Major Machine-tool Firms Enjoy Influx of Orders

Taipei, March 8, 2012 (CENS)--Taiwan's major machine-tool manufacturers, including Awea Mechantronic Corp., Goodway Machine Corp. and Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., have enjoyed influx of orders to keep their production line busy through the end of the second quarter of this year.

These companies saw orders mainly come from the U.S., China and Thailand. All of them expected a rosy picture for the operations in the first half of this year.

Edward Yang, chairman of both Goodway and Awea, said the growth in orders can be mainly attributed to the steady recovery of the economy in the U.S. and China, as well as the increased demand for machine tools from Turkey and Thailand. Most importantly, orders from Thailand are still on the rise in the wake of the devastated flood that destroyed many machine shops in the fourth quarter of last year.

At present, Goodway and Awea has unfilled orders of NT$1.5 billion and NT$2 billion, respectively. Goodway said it has made big harvest by taking part in the METAV show recently held in Dusseldorf of Germany. The company obtained NT$38 million in orders at the show, for two lathe/milling complex machines and seven large-sized CNC lathes for processing vehicle wheel rims.

Institutional investors believed each of Goodway and Awea will see sales reach over NT$700 million in the first quarter of this year, up 60% year-on-year.

Goodway said its new plant in Wujiang of Jiangsu Province, China will be able to start mass production sometime in the second quarter of this year. The new plant is expected to see annual production value amount to NT$1 billion, becoming a cash cow for the company in the years to come.

In addition, Goodway has recently kicked off a NT$5 billion investment project to build a new plant in Dapumei Machinery Park in Chiayi County, southern Taiwan. The Dapumei plant is expected to achieve an annual production value of NT$20 billion, double that of its existing plant in central Taiwan Science Park.

Tongtai said it has NT$1.8 billion orders in hand, which will be filled by the end of the third quarter of this year. Orders have fully packed its production lines, forcing the company's employees to work overtime to boost production.

Tongtai scored NT$330 million in sales in February, up 53.4% from January but down 2.11% year-on-year. The company had cumulative sales of NT$545 million in the first two months of this year, down 20.38% year-on-year.