s Exports Order Sees Monthly Fall of 5.96% to US$36.09B. in April

Taipei, May 23, 2012 (CENS)--The value of export orders received by Taiwan’s manufacturers and traders came to US$36.09 billion in April, lower than expected and down by US$2.28 billion or 5.95% from a month earlier, according to the statistics released by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA).

Compared to the same month of last year, the value of export orders declined by US$1.32 billion or 3.52%, the largest fall of its kind in two and a half years if excluding the month on which Chinese New Year holidays fell. Orders for information technology (IT) & telecom products, chemicals, and electronic items witnessed a combined drop of US$970 million, taking a lion’s share of 73% of the total reduction.

M.N. Tsai, deputy director of the Statistics Department of MOEA, indicated that the orders for IT & telecom products in April posted an annual decline of US$420 million or 4.63%, those for chemicals experienced a shrinkage of US$300 million or 13.02% and those for electronic products saw a fall of US$250 million or 2.85%.

In the same month, the orders from mainland China (including Hong Kong), Europe, and Japan all trended downward; while those from the U.S. and six ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) member countries trended upward. The orders from Europe edged down 0.78% to US$6.49 billion and those from China tumbled by 7.8% to US$9.26 billion for the fifth consecutive monthly fall. However, the orders from the U.S. inched up 0.79% to US$8.37 billion and those from the six ASEAN members rose by 7.53% to US$4.04 billion.

In the first four months Taiwan’s aggregate export-order value expanded to US$139.9 billion for a slight annual rise of US$180 million or 0.13%.