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Taiwan's machinery exports see first signs of decline in past 20 months

2022/06/10 | By EDN

Taiwan Machinery Association announced on Thursday that the export value of machinery and equipment in May this year was marked at USD$2.88 billion, a decrease of 4.5% month-on-month and 1.1% year-on-year results. This is the first decline after 20 consecutive months of growth. The exports to China showed a double-digit decline for three consecutive months, indicating that the industry demand has emerged in the second half of the year after a sustained period of lockdowns due to the Chinese government's zero-COVID policy.

Wei Tsan-wen, chairman of the Taiwan Machinery Industry Association, said that exports in May had cooled, except for the high base period in the same period last year, the high inflation caused by the Russian-Ukrainian war, and the conservative global economy, all of which made enterprises' investment in machinery and equipment less active than before.

Hsu Wen-hsien, chairman of the Taiwan Machine Tool and Components Association, previously warned that international steel, nickel, copper and other raw materials have soared, coupled with the Russian-Ukrainian war factor, the recent orders received by domestic machine tool factories have dropped significantly by more than 20%, and the association has adjusted This year's machine tool export forecast will be revised down from a growth of 20% to 30% to maintain the level of last year.

TAMI estimated at the beginning of the year that the export of machinery will increase by about 10% this year. Will the forecast be revised in the future? Wei said that the third quarter is the peak season for the traditional electronics industry, and the market demand for electronic equipment will be observed at that time before making a decision.

The Machinery Association pointed out that the export value of Taiwan's machinery and equipment in the first five months was US$14.682 billion, an annual increase of 12%, and the value of Taiwan's machinery and equipment was about 417.283 billion yuan, an annual increase of 12.5%. The top three export values ​​of machinery in the first five months were electronic equipment at US$2.078 billion, accounting for 14.2%, with an annual increase of 5.5%; testing equipment at US$1.914 billion, accounting for 13%, with an annual increase of 6.3%; machine tools at US$1.183 billion, accounting for 8.1%, an annual increase of 12.8%.

The top three exporters of machinery in the first five months were the mainland with US$3.884 billion, accounting for 26.5%; the United States with US$3.798 billion, accounting for 25.9%; Japan with US$883 million, accounting for 6%.

In the machine tool industry, exports in May were US$248 million, ranking third in exports, with an annual increase of 1.4% and a monthly decrease of 2.7%.