Taiwan's leading machine tool makers ready prodution expansion for 2014
2013/12/23 | By Ken LiuTaiwan's leading machine-tool makers have budgeted about NT$20 billion (US$666.6 million) for production expansion in 2014 in anticipation of recovering demand in national defense, automobile, and aircraft industries.
J.C. Wang, president of the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), points out that China's demand for machine tools has begun rallying after plunging since the third quarter of 2012, mostly driven by its automobile and railway industries. Wang also estimates the island's machine-tool export to rise 20% year on year in 2014 to stay above the US$2.4 billion benchmark set in 2012.
Both Hiwin Technologies Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Eric Chuo and the Goodway Group Chairman and CEO D.H. Yang feel Taiwan's machine-tool industry will bottom out in the second quarter 2014. Yang says that executives of machine tool controller makers Siemens and Fanuc told him recently that the European economy has begun rebounding.
Hiwin, a major maker of ballscrews for precision machines, has budgeted over NT$10 billion (US$333.3 million) for 2014 expansion at its factories both in Taiwan and China.
In China the company will invest around NT$1 billion (US$33 million) initially to build a plant on 33,000 square meters of land at the China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park, which will be completed in 2015 to accommodate an R&D, a logistics, and an advanced processing facilities.
In Taiwan, the company will spend NT$7.3 billion (US$243.3 million) to build a plant on 2.2 hectares at the Taichung City Precision Machinery Innovation Technology Park to do front-end processing on robots, and make servo brake systems for automobiles. Its subsidiary, controller maker Hiwin Mikrosystems Corp., will invest NT$600 million (US$20 million) to build a facility nearby on 9,240 square meters to do front-end processing. Also, the parent company will kick off an expansion project earlier than expected in 2014 on 100 hectares at the Erlin campus of the Central Taiwan Science Park.
The Goodway Group will inaugurate a three-stage expansion plan in 2014 on 151,800 square meters at Dapu Mei Industrial Park in Chiayi County, southern Taiwan, calling for total investment of NT$5 billion (US$166.6 million) to generate revenue equaling the investment a year when completed.
In the first-stage construction, Goodway and its subsidiary, Awea Mechantronic Co. Ltd., will invest a combined NT$600 million (US$20 million) to each build a 9,900 square-meter facility, on which Goodway will build heavy-duty vertical lathes while the subsidiary will build CNA machine tools.
The Hota Group will begin its third-stage expansion construction at the Central Taiwan Science Park in the first quarter of 2014, with start-up planned for 2015. While the parent company, Hota Industrial Mfg. Co., Ltd., will build a facility on 3,300 square meters to build decelerating gear box for electric cars, its subsidiary, Kao Fong Machinery Co., Ltd., will build a 6,600 square meter factory to make five-axis, five-face machining centers.
Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd. will begin constructing a factory in 2014 on 66,000 square meters leased right across its headquarters in Kaohsiung City, southern Taiwan, to cost around NT$1.2 billion (US$40 million) in investment.
Supertec Machinery Inc. will begin building an NT$250 million (US$8.3 million) factory in 2014 at the Central Taiwan to double output.
Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Ltd. will begin an NT$3.2 billion (US$106.6 million) investment project in 2014 to build a factory on 3.1 hectares at the Central Taiwan Science Park to generate additional annual revenue of NT$10 billion (US$333 million) from production of high-end hybrid machine tools. (KL)
Taiwan's Leading Machine Tool Makers' 2014 Expansion Plans
| Stock code
| Company
| Project Highlights
| Investment Capital
|
| 2049
| Hiwin
| Opening a manufacturing site in mainland China's China-Singapore Suzhou Industrial Park; opening two facilities in Taiwan to build robots and servo brakes.
| NT$10bn
|
| 1536
| Hota
| Hota: opening a factory to make deceleration gearboxes. Kao Fong: opening five-axis, five-face machining centers.
| NT$500M
|
| 1583
| Goodway
| Goodway: opening a factory in Chiayi to make heavy-duty vertical lathes. Awea: opening a factory in Chiayi to make CNC machines
| NT$5bn
|
| 4526
| Tongtai
| Building a factory in Kaohsiung to make heavy-duty machines.
| NT$1.2bn
|
| 4547
| Supertec
| Building a factory in Taichung to make double-column grinders and CNC grinders.
| NT$250M
|
| 8707
| Victor Taichung
| In Taiwan: opening a factory in Taichung to make high-end hybrid machine tools. In mainland China: opening a manufacturing site in Shanghai.
| NT$3.8bn
|