Taiwan machines and machine tools have gained a reputation of good prices for good quality. Over the last couple of years, as more companies have shifted at least part of their production facilities and operations to the mainland China where the costs of wages, rentals, land properties and materials are considerably lower, machine tool builders have been able to control their manufacturing costs further to the advantage of their clients.

With manufacturing costs in control, companies are in a better position to spend more money on R&D. The results are obvious as visitors to the recent TIMTOS (Taiwan International Machine Tools Show) could see tremendous improvements in technological contents such as precision level and machining speed.

Specializing in precision and economical grinding, such as centerless grinding machine, cylindrical grinding machine and internal grinding CNC machine, Palmary is one of the Taiwan companies that have reached a certain technological level, Its grinders feature wheel spindle made of SNCM220 material and its surface hardness is said to reach more than HRC62 degrees.

Like some of the other Taiwan players. Parfaite Tool, a manufacturer of high frequency spindles, CNC tool holders and carbide tools, says that they are offering "German technology, Japanese quality and Taiwanese price". Indeed, the tools made by Parfaite have to undergo certain rigorous quality assurance tests before they are shipped to the customers including the use of an advance coordinate measuring machine. The company has years of experience in the automotive, compressor and electrical motor fields.

Driven by a turnaround in the high-tech sectors, Taiwan's machine tools imports in 2003 surged 22% while the machine tools exports increased 15.9%.

Machine tools exports

Customs statistics showed that the total export value of Taiwan-made machine tools from January to December in 2003 amounted to 1.6 billion US dollars, registering a 15.9% growth compared with the same period in the previous year, among which cutting machine tools increased by 17% to 1.2 billion US dollars and forming machines tools were up by 14% to 405 million US dollars.

Categorized by machine tool types, Taiwan was able to post a 26% increase in exports of lathes, 21% for machining centers, 16% for milling and EDM, and 15% for boring machines with other types of cutting machine tools showing slight gains.

As for forming machine tools, forging and punch presses showed 10% growth over the preceding year and 27% for other forming machine tools.

Geographically, Hong Kong and the Mainland China ranked first as the destinations of Taiwan's export with shipments worth 801 million US dollars, up 15% from 2002. The amount was equivalent to 48.4% of the total export value.

USA managed to stay at the second place with 124 million US dollars or 7.4% of the total while Turkey made a strong showing to rank the third with 81 million US dollars or a 116% surge from the previous year.

Machine Tools Imports

According to Custom statistics, the total import value of machine tools in 2003 was 859 million US dollars, showing a remarkable increase of 22% from 2002, Among the imports, cutting machine tools topped the list with an 23% surge to 773 million US dollars. On forming machine tools, the import value reported was 85 million US dollars, 13% higher than the previous year.

Analyst attributed the increase in the demands from conventional industries on imported machine tools such as machining centers, milling machines, grinding machines and gear making machines. As for forming machine tools, forging, pressing, punching and shearing machines increased by 6% while other forming machine tools achieved a 62% growth.