Taiwan export orders down for 11th month

Taiwan's export orders dropped for the 11th-consecutive month in February due to the recent holidays and a weak global economy, new data showed Monday.

Export orders were valued at 27.67 billion U.S. dollars last month, down 7.4 percent from a year earlier, according to a statement released by the island's economic authority on its website.

The authority attributed the drop mainly to flagging global demand and fewer working days last month due to the Spring Festival holiday. In the first two months, orders dropped by 10.3 percent.

Export orders are an indicator of actual exports a month or two later, and Taiwan is known as a big production base for electronics. Its export orders are thus seen as a key reference for the global electronics sector.

Precision apparatus, metal products, and plastic and rubber products saw orders plunging 32.5, 17.3 and 17.9 percent, respectively. Orders in the communications and electronic sectors were down by 1.8 and 1.5 percent year on year.

The economic authority said export orders may recover in the near future as drops in international oil prices will likely temper and there was a recent steel price rebound.

Its survey showed that 43 percent of companies saw an upward trend for orders in March, up from only 10.5 percent in February's poll. Endi