With demand booming on both sides of the Taiwan Strait, Taiwan's top-tier manufacturers of metal-working and other types of industrial machinery are enjoying a surge in orders that will keep their production lines humming through the end of the third quarter of this year, with some saying they are booked to the end of the year.

Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Tong-Tai Machine & Tool Co., Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co., Kao Fong Machinery Co., and Falcon Machine Tools Co. are among the major local players with growing order backlogs.



Overall, the above-mentioned manufacturers expect shipments to grow by 30% to 40% year-on-year in the third quarter of this year, with some expecting twofold to threefold increases. To meet the demand, many companies are expanding production facilities, adjusting production lines, extending work hours, adopting three-shift work schedules, and hiring new workers.

No End in Sight

Yen Jui-hsiung, general manager of Tong-Tai, says that his company's average monthly orders rose to over NT$400 million (US$11.9 million at US$1:NT$33.6) between March and June--double that for the same period of last year. Yen expects the order flood to boost his company's third-quarter revenue to an all-time high.

Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co. and Shieh Yih Machinery Industry Co., which specialize in the production of pressing machines for automobile and 3C (computer, consumer electronics, and communications) metal-sheet production, are also operating their lines at full bore. They also say they have enough orders to operate at full capacity through the end of the third quarter of this year.

Chin Fong, Taiwan's largest manufacturer of pressing machines, says its monthly revenue rose to NT$200 million (US$5.95 million) in the first half of this year. The company still has an NT$2 billion (US$60 million) order backlog to keep it busy for the next several months. Hsiao Kao-fong, Chin Fong's financial manager, expects monthly revenue to reach NT$300 million (US$8.92 million) in the third quarter of this year, for growth of over 20% year-on-year.

Chin Fong has raised its whole-year sales target to NT$3.8 billion (US$113 million) from the originally projected NT$3.3 billion (US$98 million), an increase of 40% over last year.

In addition to the machine-tool manufacturers, domestic manufacturers of plastic-processing machines are also enjoying an influx of orders to be shipped in the third quarter of this year.

Fu Chun Shin Machinery Manufacture Co., Ltd., which went public in May, shipped NT$900 million (US$26.78 million) worth of products in the first half of this year, up 30% from the same period of last year. In addition to plastic-processing machines, Fu Chun Shin also makes precision molds and electric wire. The company says it has an NT$450 million (US$13.4 million) backlog of orders.

Thanks to the increased influx of orders for plastic-processing machinery, precision molds, and electric molds, Fu Chun Shin estimates that its monthly sales will reach NT$200 million (US$5.95 million) in the third quarter.

Prospects for the manufacturers of printed circuit board (PCB) drilling machines also augur well in the third quarter of this year. Tong-Tai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd. And Taiwan Takisawa Machinery Co., two major manufacturers of PCB drilling machines, expect their monthly production capacity to reach 30 and 20 units, respectively, in the third quarter. The two companies claim they have a three-or-more month backlog of orders, putting them on track to post record sales this year.

New Products

In light of the rapid recovery of the global economy, many large-sized manufacturers of machinery have been developing new products to further boost sales in the near term.

Taiwan Takisawa is developing six-axis complex lathes, and Goodway Machine Corp. is working on five-axis lathes, with both companies expected to debut the new models in second half of this year.

Taiwan Takisawa says it is specially developing the lathes for parts suppliers to European automobile manufacturers. Tai Shih-feng, vice president of Taiwan Takisawa, says his company is also nearing completion of new inverter-lathe models.

Awea Mechantronic Co., one of Taiwan's leading manufacturers of large-sized machining centers, is developing a full range of horizontal machining centers for processing automobile parts.

Yeong Chin and Fair Friend Enterprise Co. is developing high-precision nanometer-grade mold-making machines, aiming to bridge the technology gap with Japan in this field. Yeong Chin says it will begin introducing its high-speed, high-precision nanometer-grade mold-making machines sometime in 2005. The machines will be applicable to producing molds for cellphones, optical products, and TFT-LCD (thin film transistor-liquid crystal display) parts. The company says the new products will be on a par with those made by leading producers Japan's Yasda Co. and Makino Co., with a price tag of around NT$5 million (US$150,000) each.

Wu Mao-chih, vice president of Fair Friend, says his company will soon begin pilot production of high-precision mold-making machines with nanometer processing accuracy. The machines are designed for making precision molds for automobile headlamps and optical devices.