The United States has topped long-time leader China as Taiwan’s main export market for four consecutive months due to a surge in demand for microchip products and AI technology, Taipei’s finance ministry said on Friday.
Self-ruled Taiwan is a microchip-manufacturing powerhouse,
churning out the world’s most advanced silicon wafers necessary to power
everything from e-vehicles and satellites to fighter jets and increasingly to
power AI technology.
For two decades, its top export market has been China —
which claims Taiwan as part of its territory — but December data from Taiwan’s
finance ministry shows the United States topping the list for the first time
since August 2003.
In December, Taiwan exported $8.49 billion in products to
the United States, compared with $8.28bn to mainland China.
The trend continued through March, when US exports increased
by 65 per cent to $9.11bn, a 6pc jump, while mainland China received $7.99bn.
Those figures exclude Hong Kong, which holds its own status
as a customs territory. When combined with mainland tallies, China remains the
top destination for Taiwanese goods.
Taiwan’s finance ministry official in the trade division
attributed the recent US tilt to the global “reorganisation of electronics and
ICT (information and communication technology) supply chains, and the
popularity of the AI industry”.
Since Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen came to power in
2016, she has been working to strengthen economic ties with the United States,
seeing Washington as a crucial partner as neighbouring China grows increasingly
aggressive.
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