Taiwan's September exports hit $87.22 billion, a 35th straight monthly gain

Taiwan's finance ministry said on Thursday that exports rose 60.9 percent in September to $87.22 billion, a monthly record and the 35th straight year-on-year gain. The figure beat a Reuters poll that had looked for a 45.65 percent rise, and it followed August's $82.4 billion, itself a record at the time, when growth had been 41 percent.

Imports rose 51.7 percent to $63.59 billion, above a forecast of 43.2 percent. The trade surplus widened to $23.63 billion, from $12.30 billion a year earlier, the largest monthly surplus on record in the series tracked by Trading Economics from ministry data. August's surplus had been $22.30 billion.

The United States took the largest share. Shipments there rose 106.2 percent to $27.461 billion, equal to 31.5 percent of the total. Exports to China rose 30.2 percent. A ministry compilation reported by BigGo Finance put the ASEAN gain at 93.4 percent, and said the United States and ASEAN together accounted for more than 70 percent of the growth in the month.

Where the extra dollars came from

Electronic components, the line that includes the advanced chips made for artificial-intelligence servers, rose 45.3 percent to $31.131 billion. Information, communication and audio-video products rose 103 percent. The same compilation put that second line at $39.13 billion, the second-highest month on record, with computers and peripheral units up $15.74 billion and storage media up $1.76 billion, a 2.2-fold rise. Together those two lines were more than 80 percent of exports.

Mineral products also rose sharply, by 86.4 percent on the export side, a reminder that the island is still moving energy and materials as well as silicon. On the import side, parts of electronic products rose 82.5 percent and information and communication products rose 106.5 percent. Mainland China and Hong Kong remained the largest source of imports, at 21.2 percent of the total, with those purchases up 59.1 percent.

The nine-month picture is already larger than a normal full year. Exports for January to September reached $661.55 billion, up 46.2 percent, past the previous full-year record. The nine-month surplus was $160.55 billion, with imports up 41.3 percent. The ministry said it expects the run to continue into the fourth quarter, and put October growth at 40 to 44 percent from a year earlier.

The companies behind the customs line

Reuters noted that Taiwanese firms, including TSMC, the largest maker of the advanced chips used in AI systems, supply Nvidia, Apple and other buyers. The customs figures do not split TSMC's own revenue from the rest of the electronics line, so the $31.131 billion is a sector number, not a company one. What the customs data do show is that the demand is landing in a narrow set of product codes, and that the American market is taking the biggest share of the extra volume.

The growth is arriving while buyers are also arguing about the cost and the power draw of the same hardware. Reuters recorded those arguments, and the higher energy costs tied to the war between the United States and Iran, as the backdrop against which the ministry still raised its near-term forecast. The ministry's own site, mof.gov.tw, is the primary release. Faith Hung and Jeanny Kao reported the figures for Reuters.

A 35-month streak is a long run for an export economy that has lived through a chip downturn, a pandemic reorder and a shift in where the final servers are assembled. The September print says the reorder has not yet paused. The open question is whether October, which the ministry has already pencilled in at 40 to 44 percent, still clears that bar once the comparison month is no longer a soft 2025 base, and once buyers have had another month to decide how many racks they actually install.