TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan’s export orders rose more than expected in June ahead of what was expected to be the last month of a pause on U.S. import tariffs, with demand for the island’s tech and artificial intelligence-related products continuing apace.
Export orders rose 24.6% year-on-year in June to $56.77 billion and registered their fifth consecutive monthly gain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday, beating analysts’ expectations for an increase of 22.9%.
Orders for goods from Taiwan, home to the world’s largest contract chipmaker TSMC and other tech companies, are considered a bellwether of global technology demand.
Trade-dependent Taiwan’s export performance this year could be affected if U.S. President Donald Trump follows through with his plans to impose sweeping import tariffs.
Trump announced worldwide tariffs in April, which he then paused for a 90-day period, which has expired. Since then Trump has sporadically announced new tariffs on several countries to take effect on August 1, but has yet to announce additional tariffs on Taiwan beyond a universal 10% worldwide rate.
“Looking ahead, uncertainty in trade policy and geopolitical risks continue to restrain global trade performance,” the ministry said in a statement, adding it saw order momentum being supported by AI and high-performance computing.
For July, the ministry said it expected export orders to rise between 7.9% and 11.9% from a year ago.
Taiwan’s orders in June for telecoms products were up 37.4% on the year, while those for electronic products gained 35%.
Overall orders from China were up 15.4%, versus a fall of 2.4% in May.
Orders from the United States climbed 34.8%, after a gain of 40.1% the month before.
Orders from Europe inched up 2.2% in June, and those from Japan jumped 38.5%.
(Reporting by Faith Hung and Jeanny Kao; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Kate Mayberry)
