Orders to Taiwan-based exporters dropped for a fifth consecutive month in January amid continuing sluggish demand in global consumer markets, according to the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) on Monday.

Export orders received by Taiwanese companies in January fell 19.3 percent from January 2022 to US$47.51 billion, the fifth consecutive month showing an annual decline in orders, according to data compiled by the MOEA.

Huang Yu-ling (???), head of the MOEA's Department of Statistics, said that despite the continued decline, the fall was smaller than previously forecast.

One of the few sectors that performed relatively well in January was the information and communication products sector, which received US$17.23 billion in export orders after three straight months of negative growth, the MOEA data showed.

Many businesses in the sector benefited from the improvement in supply chain operations due to the easing of China's COVID-19 restrictions, leading to a rise in mobile phone orders, Huang said.

Demand for electronic products in January continued to remain sluggish, however, due to inventory adjustments by clients, with orders down 21.8 percent from a year earlier.

The optoelectronics industry also saw export orders fall 48 percent year-on-year due to an oversupply of optical equipment in the panel market, the MOEA said.

Orders to the plastics/rubber and basic metals industries also plunged from the same month a year earlier by 49.4 percent and 45.4 percent, respectively, to US$1.32 billion and US$1.80 billion.

The chemical and machinery industries also struggled, with export orders to both falling 38.4 percent.

Huang forecast that the pace of decline in Taiwan's export orders will taper off in February in part because there will be more working days in February than in January, when Taiwan was celebrating the nine-day Lunar New Year holiday.

The further easing of China's COVID-19 restrictions should also lead to increased demand from China, Huang said.

According to the MOEA, Taiwan's export orders for February are projected to be around US$46 billion to US$48 billion, with a year-on-year decline of between 6.9 percent and 10.8 percent.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel