TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s export orders grew at their fastest pace in nearly three years last month boosted by demand for artificial intelligence technologies, and China, though tariff threats from the new administration of Donald Trump cloud the outlook.
Export orders rose 20.8% year-on-year in December to $52.92 billion, Taiwan’s economy ministry said on Tuesday. That beat the 16.05% increase forecast in a Reuters poll and November’s expansion of 3.3%, and was the strongest growth since February 2022. It was also the 10th monthly gain in a row.
Orders for goods from Taiwan, home to tech giants such as chip manufacturer TSMC, are a bellwether of global technology demand.
The ministry said it expects export order momentum to weaken in January give that the first quarter is typically the slow season.
“In addition, the global economic outlook is still affected by the new U.S. government’s economic and trade policies and geopolitical risks and other uncertainties, which may inhibit the growth momentum of export sales orders,” it added in a statement.
The ministry said it expects export orders in January to fall between 8.1% and 4.0% year-on-year.
Trump was sworn in as the United States’ 47th president on Monday, but did not impose immediate action on tariffs that many investors feared would upend longstanding trade agreements.
Taiwan’s orders in December for telecommunications products were up 24.3% year on year, while electronic product orders rose 33.5%.
Overall orders from China jumped 13.6% versus a 3.4% fall in November. Orders from the United States soared 31% following an 11.7% gain the month before.
Orders from Europe rose 9.5% in December, while orders from Japan were up 24.7%.
(Reporting by Faith Hung and Roger Tung; Editing by Himani Sarkar and Kate Mayberry)
