The value of Taiwan’s export orders hit a new high for a single month at US$28.03 billion in March, up 12.4 per cent over the same month last year, according to tallies released Tuesday by the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA). For the first three months of this year, export orders amounted to US$75.88 billion, up 12.73 per cent over the year-earlier level, the tallies show. In March, the value of export orders for information and communications products saw the greatest increase, rising US$1.31 billion, or 24.59 per cent, year-on-year to reach US$6.64 billion, mainly owing to brisk market demand for notebook and desktop computers, MOEA officials said. The value of export orders for electronic products increased US$620 million, or 11.08 per cent, year-on-year, thanks to strong demand for memory products and consumer electronics, the officials said. Export orders for basic metals and related products amounted to US$2.35 billion, up US$240 million, or 11.34 per cent, over the previous year, they said. While the value of export orders for textiles decreased 0.81 per cent year-on-year to US$1.11 billion, those for plastics and related products jumped 16.44 per cent to US$1.64 billion, and precision instruments rose 8.24 per cent to US$1.77 billion, they said. By region, export orders from the United States increased 3.61 per cent year-on-year to US$6.97 billion, those from Hong Kong and China rose 12.4 per cent to US$7.15 billion, Japanese orders climbed 2.94 per cent to US$2.8 billion, while those from Europe spiked 24.13 per cent to US$5.3 billion, the officials said.
