TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — The total value of Taiwan’s machinery exports in July broke through the NT$100 billion (US$3.33 billion) mark for the first time ever for a single month, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) said Tuesday (Aug. 9).

The precise value of the July exports reached US$3.38 billion, a surge of 20.8% from the US$2.8 billion recorded the same month last year, CNA reported. TAMI predicted the value of exports for the full year would be 10% to 15% higher than in 2021.

The July records in U.S. dollars and New Taiwan dollars occurred despite rising tension with China, global inflation, and concerns about the near future of the world’s economy, the machinery association said. With the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic likely to soften, demand for Taiwan’s machinery products could look forward to stable growth.

During the first half of 2022, the country exported US$21.13 billion worth of machinery, a rise of 13.9% from the US$18.55 billion registered for the same period last year. Calculated in New Taiwan dollars, the value of exports increased by 16.6% from NT$522.56 billion during January-June 2021 to NT$608.92 billion for the first half of this year.

China and the United States were still the two main markets for machinery from Taiwan, though the former had seen its share slip from 30.9% to 26.4%, while the U.S. share as an export market for machinery had increased from 22.2% to 26.3%, according to TAMI.