Taiwan exports fall for eighth straight month, hurting hopes of quick turnaround in world tech centre
- Shipments of electronic components such as critically important semiconductors continue decline, but some tech equipment bucks the trend with a year-on-year rise
- Island’s economic woes continue as its chief export markets – namely the US and European countries – struggle with inflation, interest rates and fears of recession
Taiwan has reported an eighth straight monthly drop in exports due to weak global demand, and external trade for the Asian hi-tech manufacturing hub is expected to hold in a near-term slump despite a milder rate of decline compared with previous months.
Shipments of electronic components, including semiconductor chips, lost 8.6 per cent last month compared with a year earlier – also milder than the drop in March. That export category was Taiwan’s largest in April, at US$15.74 billion. Meanwhile, exports of audiovisual and communications devices rose in April by 5.4 per cent, year on year, bouncing back from a 15.8 decline in March.
“Although communication products rebounded, demand for integrated circuits, which are a driving force, has remained weak,” the ministry said in a statement.
Now it seems that people are not upgrading … This is going to be like this for another few quarters
Taiwan supplies some 60 per cent of the world’s semiconductors, including the most technologically advanced. Overall, tech accounts for about 30 per cent of the island’s roughly US$800 billion economy.