Taipei, July 28 (CNA) Taiwan's textile exports for the first six months of 2014 fell slightly year-on-year in reflection of falling product prices, the Taiwan Textile Federation (TTF) said Monday. According to the TTF, exports of Taiwan-made textile products, including ready-to-wear garments and upstream fabrics, totaled US$5.81 billion in the six-month period, down 0.3 percent from a year earlier. The fall resulted from a slight downtrend in unit product prices, in particular the price of artificial fibers, said the TTF, a local textile promotion group. Taiwan's textile imports, meanwhile, rose by an annual 2.9 percent to NT$1.59 billion in the first half of the year, the group said. The local textile sector registered a trade surplus of US$4.22 billion in the first half, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier, the TTF said, citing recently released customs data. In June alone, Taiwan's textile exports totaled US$982 million, down 1.4 percent from a year earlier, while imports rose by an annual 11 percent to US$261 million, the TTF said. Last month, the local textile sector's trade surplus fell 5.3 percent year-on-year to US$721 million, the federation said. (By Wei Shu and Frances Huang)
