Foreign Bank: Taiwan's March Exports Beat Expectations, Demonstrating High Resilience in AI Demand
Standard Chartered economist Hu Tung-an noted that Taiwan's March export orders hit a record high, demonstrating that the strong demand for AI infrastructure is highly resilient and largely mitigating the economic spillover from Middle East conflicts.
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- 📰 Published: April 22, 2026 at 13:29
- 🔍 Collected: April 22, 2026 at 14:01 (31 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: April 22, 2026 at 14:34 (33 min after Collected)
(CNA Reporter Lu Yen-tzu, Taipei, 22nd) Demand for artificial intelligence (AI) remains red hot. Hu Tung-an, Senior Economist for Greater China and North Asia at Standard Chartered, pointed out today that Taiwan's export performance exceeded market expectations. This indicates that the rise in energy prices and related economic spillover effects caused by the Middle East conflict have had a relatively limited substantial impact on AI-driven demand, and that AI-related demand momentum remains highly resilient.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced yesterday that export orders for March this year reached US$91.12 billion, marking a record high for a single month, surging 65.9% year-on-year, and registering a 14th consecutive month of growth. Cumulative export orders for the first three months of this year were US$231.91 billion, setting a new record for the same period with a 50% year-on-year increase.
Hu stated that the spillover effect of the Middle East conflict has a relatively limited impact on Taiwan's latest export order performance. The primary reason is that Taiwan's major trading partners continue to invest in AI infrastructure and data centers. As the global AI development race accelerates, countries and enterprises are generally unwilling to fall behind in AI deployment and applications.
Hu observed that, looking at the data, the 65.9% year-on-year growth rate for export orders denominated in US dollars far exceeded the market expectation of 44.1%, and was also significantly higher than the combined 41.3% growth rate seen in January and February this year. This highlights the strong resilience of AI-related demand momentum.
According to Hu, Taiwan's export growth is mainly driven by electronic products and information and communication technology (ICT) products. Among them, electronic product exports grew by 73.7% year-on-year, and ICT products surged significantly by 120.9%, reflecting the continuous expansion of AI-related hardware and computing power infrastructure by global cloud service providers and enterprises.
However, Hu also cautioned that compared to the highly rigid demand for advanced semiconductors, where Taiwan holds a critical position in the advanced manufacturing and AI chip supply chain—allowing high-end chip makers to pass on a considerable portion of rising costs to downstream customers and reduce overall profit shocks—related cost pressures may have a larger impact on more price-sensitive industries, such as consumer electronics and certain traditional export sectors in Taiwan.
Furthermore, Hu explained that there remains a need to watch for the medium-term risk of critical raw material supply shortages, which could put potential pressure on chip manufacturers. But he added that, based on recent public information cited by Taiwanese chip companies, the relevant impacts currently remain manageable and have not posed significant disruptions to production or shipments in the short term.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs announced yesterday that export orders for March this year reached US$91.12 billion, marking a record high for a single month, surging 65.9% year-on-year, and registering a 14th consecutive month of growth. Cumulative export orders for the first three months of this year were US$231.91 billion, setting a new record for the same period with a 50% year-on-year increase.
Hu stated that the spillover effect of the Middle East conflict has a relatively limited impact on Taiwan's latest export order performance. The primary reason is that Taiwan's major trading partners continue to invest in AI infrastructure and data centers. As the global AI development race accelerates, countries and enterprises are generally unwilling to fall behind in AI deployment and applications.
Hu observed that, looking at the data, the 65.9% year-on-year growth rate for export orders denominated in US dollars far exceeded the market expectation of 44.1%, and was also significantly higher than the combined 41.3% growth rate seen in January and February this year. This highlights the strong resilience of AI-related demand momentum.
According to Hu, Taiwan's export growth is mainly driven by electronic products and information and communication technology (ICT) products. Among them, electronic product exports grew by 73.7% year-on-year, and ICT products surged significantly by 120.9%, reflecting the continuous expansion of AI-related hardware and computing power infrastructure by global cloud service providers and enterprises.
However, Hu also cautioned that compared to the highly rigid demand for advanced semiconductors, where Taiwan holds a critical position in the advanced manufacturing and AI chip supply chain—allowing high-end chip makers to pass on a considerable portion of rising costs to downstream customers and reduce overall profit shocks—related cost pressures may have a larger impact on more price-sensitive industries, such as consumer electronics and certain traditional export sectors in Taiwan.
Furthermore, Hu explained that there remains a need to watch for the medium-term risk of critical raw material supply shortages, which could put potential pressure on chip manufacturers. But he added that, based on recent public information cited by Taiwanese chip companies, the relevant impacts currently remain manageable and have not posed significant disruptions to production or shipments in the short term.