The production value of Taiwan's machinery industry registered an annual expansion of 3.9% to hit NT$563.3 billion in 2005. Of various machinery products, metal-cutting machine tools the lead with production value of NT$59.82 billion in 2005, up 4.2% from 2004. Metal molds came second with NT$54.9 billion, down 3.1%; followed by plastics and rubber processing machines with NT$43.1 billion, up 14.1%; electronics manufacturing equipment with NT$29 billion, up 17.8%, and metal forming machine tools with NT$21.67 billion, down 1.7%.
In 2005, orders placed with Japanese machine tool builders were valued at 1,363.2 billion Japanese yens, up 10.3% from 2004 and including 746.7 billion yen in domestic orders and 616.4 billion yen in overseas orders. The U.S. consumption of machine tools came to US$2.595 billion in 2005, up 8.3% from 2004, with consumption of metal-cutting machine tools soaring 8.5% and that of metal-forming machine tools surging 4.5%. |