Taiwan Feb export orders miss forecast, China a big drag

TAIPEI (Reuters) – Taiwan’s export orders in February shrank for a sixth straight month, though at a slower pace, dragged down by China and as global demand continued to be squeezed by inflation and interest rate hikes.

The island’s export orders, a bellwether for global technology demand, fell 18.3% from a year earlier to $42.12 billion, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Monday.

February’s number was worse than analysts’ expectations for a 15.0% decline, and compared with January’s 19.3% slump.

“Export orders in February missed expectations mainly because demand for consumer electronics was far less than expected … mainly because electronics and telecom products did not meet expectations,” the ministry said.

Orders for telecoms products dropped 20.3% and electronic products fell 21.9% from a year earlier, it said.

Global economic growth momentum could be constrained in the coming months as inflation and interest rate pressures persist, as well as no signs of let-up in the Russia-Ukraine war, the ministry said.

However, that would be offset by demand for emerging technologies such as high-performance computing, artificial intelligence, cloud data centres and automotive electronics, it added.

Taiwan’s export-driven economy has been hit by slowing demand from China and the United States, its two biggest markets.

Taiwan’s February orders from China were 35.5% lower than a year earlier, versus a 45.9% drop in January.

Most economists now expect Taiwan’s central bank to keep the benchmark interest rate unchanged at its quarterly rate-setting meeting on Thursday.

The ministry added that it expected export orders this month to fall by 20.2% to 23.4% from a year earlier.

Taiwanese firms, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd, are major suppliers to Apple Inc, Qualcomm Inc and other global tech companies.

Taiwan’s orders from the United States in February fell 12.6% from a year earlier, versus a 14.7% drop in January.

Export orders from Europe were down 13.1%, versus January’s gain of 18.3%. However, orders from Japan rose 5.5% year-on-year.

(Reporting by Faith Hung and Jeanny Kao; Editing by Ben Blanchard and Jacqueline Wong)