TAIPEI: The nation’s export orders showed a worse-than-expected 11.1 percent decline to US$33.16 billion last month from a year earlier, marking the 13th straight month of annual falls.
The decline was worse than DBS Bank’s forecast of a 5.4 percent drop and the ministry’s estimate of a 4.87 percent decrease.
“The much weaker sales of high-end smartphones worldwide was the main reason” for the decline, Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen told a news conference in Taipei.
Orders for information communications and electronics goods, the main drivers of the nation’s export orders, plunged 10 percent and 9.8 percent respectively last month from a year earlier, the department’s data showed.
Lin attributed last month’s declining orders to soft sales of notebook computers and tablets, which aligned with falling demand for semiconductor products.
The persistent low orders for Taiwanese precision instruments also dragged down export orders, Lin said.
Orders for precision instruments plummeted 26.4 percent to US$1.75 billion amid rising Chinese competition and an oversupply in the global panel industry, which suppressed demand for Taiwan-made panels, she said.
Last month also represented the 13th consecutive month of double-digit percentage annual declines in orders for Taiwanese precision instruments, the department’s data showed.
Orders for basic metals fell 10.7 percent annually to US$1.89 billion, following the prior month’s 13.9 percent decline.
Lin said the smaller scale of annual contraction was due to the increase in average selling prices of international stainless steel, prompting restocking demand.
Orders for petrochemical products, and rubber and plastic goods dropped 6 percent and 17.6 percent respectively on an annual basis, affected by the continued low prices for global crude, Lin said.
The US remained the largest source of orders last month, but order value shrank 11.4 percent to US$9.38 billion from a year earlier, Lin said, attributing the result to sluggish demand for high-end smartphones.
The annual drop in US orders was the largest since September 2009, Lin said.
Lin declined to attribute falling US orders to a specific company, but Apple Inc — the main client for many Taiwanese manufacturers — last month told investors that it plans to cut channel inventory by US$2 billion this quarter in light of a soft outlook, a move that is likely to affect orders to Taiwanese supply-chain firms this quarter.
Orders from China, including Hong Kong, and Japan contracted by double-digit percentages from a year earlier.
Citing the ministry’s monthly survey of local manufacturers, Lin said the ministry foresees export orders for this month to continue declining from the year-earlier level of US$35.79 billion.
Lin said it is likely that export orders would linger in negative territory this quarter.
