TAIPEI, Dec. 21 (Xinhua) -- Export orders of companies in Taiwan fell year on year for the 13th consecutive month in November, according to the island's economic affairs department.

Taiwan's firms saw their export orders drop 6.6 percent year on year to 44.53 billion U.S. dollars last month, the island's economic affairs department said earlier this week.

For the first 11 months, Taiwan's export orders stood at 440.77 billion U.S. dollars, down 5.9 percent.

Since November's reduction was more than expected, the export orders for the whole year are highly likely to be less than that of 2018, said a statement from the department.

Month on month, the export orders in November fell by 5.8 percent from October.

The department attributed the shrinking export orders to the notable reduction in export orders of IT products.