Taiwan export orders fall 2.7 pct in February

Taiwan's export orders dropped on a year-on-year basis unexpectedly in February despite a low comparison base from last year due to shortened work days around the Chinese Lunar New Year holiday that fell on Feb. 19.

Overseas buyers placed orders worth 29.89 billion U.S. dollars with manufacturers in Taiwan in February, down 2.7 percent from the same month in the previous year, the island's statistics agency said on Friday.

The February decline was much lower than officials' and economists' growth forecast of 31 billion U.S. dollars. Export orders rose 8.1 percent year on year in January.

For the first two months of 2015, export orders received by Taiwan's manufacturers went up 3.2 percent year on year to reach 68.93 billion U.S.dollars.

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

Demand for hand-held and wearable devices remained strong in February, with a year-on-year increase of 6.8 percent in orders, while two-digit year-on-year declines in export orders were reported in sectors including cheap metals, chemicals and rubber.

The largest orders came from the United States and China's mainland, with 7.91 billion U.S. dollars and 7.06 U.S. dollars, according to the statistics agency.