Taiwan Exports Hit Record $96.76 Billion in October as AI Demand Lifts Shipments

Exports to the United States surged 55.9% to $32.93 billion. Shipments to mainland China and Hong Kong rose 42.9%.

Exports to ASEAN, the Southeast Asian bloc, jumped 83.8%. That was the fastest growth among the five major markets.

Exports to Japan rose 49.6%, and exports to Europe rose 46.0%. Values for the United States, Japan and Europe all set monthly records.

In the first ten months, exports to the United States rose 58.8%. The United States took 31.7% of Taiwan's exports in that period. That share was a 36-year high for the period.

Imports and the surplus set records too

Imports rose 75.1% to a record $68.89 billion. The increase topped economists' forecasts for a 54.5% rise, Reuters reported.

Exports rose 10.9% from September, and imports rose 8.3%. The Commercial Times reported both monthly changes from the ministry statement.

The October trade surplus reached a record $27.88 billion. A trade surplus means exports exceeded imports in value.

The surplus rose $6.33 billion from a year earlier. Cumulative figures tell the same story at a larger scale.

Cumulative exports for January to October reached $758.29 billion. They rose 47.7% from a year earlier.

Cumulative imports reached $569.76 billion, up 44.6%. The cumulative trade surplus reached $188.54 billion.

The cumulative surplus with the United States alone reached $190.96 billion. It exceeded the overall cumulative surplus of $188.54 billion.

The ministry expects November growth near 50%

For November, the ministry expects exports to rise 47% to 51%. That outlook is a forecast, not a result.

The ministry expects growth to extend into the fourth quarter. It cited the holiday shopping season and chip demand for AI infrastructure.

The ministry also flagged uncertainty from geopolitical conflicts and U.S. trade policy. It still expects AI demand to sustain related supply chains.

AI use is spreading from training toward inference and agentic systems, software that acts on goals. Cloud providers keep building the infrastructure behind that shift, the ministry said.

New technology products are launching in succession, the ministry said. The year-end consumption peak adds seasonal support, it said.

That concentration is the main vulnerability in the release. A slowdown in cloud providers' building plans would hit the dominant categories first.

What remains unknown

What remains unknown starts with November's actual result. The 47% to 51% range is the ministry's expectation, not a settled figure.

How long AI infrastructure spending holds at this pace is also unknown. Two categories now supply about four-fifths of Taiwan's exports.

Whether demand broadens beyond technology is unclear. The release gives no company-level split for October's shipments.

The November print is the next test

What to watch: the ministry's November trade release. It will show whether exports land inside the 47% to 51% growth range.

October export orders and company sales will offer earlier signals. Sustained orders would support the ministry's fourth-quarter outlook.