Machinery industry closing in on trillion mark for industry output, MOEA promoting Dapumei Precision Machinery Park

August 13, 2007

As Taiwan's precision machinery companies have enjoyed a large number of orders, the machinery industry is poised to become a "trillion" industry, said the Ministry of Economic Affairs (MOEA) in an announcement in mid-July. Currently Taiwan counts semiconductors, flat panel displays and petrochemicals as "trillion" industries, or industries whose output has surpassed NTD 1 trillion.

The MOEA also announced that at least 35 companies will invest over NTD 50 billion in the Dapumei Precision Machinery Park in Chiayi County, located in central Taiwan.

The precision machinery industry's strong performance of late could help boost the steel industries and bring the overall machinery industry past the trillion mark for industry output, said MOEA officials. Rapid growth is expected to bring machinery industry output to the trillion mark somewhere between next year at the earliest and 2009 at the latest, said officials.

The MOEA has announced its "machinery flagship factory plan", in which companies with yearly revenues of at least NTD 10 billion will receive government assistance over the next five to ten years. And as the government has paved the way for spin-off industries serving national defense and military supplies development, there is room for further growth in the domestic machinery industry, said MOEA officials.

Machine tools have fueled export orders for precision machinery companies in Taiwan. In recent years, the machinery industry has seen, on the average, yearly growth of over 10% per year. Recent projections are placing over industry output at NTD 880 billion this year.

Because the number of precision machinery companies is growing, Minister of Economic Affairs Steve Chen has been helping the Chiayi County Government to promote the Dapumei Precision Machinery Park. At the beginning of April, only 16 companies accepted offers to come to the park, but this number has now grown to 35 companies, causing demand for land at the park to rocket from 40 hectares to 200 hectares, said officials.

(Economic Daily News)

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