The production value of Taiwan’s machinery sector for next year is expected to fall about 2 percent from a year earlier in the wake of weakening global demand due to a slowing global economy, according to the Market Intelligence Center (MIC, 資策會) of the government-sponsored Institute for Information Industry.
The MIC said that output of the local machinery sector is expected to total NT$948.7 billion (US$28.83 billion) next year, down 2 percent from the NT$968.1 billion forecast for this year, when the sector is expected to suffer a 0.48 percent year-on-year fall.
The research group said that global demand for machine tools and production equipment for high-tech devices is expected to remain slow next year, which could hurt the nation’s machinery industry.
Such unfavorable circumstances for the nation’s machine tool makers are expected to continue into the second or third quarter of next year, the MIC said.
The production value of the nation’s machine tool segment this year is expected to fall 10.4 percent from a year earlier to NT$135.2 billion, while output of Taiwan-made production equipment for high-tech gadgets is expected to rise slightly by 1.1 percent from a year earlier to NT$124.9 billion, it said.
Affected by a weak global market, the nation’s machine tool exports for the first nine months of this year fell 13.4 percent from a year earlier, the MIC said.
During the same period, China and the US were the top two buyers of Taiwan’s machine tools, accounting for 30.2 percent and 11.9 percent respectively of Taiwan’s total exports, the MIC said.
The MIC said that the global semiconductor industry faces a slowdown and sales in the integrated circuit market are expected to fall 0.8 percent year-on-year this year to US$337.8 billion, prompting several IC giants, such as Intel Corp and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to cut their capital expenditures, which has hurt Taiwan’s machinery suppliers.
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