According to the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), in the Jan.-Apr. period the island exported US$6.4 billion worth of machinery, up 8.2% year on year (YoY), thanks partly to a surge in shipments of tools to mainland China in April. That month alone, Taiwan's overall machinery exports totaled US$1.7 billion, up 6.7% from April 2013.
In terms of New Taiwan (NT) dollar, Jan.-Apr. exports amounted to NT$195 billion, an increase of 11% YoY. For the month of April exports rose 7.7%, to NT$53.6 billion, rising 7.7%.
TAMI chairman S.C. Hsu said that executives of the island's machine-tool makers, including the Yeong Chin Machinery Industries Co. the Fair Friend Enterprise Group, Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., and Goodway Machine Corp., told him that they received 20-30% more orders from mainland China this April than in the same month of last year.
Hsu estimated the island's machinery exports as a whole will grow 10% this year, and that machine-tool exports will likely gain 8%. He feels that the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2014, which will be held in Chicago in August, and the Japan International Machine Tool Fair 2014 (JIMTOF 2014) in October, will help boost Taiwan's machine-tool exports this year.
The chairman said that his association is vigorously tapping the East European and African markets, where the association will send inspection missions in the second half of this year. (KL)
