A Report for Current Status of Taiwanese Machinery Industry in November 2007
By Mr. C. C. Wang
Vice President, TAMI
From January to November 2007, the export of Taiwanese machinery showed a 5.6% growth.
Imports decreased by 2.9%, indicating downturn of investments while the demands to imported machinery from high-tech industry are decreased.
1. Taiwanese Machinery Exports Categorized by Product
According to customs statistics, from January to November 2007, the export value of Taiwanese-made machinery amounted to US$ 13.9 billion, which showed an increase of 5.6% comparing to the same period in last year. Following is the ranking of the major exported products. Machine tools ranked first with the export amount of US$ 3.2 billion and grew by 15.8%. Plastic and rubber machinery ranked second with the export amount of US$910 million with an increase of 5.5% when comparing with the same period in last year. Special function machines were third, whose export amounting to US$ 883 million with a 7.4% growth. Refer to table 1 for details.
2. Taiwanese Machinery Exports Categorized by Countries
From January to November 2007, the export value of Taiwanese-made machinery to China and Hong Kong reached US$ 4.4 billion, sharing 31.8% of the total exports, indicating a 2.7% growth comparing with the same period in the last year. China and Hong Kong ranked first for Taiwanese machinery export. Following, the US ranked second with the export amount of US $2.2 billion. This shared 15.8% of the total exports and indicated a decrease of 5.9%. Japan ranked third with the amount of US$762 million. This shared 5.5% of the total export value and indicated a growth of 2.0% compared to last year.
Exports to Asia and Europe are increasing. Germany ranked fourth, Thailand fifth and Vietnam ranked sixth. Following are Malaysia, India, Indonesia and Turkey. Refer to Table 2 for details.
3. Taiwanese Machinery Imports Categorized by Products
According to customs statistics from January to November 2007, the import value of machinery reached US$16.6 billion. This number showed a 2.9% decrease. Major imported machinery is ranked as following：Special-purpose machines, mainly applied in high-tech industries such as semi-conductor and 3C, ranked first with US$ 4.8 billion, sharing 29.2% of the total value and decreased by 7.4%. Machine tools ranked second with an import amount of US$2.3 billion which shared 14.0% of the total and increased by 29.8%. Following were fluid machines, ranking third with the import amount of US$887 million, 5.4% share of the total and negative growth of 9.8% comparing to the same period in last year. Refer to Table 3 for details.
4. Taiwanese Machinery Imports Categorized by Countries
According to customs statistics from January to November 2007, Japan and the US were the major sources of machinery imported into Taiwan. Japan ranked first with the import value of US$ 7.1 billion which was 42.7% of the total import value and indicated a 15.1% negative growth. The US ranked second with the imported amount of US$ 4.3 billion and 25.4% share of the total. This indicated a 9.7% increase. China and Hong Kong ranked third with the imported value of US$ 1.3 billion. This shared 7.8% of the total import amount and showed a 13.0% growth. Refer to Table 4 for details.
