The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣區機械公會) yesterday urged the government to take effective measures, such as increasing lending and allowing the New Taiwan dollar to depreciate, to boost the industry’s export competitiveness in the face of falling exports, local media said yesterday.
Taiwan’s exports plummeted by a record 41.9 percent last month from a year earlier to reach US$13.64 billion, the lowest level since October 2003, Ministry of Finance data showed.
Exports of electronics products saw the largest decline last month, plunging 43.4 percent, or US$2.49 billion, from a year earlier, while machinery exports dropped by 30.2 percent or US$460.2 million.
The South Korean government had allowed its currency to depreciate by between 30 percent and 40 percent, allowing South Korean machinery companies to cut their global prices by between 10 percent and 20 percent, the Central News Agency reported yesterday, citing TAMI chairman Fred Huang (黃博治).
Huang urged the government to allow the NT dollar to depreciate by 20 percent to help local machinery manufacturers.
The economic downturn has caused around 10 percent of local machinery firms to run into difficulties, and the closure of these firms would have an impact on the whole industry, the report said.
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