TAIWAN export orders hit a record level in 2014 and the momentum could extend into this year on stronger demand for Apple Inc.’s iPhone 6 and other consumer gadgets.

    But demand from the Chinese mainland, its biggest trade partner, remains uncertain as economic growth cools, posing a challenge to the island’s own trade and economic prospects.

    Orders grew 6.7 percent last year to a record US$472.81 billion, its economics authorities said Tuesday.

    December orders rose a better-than-expected 4.5 percent from a year earlier, well above the 1.6 percent growth forecast in a Reuters poll, but was slower than November’s 6 percent jump.

    December orders for information communication goods, Taiwan export’s main driver, reached a record level, growing 14.7 percent to US$13.78 billion, authorities said.

    Orders from the United States and Europe rose 12.8 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, but orders from the Chinese mainland slipped 1.1 percent, contracting for the second month in a row.

    “Orders will get a boost from the smooth shipment of handheld and wearable devices, as well as strong demand for mid- to low-priced smartphones from emerging markets,” the authorities said.

    Taiwan’s statistics agency recently cut its 2015 forecast for exports, citing below-par growth expected for the Chinese mainland and the European Union.

    Taiwan, which houses component suppliers for Apple, Sony Corp. and other global names, handles their orders in factories based in the mainland while it exports the final goods from the mainland to consumers in the United States and Europe.

    (SD-Agencies)