Taiwan's Machine-tool Firms See Orders Packed in Q2

Taipei, Feb.29, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan's major manufacturers of machine tools and components, including Awea Mechantronic Co., Goodway Machine Corp., Roundtop Machinery Industries Co., Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Falcon Machine Tools Co. and Hiwin Technologies Corp., have orders backlogged till the end of the second quarter of this year.

Eric Y.T. Chuo, chairman of Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA), noted the cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA) is availing many Taiwan-made machine tools and components of zero duty when shipped to China, with more machinery items to be so treated to benefit the domestic machine-tool industry in the years to come.

Chuo said the domestic machine-tool industry has performed better than expected, although many believe the industry won't see full recovery till the end of the second quarter of this year.

Awea and Goodway currently have backlogged orders of NT$1.6 billion and NT$2.2 billion, respectively, with order visibility throughout the second quarter. Awea president Edward Yang attributes the buoyant business to orders from Thailand and the ECFA.

Roundtop said it had recently received orders exceeding NT$100 million from an aerospace-parts company, with over NT$600 million in backlogged orders and order visibility till the end of June.

Over the past month, Falcon has steadily received orders for CNC lathes and machining centers from the electronics industry, with over NT$700 million in backlogged orders and production lines packed till the end of June.