ELECTRONICS: The Ministry of Economic Affairs said that the decline was due to an economic slowdown and inventory adjustments in the semiconductor industry

Taipei Times
Date: May 21, 20191
By: Natasha Li  /  Staff reporter

Export orders for information and communications products reached record levels last month, but overall orders declined for the sixth consecutive month, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

Orders for information and communications products grew 3.3 percent from a year earlier to US$10.53 billion thanks to increased shipments for smartphones, notebook computers and network communication equipment, the ministry said.

However, total export orders declined 3.7 percent year-on-year to US$37.66 billion, although that exceeded the ministry’s forecast of US$36.5 billion, Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) said.

The ministry attributed the decline to falling global demand due to an economic slowdown and client-side inventory adjustments in the semiconductor industry, which led to a year-on-year decline of 4.6 percent in orders for electronics to US$9.72 billion.
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