TIMTOS Firmly Among Top-3 Machine Tool Trade Fairs in Asia
2009/05/04 | By Ben ShenThe 2009 Taipei International Tool Show (2009 TIMTOS), slated for March 2-7 in Taipei, is expected to attract 850 exhibitors from home and abroad, who will occupy some 4,800 booths, a historic high and up a whopping 73% from that in 2007.
The biennial show will be spread across the three exhibition halls of the Taipei World Trade Center (TWTC) and TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall, with joint organization by the government-backed Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) and Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA).
Key Sourcing Venue
Walter Yeh, TAITRA vice president, says the TIMTOS remains one of Asia's top-three machine-tool shows and recognized as one of the most important sourcing venues in all of Asia. He predicts the show will generate more than US$900 million in business, both on-the-spot and follow-up deals. The last show held two years ago saw US$850 million in on-the-spot and follow-up orders.
TAITRA says Taiwan's machine-tool industry has posted US$5.25 billion in overall production value in 2008, making Taiwan the world's fifth-largest producer trailing Germany, Japan, mainland China and Italy. Yeh stresses that such achievement is remarkable considering Taiwan has no substantial backing from a world-class automobile industry.
"Taiwan-made made machine tools are popular in even Germany and Italy because of the substantial improvements in quality made over the past few years," comments Yeh. "Moreover, Taiwan machine-tool manufacturers have racked up remarkable exports to emerging markets as Russia and India, thanks to their substantial economic growth."
To help promote Taiwan-made machine tools and accessories, the TAMI has helped with marketing in emerging markets of Russia, India and the members of the Association of Southeast Asian nations. Yeh says numerous invitations had been sent to mainland Chinese buyers: a preliminary projection by the TAMI shows the 2009 TIMTOS will attract more than 700 mainland Chinese visitors, 2.5 times that of the last session's, for which the TAMI credits the recent implementation of direct-flights across the Taiwan Strait.
To help Taiwan machine-tool manufacturers tap global markets, TAITRA had over the past several months engaged in promoting the 2009 TIMTOS at major machine-tool shows as EMO in Europe, IMTS in Chicago and JIMTOF in Tokyo, as well as instructed 53 overseas offices to invite heavyweight buyers.
Overall Output
TAMI chairman Fred P.C. Huang notes that Taiwan's machinery industry had not reached the goal of NT$960 billion (US$28.65 billion at US$1:NT$33.5) in production value in 2008 due to the nose-diving output in the fourth quarter, instead conceding that the production value totaled NT$930 billion (US$27.76 billion) in 2008, up 6.5% from last year's NT$873 billion (US$26.05 billion).
Currently, machine tools contribute to one-sixth of the production value of Taiwan's overall machinery industry, making the product category a major player.
"Many foreign buyers worldwide recognize the value of Taiwan-made machine tools, knowing such machine tools help to build higher value into finished products, especially in light that Taiwan-made machine tools may be functionally equal to industry-standard counterparts but more cost effective," Huang states.
Global Presence
Huang says the 2009 TIMTOS will confirm itself as a world-class event for attracting some 20% of foreign exhibitors, who will come from 15 nations, including Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, South Korea, India, Switzerland, Israel, Singapore, Malaysia, mainland China and Hong Kong.
The 2009 TIMTOS will not lack major presence from the local sector, with ample familiar names to be among the exhibitors, including She Hong Industrial Co., Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Yeong Chin Machinery Industry Co., Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Quaser Machine Tools Co., AWEA Mechantronic Co., Falcon (Chevalier) Machine Tools Co., Ching Hung Machinery & Electric Industry Co., Hiwin Technologies Corp., Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co., and Keyarrow (Taiwan) Co.
A number of industry-leading players from overseas will also be on-hand, including Okuma, Mazak, DMG, Yasda, Toyoda, Sodick, Kuka, Fanuc, Siemens, Sony and Bosch. The Swiss Trade Office, as usual for the past nine events, will again set up a national pavilion for approximately 40 exhibitors, who will occupy 85 booths at the TWTC Nangang Exhibition Hall.
Inspiring Innovation
The six-day show will see the TAITRA and TAMI jointly hold for the seventh time the Award for Excellence in Research and Innovation, as well as several seminars and forums to help buyers, exhibitors and professionals to share industry know-how and developments.
The award event, divided into three categories-machining centers, NC lathes, and other NC machine tools-the TAMI says aims to inspire Taiwan machine-tool manufacturers to develop innovative technologies and products.
Competitors
Some of the firms who are competing this year in the category of machining centers include Kent Industrial Co. (high-speed vertical machining center), Jiuh-Yeh Precision Machinery Co. (horizontal machining center JMH-500), Hsiu Fong Machinery Co. (double-worktable machining center), Everricho Co. (high-speed, precision, energy-saving CNC machining center), Leadwell CNC Machines Mfg. Corp. (MT-500 CNC compact five-axis multicut machining center), Kova Carbide Co. (CNC five-axis machining center), Jeenxi Technology Co. (JHV-550 APC CNC vertical machining center), EUMA-SPINNER Corp. (U5-620 universal five-axis machining center), and Far East Machinery Co. (BMC-250T horizontal boring and milling machine).
A sample of the suppliers competing in the category of NC lathes include Leadwell CNC Machines Mfg. Corp. (TM-1500 multi-function machine), EUMA-SPINNER Corp. (MTM-2200 multi turning-milling-grinding machine), Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co. (Vturn-X200 multi-tasking machine tool), Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co. (multi-tasking CNC lathe with two opposing spindles and two turrets), and Goodway Machine Corp. (multi-axis turning center).
A partial list of the competitors in the other NC machine tools category include Kentai Machinery Co. (high-speed carbide sawing machine), Kent Industrial Co. (KGC-2980 cylindrical grinder), Kontec Precision Industrial Co. (automatic tube change fine hole EDM), Chuan King Sang Machinery Co. (digital control drilling machine), Trumpf Taiwan Industries Co. (CNC hydraulic press brake), Litz Hitech Corp. (five-axis vertical machining center), Topwork Industry Co. (five-axis CNC tool grinder with robot loading system), and Awea Mechantronic Co. (gantry-type five-axis machining center).