OVERALL STRENGTH: Handset orders from ‘a US firm’ last month drove the segment’s 22.3% growth, which could have been higher if not for lagging demand for notebooks
Taipei Times
Date: Jan 23, 2018
By: Lauly Li / Staff reporter
The nation’s export orders surged 17.05 percent year-on-year to a record high of US$48.47 billion last month, largely driven by a US smartphone vendor’s handset orders and rising global demand for servers, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.
The ministry refused to name the company, but it is widely known that it was referring to Apple Inc.
The monthly data meant total export orders for last year were up 10.9 percent year-on-year to US$492.81 billion, the best annual performance since the ministry began compiling data in 1953.
“Last month represented the 17th consecutive annual growth in export orders… It has been a good year for Taiwan’s export orders,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) told a news conference in Taipei. [FULL STORY]