TAIPEI: Booming shipments of the iPhone 6 helped Taiwan’s export orders jump 12.7 percent in September year-on-year to a record $43.3bn, the government said yesterday.
It marked an eighth straight month of growth in export orders for tech-rich Taiwan, the economic ministry said in a statement. Orders for information and mobile devices rose 16.3 percent from a year ago to $12.9bn, “mainly due to the launch of international brand name mobile devices that led to the significant increase of orders”, the ministry said.
Taiwanese giant Hon Hai — the parent company of Foxconn in China and the world’s largest computer components manufacturer — assembles products for Apple, as well as Sony and Nokia.
Its revenues surged 22.95 percent year-on-year in September to $13.66bn. Local firms Pegatron Corp worked on the assembly of the new iPhone and TSMC — the world’s biggest contract microchip maker — manufactured its chips, although neither company has confirmed the contracts.
The economic ministry also credited rising demand for laptop computers for the boost in orders. Taiwanese firms produce laptops for a range of major brands including HP, Dell and Lenovo, while Acer alone has a 10.8 percent global market share, according to Taipei-based Digitimes Research.
Orders for electronic products surged 19.4 percent year-on-year as the increased shipments of mobile devices spurred business for the semiconductor and computer memory storage sectors, the ministry said. Export orders from the US hit a record $11.4bn, up 15.5 percent year-on-year and up 20.6 percent from the previous month.AFP
