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© 2026 DailyDropNo. 5
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, FRI., OCT. 9, 2026No. 5 · Morning, 6:00 a.m. Taipei6 a.m. Taipei
TAIEX49,313.44▼0.99%10/8USD/TWD31.95▲0.34%10/8S&P 5007,765.36▼0.47%10/8WTI$91.49▲3.62%10/8Gold$4,156.90▲0.24%10/8
Economy · TradePress ✓ 3 outlets · export figures are Ministry of Finance statistics; TSMC's are company disclosures

September exports hit a record US$87.2 billion, 35th straight month of growth; TSMC's Q3 revenue of NT$1.49 trillion also a record

AI servers and chips are carrying Taiwan's exports and TSMC's quarterly results. Electronics and information-and-communications products are up more than 70% year-on-year; all other products are up just 25%. The boom is real, but it is concentrated in a few industries.

The Ministry of Finance released September customs import and export statistics on the 8th. According to PTS and the Taipei Times, September exports came to US$87.22 billion, a record for a single month, up more than 60% year-on-year, and the 35th straight month of positive growth. August exports were about US$82 billion, already a monthly record and the 34th straight month of growth at the time (TaiwanPlus); September lifted the bar another step. The driver has not changed: AI-driven demand for servers, chips and networking equipment. PTS reported that electronics and information-and-communications products rose 72.6% year-on-year, while other products grew only 25.4%. The Ministry of Finance's view is that, with the year-end buying season coming, fourth-quarter exports should keep growing. Scholars cautioned that traditional industries have not benefited to the same degree and that Taiwan must still work to join regional trade agreements to open up markets for them.

On the same day, TSMC reported its September revenue. The Taipei Times reported that TSMC's third-quarter consolidated revenue jumped to about NT$1.49 trillion; Reuters reported that third-quarter revenue was a record and above market expectations. The guidance TSMC gave for the third quarter at its July investor conference was US$44.6 billion to US$45.8 billion, which, at the company's assumed rate of NT$32 to the U.S. dollar, works out to roughly NT$1.43 trillion to NT$1.47 trillion. On that conversion, actual revenue has already passed the top of the guidance range, but this is DailyDrop's estimate; the official U.S. dollar revenue, gross margin and fourth-quarter outlook must wait for the company's investor conference. TSMC's tight capacity shows up elsewhere, too: on the 8th, U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries announced a US$2 billion agreement with TSMC to make key components that connect AI processors with memory for TSMC. See the story lower on this page.

The good news did not lift the market. On the 8th, the last trading day before the holiday break, Taiwan stocks fell 492.93 points to close at 49,313.44, and foreign investors net sold about NT$75.8 billion. The NT dollar closed at 31.875 to the U.S. dollar, down NT$0.08, reflecting outflows of foreign money; during the holiday, overseas quotes extended the decline to about 31.95 in the early hours of the 9th. The main causes were U.S. Treasury yields staying at multi-year highs and international oil prices rising again on Middle East news, which leaves the market worried about inflation and interest rates. Taiwan's stock market is closed during the National Day holiday; the next trading day is Monday the 12th. By then, investors will have three things to digest: how U.S. stocks trade over the holiday, whether oil falls back, and market expectations ahead of TSMC's investor conference. DailyDrop asks readers to separate two layers: record exports and revenue speak to company orders and shipments, while the fall in share prices reflects the cost of capital and risk appetite. Both can be true at once. Another point worth noting is concentration: when electronics and information-and-communications products are up 70% and other products only 25%, the more dazzling the headline numbers, the wider the gap between industries. For ordinary households, the benefit of record exports spreads only slowly, through company profits, pay raises and dividends, and at a pace that varies by industry. That is also why scholars raised regional trade agreements again.

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By the numbers
US$87.22 billionSeptember exports, a record for a single month, up more than 60% year-on-year (Ministry of Finance statistics; PTS, Taipei Times)
35 monthsConsecutive months of positive export growth, a record (PTS)
About NT$1.49 trillionTSMC's Q3 consolidated revenue, a record and above market expectations (Taipei Times, Reuters)
World · Middle EastPress ✓ 5 outlets · the strike plan is a media report, not confirmed by the White House

Trump: no attack on Iran before the midterm elections. After reports of a strike plan, oil briefly jumped about 5%

The U.S. magazine The Atlantic reported that Trump may resume bombing Iran before the Nov. 3 midterm elections and has asked the Pentagon to draw up an attack plan (as relayed by Liberty Times). After the news broke, markets feared another blow to crude supply. CNA and Liberty Times reported that international oil prices jumped about 5% at one point on the 8th, Europe's three major stock markets closed lower, and U.S. stocks opened down. Trump then posted that the United States is holding “productive” talks with Iran and will not attack Tehran before the midterm elections (Reuters, Liberty Times). At the same time, the risk in the Middle East has not eased: Yemen's Houthi movement claimed a missile attack on the airport of the Saudi capital, Riyadh, and Germany's Lufthansa and three Indian airlines announced they were suspending flights to Riyadh (Reuters, AP, Liberty Times). PTS reported that the Houthis' air strikes on the 6th and 7th killed 3 people and injured more than 30. Reuters reported that traffic through the Strait of Hormuz fell to its lowest in more than two months and that Iran threatened to block more waterways; on the 8th, the United States also imposed new sanctions on Iran's shadow fleet. As of 3 a.m. Taipei time on the 9th, West Texas Intermediate crude stood at US$91.48 a barrel, up 3.62%, and the S&P 500 was down 0.61% (DailyDrop market data, intraday figures). For Taiwan, oil prices feed into electricity rates, transport costs and consumer prices, and are also a reference point when the central bank judges whether to raise interest rates.

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Word of the day
Midterm electionsPOLITICS

Congressional elections held midway through a U.S. president's term, renewing all seats in the House of Representatives and about one-third of the Senate. The result decides whether the president can advance policy smoothly in the last two years, so it often shapes the timing of White House diplomatic and military moves.

Security · SeasPress ✓ 4 outlets · formal responses from the Defense Ministry and the Coast Guard

China's maritime militia vessels appear off eastern Taiwan for the first time in August; Defense Ministry: it challenges our maritime law-enforcement authority; Coast Guard: outside restricted waters

Reuters reported exclusively on the 8th that Chinese maritime militia vessels appeared off eastern Taiwan for the first time this August, the first time Taiwan's patrol units have spotted such vessels in the east. CNA and the Taipei Times then reported the government's response. The Ministry of National Defense said Beijing is packaging its harassment as law enforcement and scientific research, trying to widen its range of activity short of open conflict and create the illusion of effective jurisdiction, which not only damages the international order but also challenges Taiwan's maritime law-enforcement authority; the ministry will work with the Coast Guard to respond appropriately.

The Coast Guard Administration said it monitors the movements of Chinese vessels in the waters around Taiwan around the clock, and that the activity of the Chinese vessels in question was all outside the restricted waters. The two statements do not contradict each other: the vessels were outside the legal restricted line, yet appeared in eastern waters where they had not appeared before. Maritime militia are fleets that look like fishing boats but in practice take direction from the military, and in peacetime they are hard to deal with by the standards applied to warships. Earlier this year, the China Coast Guard also announced “law-enforcement patrols” in waters east of Taiwan. What DailyDrop will watch is whether such vessels become routine, and whether the Coast Guard releases more track data.

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Tech · SemiconductorsPress ✓ 3 outlets · the amount was announced by GlobalFoundries

GlobalFoundries and TSMC sign US$2 billion agreement; New York fab to make key components for TSMC's AI chips

U.S. chipmaker GlobalFoundries announced on the 8th that it has reached an agreement with TSMC worth US$2 billion. According to Reuters, CNA and Liberty Times, GlobalFoundries will make, at its plant in New York State, key components used to connect artificial-intelligence processors with memory chips. Liberty Times places such components in the supply chain for TSMC's CoWoS advanced packaging; this packaging technology puts a GPU and high-bandwidth memory on the same substrate and is one of the bottlenecks for AI chips from Nvidia and others. The agreement reveals two things: first, TSMC's demand for advanced packaging is so large that it needs outside partners to share the load; second, making part of the process in the United States also fits Washington's push to localize supply chains. None of the outlets gave the term of the agreement, the volumes or the start of deliveries, and we will wait for further announcements from the two companies. The two companies once fought patent lawsuits, which were settled after 2019; they have now turned to cooperation.

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Environment · EnergyPress ✓ 2 outlets · the ruling can be appealed and is not yet final

Court voids environmental review of Taichung plant's second gas phase, residents win; Ministry of Environment studies appeal

On the morning of the 8th, the Taipei High Administrative Court ruled to revoke the environmental impact assessment conclusion for the second phase of the Taichung Power Plant's gas-fired units, a win for the local residents who sued (PTS, Taipei Times). The Taichung plant was once the world's largest thermal power plant; in line with the energy policy of replacing coal with gas, it has pushed a two-phase “coal-to-gas” program, and two coal-fired units were dismantled only last week. The second phase passed its environmental impact assessment in 2024, but residents argued the review was careless and brought an administrative lawsuit.

The Ministry of Environment said it will study an appeal once it receives the written judgment. The ruling is not yet final, and its real effect on construction depends on the outcome of the appeal. The difficulty is that gas-fired units are positioned as a key way to cut coal use and air pollution, yet the new units will themselves emit, and residents want a more rigorous review. For readers in central Taiwan, what matters is whether air-quality commitments are written into the new review process; for the nation's electricity supply, it is whether the Taichung plant's transition will be delayed.

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In brief
  • China Airlines and EVA Air post record revenue for the first three quarters on strong passenger and cargo demandCNA
  • Wistron and Inventec report record Q3 revenue; Pegatron's September was its strongest on recordCNA
  • Acer's September revenue is a 14-year high for the month; Asus posts its second-highest monthly figureCNA
  • Domestic banks' lending rose NT$362.7 billion in August, the second highest on record for the monthCNA
  • SinoPac Financial's first-three-quarter profit tops NT$36.7 billion, up 79%, a record for the periodLiberty Times
  • Ministry of Health and Welfare puts NT$250 million toward rewarding clinics that open on Sundays during national holiday breaksPTS
  • Kaohsiung's severe flu cases reach 150 so far; health bureau urges vaccinationLiberty Times
  • Taiwan's three big container shipping lines report sharply higher September revenue and expect demand to recoverCNA
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Unverified — what we could not confirm

“The U.S. has decided to strike Iran before the midterm elections.” This is The Atlantic's report on Pentagon planning; on the 8th Trump posted that there will be no attack on Iran before the election. A plan and a decision are two different things.
“A second infection has appeared at Russia's plague research institute.” Russian officials call it fake news; PTS, citing the BBC, says accounts from different agencies differ. There is currently no independently confirmed second case.
“The latest poll shows Puma Shen has overtaken Chiang Wan-an.” The TVBS poll has Chiang Wan-an ahead by about 8 percentage points; “overtaken” is a commentator's own estimate from converting vote shares, not a poll result.
Glossary · dotted words — economics, law, security and science terms explained in the context of the story. The list grows every day.
INSIDESeptember exports hit a record US$87.2 billion, 35th straight month of growth; TSMC's Q3 revenue of NT$1.49 trillion also a recordEconomy · TradeTrump: no attack on Iran before the midterm elections. After reports of a strike plan, oil briefly jumped about 5%World · Middle EastChina's maritime militia vessels appear off eastern Taiwan for the first time in August; Defense Ministry: it challenges our maritime law-enforcement authority; Coast Guard: outside restricted watersSecurity · SeasGlobalFoundries and TSMC sign US$2 billion agreement; New York fab to make key components for TSMC's AI chipsTech · SemiconductorsCourt voids environmental review of Taichung plant's second gas phase, residents win; Ministry of Environment studies appealEnvironment · Energy