March export orders 1.2 yy vs 3.55 Reuters poll forecast
Orders from China 7.7 yy vs 5.5 in prior month
Ministry sees April orders between 1.2 and 5.9 yy
Ministry upbeat on AI demand

TAIPEI, April 22 Reuters Taiwan39;s export orders rose less than expected in March, but the government said it expected surging demand for artificial intelligence AI applications to fuel future demand for the island39;s hightech products.

Export orders last month climbed 1.2 from a year earlier to 47.16 billion, the economy ministry said on Monday, missing the 3.55 gain that was forecast in a Reuters poll. Orders were down 10.4 in February.

Orders for goods from Taiwan, home to tech giants such as chip manufacturer TSMC, are a bellwether of global technology demand.

Demand for AI, highperformance computing HPC and cloud industry continued to increase, while traditional goods demand has yet to recover significantly, the economy ministry said in a statement.

Looking ahead, the ministry said it expects that export orders in April would rise between 1.2 and 5.9 from a year earlier.

The ministry cited risks including the impact of high interest rates in the United States and Europe, ChinaU.S. trade disputes and broader geopolitical uncertainty.

However, demand for new applications such as HCP and AI is rising, boosting demand for our semiconductor and servers supply chain and helping to support momentum of export orders, it added.

The first part of the year is traditionally the low…