By Chen Cheng-hui / Staff reporter
The nation’s machinery exports grew 26.2 percent year-on-year to US$3.501 billion last month, the 16th consecutive monthly increase and the highest monthly level on record, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry reported on Wednesday last week.The increase was driven mainly by shipments of electronic equipment, which benefited from continued strong demand for artificial intelligence applications and semiconductors, the association said in a report.However, the New Taiwan dollar exchange rate remains unfavorable to Taiwanese machinery exporters’ competitiveness, especially as Japanese and South Korean currencies have depreciated significantly, it said.
Visitors examine a robotic arm at a machine tool exhibition in Taichung on March 25.
From 2021 to early this month, the NT dollar had depreciated only 10.7 percent against the US dollar, significantly lower than the yen’s 55.5 percent decline and the won’s 43.5 percent fall over the same period, with such exchange-rate differences continuing to weigh on Taiwanese manufacturers’ order visibility and profit outlook, it added.The latest data showed that electronic equipment, inspection and testing equipment, and power transmission components were the top three export products last month, accounting for 20.5 percent, 17 percent and 5.7 percent of total machinery exports respectively.
