Mar 16, 2010
Taipei, Feb.11, 2010 (CENS)--Taiwan's machinery industry will see production value break the NT$1 trillion (US$31.25 billion at US$1:NT$32) mark in 2014, according to a machinery industry development report issued by the Department of Industrial Technology under the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
The report showed Taiwan's machinery industry would resume its growth trend in 2010 after experiencing a large decline in 2009 due to the impact of the global financial crisis.
In terms of production value, Germany is the world's largest machinery producing nation, followed by the U.S., Japan and mainland China. Taiwan is the world's 4th largest exporter and 5th biggest importer of machine tools.
At present, the global machine-tool industry saw its annual production value plunge to only US$5 billion in 2009 from the 2008's US$15.8 billion on the impact of the global financial tsunami. For instance, the machine-tool industry in Europe saw production value decline by an amazing 70% year-on-year last year and Japan down 68%.
But Fair Friend chairman Jimmy Chu believed the global financial crisis has provided a precious chance for Taiwan and China to further develop their own machine-tool industry.
Over the past one year, Fair Friend has acquired 10 European firms, raising the number of the group's subsidiaries up to 52 from 42, making Fair Friend become the largest machine-tool manufacturer in the Chinese community worldwide.
With significant improvement in the political and economic relations across the Taiwan Strait, Chu urged domestic machine-tool builds to ratchet up their ability to develop self-owned technologies, enhance the essence of workforce, and reinforce product development capability.
Chu said Taiwan has the advantage in enhancing industrial competitiveness in these fields of key parts and components, manufacturing, assembling, collaborative design, marketing, sales and services.
Source: TAITRA