Taiwan March export orders miss forecast, China drags

TAIPEI (Reuters) -Taiwan's export orders rose less than expected in March, as strong demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications was offset by slower demand from China, with the government expressing caution about the outlook due to geopolitical risks.

Export orders rose 12.5% year-on-year in March to $53.04 billion, a second monthly gain, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday. Analysts had expected a 15.25% jump.

Orders for goods from Taiwan, home to the world's largest contract chipmaker and other tech companies, are considered a bellwether of global technology demand. TSMC last week gave a bullish outlook for the year given AI demand, despite the uncertainty over U.S. tariffs.

Trade-dependent Taiwan's export performance this year could be substantially impacted if President Donald Trump follows through with his tariff plans.

Though the ministry said it saw order momentum being supported by AI and high-performance computing, "uncertainty has increased over recent global economic and political situations and geopolitical risks".

"Close attention should paid to this and cautiously responded to," it said.

For April, the ministry said it expects export orders to rise between 6.2% and 10.4% on-year.

Taiwan's orders in March for telecommunications products were up 11.4% year-on-year, while electronic product orders rose 21.8%.

Overall orders from China dropped 5.3% versus a 28.9% jump in February.

Orders from the United States were up 30.7%, slowing slightly from a 32.2% surge the month before.

Orders from Europe fell 8.3% in March, while orders from Japan expanded 21.9%.

(Reporting by Liang-Sa Loh and Faith Hung; Editing by Ben Blanchard, Andrew Heavens and Kim Coghill)

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