Taiwan to Outnumber South Korea as the World's No.5 Machine Tool Producer

Taipei, Sept. 30, 2008 (CENS)--Taiwan will replace South Korea as the world's fifth0-largest producing nation of machine tools this year, according to statistics released by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI).

The TAMI made the projection in accord with the survey results of the world's 22 major machine-tool manufacturing nations prepared by the U.S.-based Association of Manufacturing Technologies (AMT).

The AMT predicted Germany will supplant Japan as the world's largest producing nation of machine tools by churning out US$16 billion worth of the products in 2008. Machine tool is roughly divided into the two categories of metal-cutting and metal-forming products.

Japan is expected to roll out US$11.8 billion worth of metal-cutting machine tools this year. If the production of metal-forming machine tools is included, Japan will be the world's second-largest producer of machine tools with total output of US$12.9 billion this year. With total output of US$12.3 billion, mainland China will be the world's third-largest producer of machine tools this year. Italy will be the fourth largest with output of the products reaching US$8.6 billion, followed by Taiwan with US$5.3 billion and South Korea with US$4.9 billion.

Thanks to the strong demand from the Asian marketplace and the strong performance of Euro, European Union single currency, the AMT predicted the world's overall production value for machine tools will reach US$79.2 billion in 2008, representing a 14% year-on-year increase. Major machine-tool producing nations expected to grab double-digit growth in output will include Germany with 24%, Brazil with 20%, Taiwan, Italy and mainland China each with 17%, Switzerland with 13%. South Korea and Japan will grow 7.7% and 4% year-on-year this year, respectively.

Talking about Taiwan replacing South Korea as the world's fifth-largest producer of machine tools, the TAMI said South Korea has seen a cutback of procurement of machine tools by its domestic manufacturers of automobiles in overseas plants because of the sharp decline in world consumption of automobiles.

The TAMI noted Taiwan will stand firm as the world's fourth-largest exporting nation with total export value of the products expected to reach US$4.1 billion this year, only behind Germany, Japan, and Italy.