Taiwanese machine tool makers Goodway Machine Corp (程泰機械) and Tongtai Machine and Tool Co (東台精機) yesterday said that orders and demand are on the rise, indicating that the nation’s machine tool industry is recovering from last year’s slump.
Goodway Machine, which makes computerized numerical control latches, said that orders from the automobile and aviation sectors picked up in the past two months. The company has received about NT$500 million (US$15.43 million) in orders for lathes, which are expected to cover its capacity for two months, it said.
“We hope this month will be better,” Goodway Machine general manager Hsu Fu-chu (許福助) said, adding that the company is focusing on China, where demand tends to rise during this month to June.
The Asian market is looking up this year, as Thailand’s and Malaysia’s currencies stabilize, while the European and US markets are likely to remain the same as last year, Hsu added.
Europe and China are Goodway’s two largest markets, accounting for 35 percent and 29 percent of its revenue respectively last year. The US and Taiwan provided 13 percent and 10 percent.
Tongtai also saw a recovery in orders from China last month and increased demand from Russia this month, spokeswoman Lulu Yen (嚴璐) said.
“We expect to see clearer signs of growth from the end of the second quarter to the beginning of the third quarter,” Yen said.
Taiwan’s machine tool industry was gloomy last year due to a domestic economic slowdown and a depreciating yen, which enhanced Japanese makers’ competitiveness.
Last year, Goodway Machine reported that revenue decreased 8.4 percent annually to NT$7.16 billion. Net income dropped 9.3 percent to NT$622 million from the previous year.
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