Taiwan’s exports slip again after brief uptick, with weak iPhone sales driving decline

Name: Shanghai customers ‘not very satisfied’ with iPhone 15 series on 1st day of release
Uploaded: 2023-11-07T11:00:26.000Z
Duration: 1 min 58 s
Description: Shanghai customers ‘not very satisfied’ with iPhone 15 series on 1st day of release

A jump in year-on-year exports in September raised hopes that Taiwan would continue to post positive figures in October, but numbers are back in the loss column

Disappointment in new generation of iPhone and overall decline in trade driving the return to negativity, analysts hypothesise

Reading Time:2 minutes

Why you can trust SCMP

Taiwan reported a month of export decline after a September that defied over a year of consecutive drops. Photo: AFP

Ralph Jennings

Published: 7:00pm, 7 Nov 2023

Exports from tech hub Taiwan to a world that depends on its cutting-edge equipment fell again last month after an expectation-defying rise in September, in large part due to slow global sales of smartphones, including Apple’s iPhone 15 series.

Shipments overseas declined 4.5 per cent year on year in October to US$38.11 billion, the island’s Ministry of Finance said on Tuesday. In September, Taiwan logged its first export gain in 13 months.

“The global economic downturn, which has led to a reduction in consumers’ disposable income, has weakened demand in the consumer market,” said Rachel Liao and Wayne Hsu, senior analysts with the Market Intelligence and Consulting Institute in Taipei.

Parts of Asia are coming off their worst in terms of trade

Mitul Kotecha, Barclays

Deliveries of smartphones, which use a range of components made in Taiwan including chips, dropped for a fourth straight quarter in the July-September period of 2023 “amid weak consumer demand”, market research firm Counterpoint said in a November 3 statement.

Apple’s iPhone shipments fell 11 per cent year on year in the third quarter partly because of a later launch date of the iPhone 15 series compared to its immediate predecessor.

Chinese e-commerce websites were already offering steep discounts on the iPhone 15 in October to hedge competition from Huawei Technologies’ Mate 60 Pro 5G handsets.

01:58

Shanghai customers ‘not very satisfied’ with iPhone 15 series on 1st day of release

Reflecting this hesitancy, Taiwan-based iPhone contract assembler Foxconn Technology reported a 4.56 per cent decrease in sales revenue last month compared to October 2022.