The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) revealedstatistics according to which, machinery exports of Taiwan amounted to US$8.557 billion in the first half of this year, up 12.4 percent than in the sameperiod last year.

The category of machine tools ranked first in terms oflargest export items, with export value reaching US $1.921 billion, up 20.8percent over the previous year. Special purpose machinery stood at the secondplace earning $679.93 million, up by 20.2 percent.

Textile machineries fetched $273.667 million, down by 16.4percent while the category of sewing machines brought revenues amounting to$188.952 million, up 1.2 percent. Even leather and shoes making machineriesearned $44.234 million, surging by 28 percent.

In terms of the largest export markets for these products, Hong Kong and mainland China together ranked first by consuming $2.47 billion worth of products from Taiwan in the first half of this year, representing a rise of4.5 percent and accounting for 28.9 percent of the total exports.

US ranked second with $1.265 billion, down 0.9 percent andcommanding 14.8 percent of the aggregate exports followed by Japan at the third place with $497.32 million, up 4.9 percent and accounting for 5.8 percent. Thefourth place went to Vietnam with $341.16 million, up 53.8 percent while Germany stood fifth with $320.97 million, up 30.7 percent. Thailand was the sixth-largestexport outlet with $266.45 million, up 0.3 percent.

Indonesia, Malaysia, India, Italy, Turkey, South Korea, the Netherlands, United Kingdom, Singapore, Brazil, Canada, Australia, France, Spain, Finland, United Arab Emirate, the Philippines, Russia, Mexico, and Saudi Arabia were some ofthe other key export destinations for Taiwanese machineries.

However, import of machineries from various countries alsowent up by 10.5 percent in the first half of this year leading to anexpenditure of $10.098 billion.

Of this, the category of special-purpose machinery rankedfirst with import value reaching $2.966 billion, up 16.4 percent and accountingfor 29.6 percent of the total imports. The second place went to the category ofmachine tools with $957.11 million, down 24.6 percent and accounting for 9.6percent of the total imports.

Import of textile machineries stood at the sixth place with$171.62 million, down 7 percent and accounting for 1.7 percent of the totalimports.

Japanemerged to be the largest supplier of machineries selling $4.214 billion worthof products to Taiwan in the first six months of 2008, representing a rise of9.8 percent and accounting for 42.1 percent of the total imports.

The second place was occupied by the US who provided goods worth $2.318 billion, down by 0.5 percent and commanding 23.2 percent. Hong Kong and China together stood at the third place, with $954.48 million, which is up by 32.2 percent and accounting for 9.5 percent of the total imports. Germany came next with $871.62 million, up by 36 percent.

Other major import sources, in descending order, were South Korea, Italy, United Kingdom, Switzerland, and France. Taiwan is likely to grow its exports by 8-10 percent in the ongoing year. Besides, the overall production value of Taiwan-made machinery is estimated to fetch NT$960 billion in 2008.

Export Figures

Import Figures

Source: Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI)