(Nov 7): Taiwan’s exports surged at the fastest pace since 2010 as the economy cashes in on bottomless global demand for semiconductors powering artificial intelligence (AI).
Total goods exports jumped 49.7% in October from a year earlier, the Ministry of Finance said on Friday. That handily beat the 31.5% median estimate in a Bloomberg survey of economists and marked the strongest growth since the recovery from the 2009 financial crisis.
Shipments to the US skyrocketed 144.3% to a record, accounting for more than a third of Taiwan’s total exports that month — the biggest share since 1990. The explosive growth underscores Taiwan’s key role in the technology supply chain as companies from Meta Platforms Inc to OpenAI race to build AI infrastructure.
“The AI trend has turned out to be much stronger than expected,” said Woods Chen, chief economist at Yuanta Securities. He forecasts the economy to grow 7.5% in 2025, compared to the median estimate of 5.2%.
Taiwan is home to the world’s most advanced chipmaker, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC), the main supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc. TSMC and its sprawling ecosystem of component suppliers produce the majority of the world’s higher-end semiconductors.
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Shipments of information, communication and audio-video products to the US were the dominant driving force, while shipments to mainland China and Hong Kong grew only 3.2% year-on-year — the weakest performances among Taiwan’s major export destinations.
Exports are poised to stay strong through year-end, with total shipments expected to hit US$600 billion for 2025, Beatrice Tsai, director-general of the finance ministry’s statistics department, said at a press conference. Exports are expected to rise further in the final quarter, she said.
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Riding the AI wave, Taiwan’s economy expanded faster than expected in the third quarter, driven largely by its export strength. The statistics bureau in Taipei projects expansion of at least 5% this year, making it one of the world’s fastest-growing developed economies.
The island faces headwinds from tougher US trade policies, including a 20% “reciprocal” tariff from the US announced earlier this year. But tech products — the backbone of Taiwan’s exports — remain exempt for now as they’re subject to a Section 232 national security review.
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