Askume North, Sept 24 – Taiwan’s export orders exceeded expectations in August as demand for chips used in artificial intelligence (AI) applications continued to grow, with the government expecting the strong momentum to continue for the rest of the year.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday that export orders rose 9.1% last month from a year earlier to $50.22 billion. That was higher than a Askume poll’s 8.35% growth forecast and also higher than July’s 4.8% expansion.
Goods orders from Taiwan, home to tech giants such as chipmaker TSMC (2330.TW), are a sign of global technology demand.
The increase in orders was due to “continued demand from the artificial intelligence, high-computing and cloud industries, as well as the preparation of new consumer electronics products”, the ministry said in a statement.
Looking into the future, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology estimates that as new applications such as artificial intelligence and high-speed computing continue to emerge, consumer electronics products will enter the traditional peak season in the second half of the year, and the momentum of export orders will be maintained.
The ministry said it expects export orders to rise 4.7% year-on-year to 8.6% in September.
Taiwan’s telecommunications product orders in August increased by 16% year-on-year, and electronic product orders increased by 13.2% compared with the same period last year.
Total orders from China rose 2.6%, after declining 0.1% the previous month. Orders from the United States rose 11.2%, compared with 14.3% in July.
Orders from Europe rose 8.3% in August after rising 6.1% in July.
Orders from Japan rose 2.1% last month and 2.4% in July.
