Taiwan’s Jan.-Apr. Exports of Machine Tools Surge 12.4% to US$1.36 B.

Taipei, May 18, 2012 (CENS)--Impervious to global economic doldrums, Taiwan’s machine tool industry saw its exports amount to US$1.36 billion in the past four months of this year, for a 12.4% growth compared to year ago, according to the latest statistics compiled by Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI).

The banner export growth makes industry insiders quite upbeat, who felt earlier that the industry, after struggling with seasonal recession in the first quarter, started to rally in the second quarter.

TAMI indicated that the industry’s current prosperity can be attributed mainly to Japanese customers having heavily switched their contract orders to Taiwan after the months-long floods in Thailand. So far, many insiders have seen their production lines fully booked throughout the second quarter, and already arranged their delivery schedules through the third quarter.

Among them, Tongtai Machine and Tool Co. and Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., for example, still have contract orders worth NT$1.9 billion and NT$1 billion, respectively, on hand. Meanwhile, Awea Mechantronic Co. and Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co. also have backlogged orders worth NT$900 million and NT$1.7 billion, respectively. Totally, TAMI estimates that the industry’s received orders that have yet to be filled roughly exceed NT$7 billion at the moment.

TAMI noted that while Taiwan’s machine-tool exports to the U.S., Thailand and EU member countries have steadily grown, those to emerging countries as China, India and Brazil, however, have declined, which gives a warning sign to insiders amid the current optimistic atmosphere.

In fact, market demands in the abovementioned countries where imports from Taiwan have dropped, TAMI stressed, still remain robust. China, for example, imported US$3.17 billion worth of machine tools in the first quarter of this year, up 6% from a year earlier, with more than 70% of which being high-end models mainly from Japan and Germany. Japan commanded a 38% share of China’s machine-tool imports as the largest importer during the period, when Taiwan witnessed its market share shrink to less than 10%.

Exports of Taiwan’s Machine Tools by Destinations from Jan. to Apr., 2012
Ranking	Country	Export Value	Year-on-year Growth Rate
1	China + Hong Kong	US$452.782 M.	-14.2%
2	The U.S.	US$154.803 M.	89.9%
3	Thailand	US$86.759 M.	84.9%
4	Turkey	US$70.302 M.	23.9%
5	Germany	US$45.776 M.	23.4%
6	Malaysia	US$40.312 M.	13.5%
7	Indonesia	US$39.385 M.	25.5%
8	India	US$38.074 M.	-13.9%
9	Brazil	US$33.689 M.	-27.8%
10	The Netherlands	US$33.614 M.	16.9%

Source: Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry