According to the statistics released by the Taiwan Ministry of Finance, in January this year Taiwan's export value of basic metals and articles made from basic metals amounted to $2.27 billion, decreasing by 9.2 percent compared to the same month of 2011. The value of these exports constituted 9.9 percent of the total value of Taiwanese exports in January.
Meanwhile, in January this year Taiwan's import value for the products in question decreased by 27.5 percent compared to the first month of 2011 to $1.7 billion.