The nation’s machine tool exports grew 12.3 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months of the year, but the pace of annual growth continued to decrease from 13.3 percent in the first nine months and 14.4 percent in the first eight months, Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association (台灣工具機暨零組件公會) statistics showed last week.
From January through last month, machine tool exports totaled US$3.03 billion, up from US$2.67 billion for the same period the previous year, the Taichung-based association’s data showed.
By product breakdown, exports of metal-cutting machines grew 14.2 percent year-on-year to US$2.57 billion, shipments of machining centers expanded 18.9 percent to US$1.15 billion, while exports of lathes increased 13.3 percent to US$579.96 million and exports of metal-forming machines rose 2.8 percent to US$466.29 million, the data showed.
During the 10 months, machine tool exports to China, including Hong Kong — the sector’s largest export destination — grew 4.1 percent annually to US$991.14 million, and shipments to the US, the second-largest market, jumped 32.6 percent to US$391.33 million, while shipments to Turkey, the third-largest market, expanded 34.7 percent to US$148.05 million, the data showed.
“The higher shipments to the US reflect rising demand for capital goods and machine tools by companies in response to US President Donald Trump’s pledge to bring back manufacturing to the US,” Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) secretary-general Wang Cheng-ching (王正青) said on Friday last week.
Still, Taiwan’s machine tool makers and machinery component suppliers are facing growing headwinds from the US-China trade tensions, Wang said at a news conference for the Taipei International Machine Tool Show, which is to be held at the Taipei World Trade Center and Nangang Exhibition Center from March 4 to March 9.
The Ministry of Economic Affairs’ export order data for machinery goods showed that companies were hit by the trade war and slowing Chinese demand in September, with figures dropping 5.3 percent year-on-year to US$1.74 billion to mark the first annual decline this year.
The numbers improved last month, but were only up 0.4 percent from a year earlier to US$1.84 billion, the ministry said on Tuesday last week.
“There is a growing wait-and-see sentiment in the market,” Department of Statistics Director-General Lin Lee-jen (林麗貞) was quoted by local media as saying.
Some firms, such as Awea Mechantronic Co (亞崴), which makes C-type and bridge-type CNC machines, and Kenturn Nano Tec Co Ltd (健椿), a supplier of machine tool spindles, have recently signaled that they are feeling increasing pressure from customers postponing shipments due to the US-China trade row.
Meanwhile, five Taiwanese machine tool makers — Tongtai Machine and Tool Co Ltd (東台精機), Leadwell CNC Machines Manufacturing Corp (麗偉), Litz Hitech Corp (麗馳), Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co Ltd (永進) and LK Machinery Corp (力勁) — were in September named by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce as part of an anti-dumping investigation.
TAMI has urged companies to be vigilant regarding the trade war and to increase their exposure in other markets, while working to improve their competitiveness in developing smart machinery, Wang said.
This year, Taiwan’s machine tool exports are expected to increase by 8 to 10 percent annually to US$3.6 billion, he said.
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