Taiwan Sees Record Fall in Export Orders

Taiwan's export orders in November fell by a record 28.5% to $22.8 billion, as demand for technology products plunged, the economic ministry said on Dec. 23. The fall compared with a decline of 5.6% in October.

Industrial output in November fell 28.4% from a year earlier -- also a record decline.

Manufacturing production, the biggest component of the island's industrial output, fell 29% from a year earlier. Within manufacturing production, output in the information and electronics sectors fell 29.1%.

Orders for precision products, like liquid crystal display panels, fell 51.1% from a year earlier to $1.40 billion. Orders for electronics products declined 27.7% on-year to $5.30 billion.

Orders from the U.S. fell a record 29.3% in November to $5.36 billion; orders from China and Hong Kong together plunged by 45.4% to $4.55 billion, the second biggest monthly decline ever, bettered only by a 50% drop in March 1986, said Huang Ji-shih, director of the ministry's statistics department.

"There is clearly a domino effect in the world. As demand from the United States shrinks, that hurts China's exports, and consequently Taiwan's," he said.

In 2007, Taiwan's export orders increased 15.6% and industrial output grew 7.8%.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2008