Taiwan's export orders hit a record high in December, the government said on Thursday, but warned that global supply chains could be disrupted by the U.S.-China trade war. Taiwan's export orders hit a record high in December, the government said on Thursday. The government warned that global supply chains could be disrupted by the U.S.-China trade war.

The export orders of Dec increased by 12.1% y/y as compared to the 8% increase that was forecasted in the Reuters poll.
The Ministry sees Jan orders between +11% and +13.8% y/y
The Ministry says that the supply chain problems are easing, but they are still present.
Taiwan's export orders grew faster than expected in December to a record high due to sustained technology demand, but the government warned of supply chain uncertainty that could affect the outlook. The government warned that the outlook could be affected by supply chain uncertainty.
Taiwan's export orders, a bellwether of global technology demand, rose 12.1% from a year earlier to $67.9 billion last month, the highest monthly figure on record, data from the Ministry of Economic Affairs showed on Thursday. The ministry said strong demand for semiconductors, flat panels and other electronics goods drove the increase.
The economy has been expanding for 22 straight months, with the pace much faster than the median forecast for a rise of 8% in a Reuters poll.
The ministry said that the supply chain problems continued to ease and that there was solid consumer demand for technologies such as notebook computers and 5G.
Telecommunications and electronic product orders hit record highs in December, normally the start of the low season with Christmas out the way, with the ministry reporting "brisk" demand.
The ministry said export orders for all of 2021 rose 26.3% versus 2020, reaching $674.13 billion, also a record high. Growth has been supported by the work-from-home-trend during the pandemic as well as a global semiconductor shortage.
However, the ministry said demand would continue to be supported by tech demand, it warned supply chain issues were still present along with COVID-19 worries, and noted the first quarter was generally the low season for technology goods.
"Kevin Wang, an economist at Taishin Securities Investment, said resurgent COVID-19 in the United States and China could affect the outlook," Wang said. "Coming off a high base last year export order growth in the first quarter was likely to stall."
Taiwanese companies, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co Ltd (TSMC) are major suppliers to Apple Inc (AAPL.O), Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) and other global tech firms.
November's export orders increased by 13.4% from the previous year to $65.5 billion, much better than economist predictions.
The ministry said it expects an increase in export orders in January to be about 12% from a year earlier.
Orders from the United States rose 16.9% in December from a year earlier, a much faster rate of expansion compared with the 10.8% logged in November. Orders from China increased 4.5%, versus a gain of 25.3% the previous month.
The number of orders from Europe increased by 8.2%, while the number of orders from Japan decreased by 5.8%.