Major Taiwanese Machine Tool Makers See Surging Orders So Far in Q1, 2015

Despite a low-season factor, Taiwan's leading machine-tool makers, including AWEA Mechantronic Co., Ltd., Goodway Machine Corp., Roundtop Machinery Industries Co., Ltd., Kao Fong Machinery Co., Ltd., Falcon Machine Tool Co., Ltd., Shieh Yih Machinery Industry Co., Ltd., Tong Tai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd., and Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co., Ltd., have seen orders surge so far in Q1, 2015.

They look to the Taipei International Machine Tool Show 2015 (TIMTOS 2015), held March 3-8, to create promising opportunities as the global automobile, aircraft, and information-technology industries pick up.

Goodway along with its subsidiary, AWEA, has landed steady orders from mainland Chinese, American and European makers of car and motorbike components since shifting to rolling out machine tools to make automotive components from ones for consumer-electronics, communications, and computer components few yeas ago.

Goodway and AWEA received over NT$400 million (US$12.90 million) and NT$300 million (US$9.67 million) or so of orders, respectively, this January. However, deliveries will be delayed until February or March because orders were received late, customers had not inspected goods, and American west coast dock workers went on strike.

Goodway predicts its order books to fill up throughout April or May this year while AWEA thinks its order books will fill up throughout July. AWEA still has NT$1.6-1.7 billion (US$51.61-54.83 million) of undelivered orders.

Roundtop executives say the company still has at least NT$600 million (US$19.35 million) of orders for customized heavy-duty double-column machine tools. With lead time of usually three to six months, the maker's orders received in January would keep its production lines humming throughout June.

Kao Fong executives say this January the company received satisfactory amount of orders from China and saw orders from South Korea increase from the same month of last year. So far, the company still has NT$600 million (US$19.35 million) of orders, including NT$100 million (US$3.22 million) of regular orders placed yearly by American agents.

Shieh Yih executives say the company still has NT$1.3-1.4 billion (US$41.93-45.16 million) of undelivered orders mostly for mid- and large-size pressing machines, which will keep the company's production lines humming throughout June.

Falcon executives say the company will begin to fill the orders in March that were received since December last year, which mainly came from a mainland Chinese maker of aluminum wheels for over NT$100 million (US$3.22 million) of equipment and a mainland Chinese maker of car rotors for approximately NT$50 million (US$1.61 million) of machines.

Anemic sales in the American market in Q4, 2014  led to revenue slump in January at Falcon, which expects revenue to further drop in February due chiefly to the weeklong Chinese New Year.

(KL)