May exports rebound, signals continued growth into June

The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced today that export orders for May amounted to USD$55.43 billion, which not only hit a new high for the same month in previous years but was also corrected for the first time after the 25th consecutive month of growth in April. It is expected that export orders will continue to flourish in June.

The Statistics Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs announced today the statistics of export orders in May. Export orders in May were USD$55.43 billion, a monthly increase of USD$3.54 billion, an increase of 6.8%, a seasonally adjusted increase of 8.5%, and an increase of USD$3.14 billion or 6% compared with the same month last year.

The cumulative export orders from January to May were USD$280.46 billion, an annual increase of USD$24.27 billion, an increase of 9.5%, which also hit a new high for the same period of the previous year.

The Statistics Department originally estimated that the value of export

orders in May were US$51.7 billion to US$53.2 billion, a decrease of 1.1% year-on-year to an increase of 1.7% year on year. Director of Statistics Huang Yu-ling said that the actual performance was better than expected, mainly because China lifted the blockade and control, so the situation of production capacity, logistics, the flow of population, and material shortages improved better than expected.

Looking at the value of orders received in May by the major industries in Taiwan's export orders, the value of orders for information and communication products, electronic products, and chemicals performed well, showing positive growth compared with the same month last year; however, optical equipment, basic metal products, machinery products, plastics, the value of orders for rubber products has decreased year by year.