Strong Q1 Sales Drives Taiwan's Machine Tool Industry Ahead in 2014
2014/04/18 | By Ken Liu
Most of Taiwan's machine-tool makers predict strong sales to continue into the second half of this year after recording encouraging performance in the first quarter due to brisk demand from China's makers of vehicle parts and molds as well as the rallying demand in America and Europe.
They say that the U.S. government's efforts to motivate expat American manufacturers to return production home are paying off and Europe is emerging from the sovereignty debt crisis. Meanwhile the market for motorbikes and cars in China and Southeast Asia is picking up strongly.
Accordingly, most of the island's machine-tool makers are backlogged with orders which will keep production humming into the second half of this year.
Executives of Taiwan Takisawa Technology Co., Ltd. says that this year the company had unusually strong sales in the normally lukewarm first quarter, with booked orders of around NT$700 million (US$23.3 million) for the next two to three months.
Originally focused on machine-tool market, Hiwin Technologies Corp., a major supplier of ball screws, now supplies globally the semiconductor, aircraft, medical equipment, and railway engineering industries. The company had consolidated revenue of NT$1.08 billion (US$36.1 million) in March, surging 30.98% year on year and helping push up its revenue for the first quarter by 26.90% year on year to NT$3.01 billion (US$100.4 million). The company targets consolidated revenue of US$1 billion for this year.
Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd. executives say that in March the company landed over NT$700 million (US$23.3 million) of new orders and had consolidated revenue of NT$712 million (US$23.7 million), rising 16.23% year on year, to which they attribute mostly brisk orders from China's makers of motorbikes and cars. So far, the company has NT$2.1 billion (US$70 million) of booked orders to keep production busy until August. Industry executives project the company's consolidated revenue for this year at NT$8.5 billion (US$283.3 million).
Goodway Machine Corp. executives report consolidated revenue of NT$688 million (US$22.9 million) in March, soaring 30.97% YoY, to which they attribute mostly to the sale of 30 lathes to Aichi Machine Industry Co., Ltd., increased orders from China, Southeast Asia, and America. The company still has NT$900 million (US$30 million) of undelivered orders to keep production humming until the end of the second quarter.
Awea Mechantronic Co., Ltd., held by Goodway, in March won approximately NT$300 million (US$10 million) of new orders and had consolidated revenue of NT$378 million (US$12.6 million), adding 23.17% year on year. The company still has around NT$1.3 billion (US$43.3 million) of undelivered orders to keep production running at full capacity until August or so.
Kao Fong Machinery Co., Ltd. executives note that increased orders from Taiwan, China, and South Korea were responsible for the company's NT$150 million (US$5 million) of orders for March and consolidated revenue of NT$199 million (US$6.6 million) for that month, up 20.76% YoY.
The company has NT$420 million (US$14 million) of undelivered orders and is still in talks with buyers including those in China over NT$200-300 (US$6.6-10 million) of orders. (KL)
Q1 Revenues at Taiwan's Leading Machine Tool Makers
| Stock code
| Company
| Revenue
| YoY change (%)
|
| 1530
| Awea
| NT$855M
| 30.34
|
| 1583
| Goodway
| NT$1.62bn
| 28.36
|
| 2049
| Hiwin
| NT$3.01bn
| 26.90
|
| 4526
| Tongtai
| NT$1.84bn
| 26.57
|
| 6609
| Taiwan Takisawa
| NT$743M
| 33.22
|