Taiwan’s export orders have had negative growth for six months in a row. That’s the word from an economics ministry report released on Tuesday.
It says export orders in September grew by 18% over the previous month to over US$41 billion. But the figure is still lower than the same month a year earlier.
Because of falling oil prices, export orders for plastics and rubber products dropped by 13% and chemical goods by 8% last month. The gloomy global outlook also brought the orders for basic metals and mechanical products down by 19% and 14% year-on-year respectively.
But there has been an increase in orders for equipment manufacturing and related industries due to new hand-held devices made by global brands.
Compared with August, export orders increased greatly in September because of the Christmas shopping season. IT products grew by 5% year-on-year.