Taiwan outpaced Japan, U.S., S. Korea in machine tool exports in Jan.

Taipei, April 18, 2005 (CENS)--Taiwan outpaced rivals Japan, the U.S. and South Korea in exports of machine tools in Japan, with exports shooting up 65.1% from one year earlier to reach US$220 million, according to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI).

Judging from the sales and export data of major producing nations of machine tools, said TAMI vice president Wang Cheng-ching, the global machine-tool market will continue its growth trend this year.

Wang noted North America and Asia will be the most important growth sources for the global machine-tool industry this year.

Of the world's leading producing nations, the U.S. shipped US$217 million worth of machine tools in January, up 20.8% year-on-year; South Korea 167.2 billion Korean won worth of orders for machine tools that month, up 58.6% annually.

Based on a survey conducted by the Japan Machine Tool Builders' Association, Japan received 107.3 billion worth of orders for machine tools in January, up 30.4% year-on-year.

Edwards Yang, chairman of the Taichung City-based Precision Machinery Research and Development Center, said Taiwan has gradually become a production base offering one-stop service, as domestic manufacturers in this field have given up production of homogeneous products to focus on such high-class items as horizontal machining centers, combination lathes, and high-speed linear motor-based machine tools.