4 Taiwanese machine tool makers aiming to enter world's top-20 club

Taipei, Oct. 14, 2004 (CENS)--Taiwan's four leading listed machine tool makers, including Kao Fong Machinery Co., Tong-Tai Machine & Tool Co., Hota Industrial Mfg. Co., and Awea Mechantronic Co., are mapping out plans to expand production capacities in a bid to rank among the world's top-20 manufacturers in this line.

On Oct. 8, Kao Fong broke ground for a new plant in Central Taiwan Science Park. In the first quarter of next year, the other three will also step up building new production facilities in the science-based industrial parks in either central or southern Taiwan.

Kao Fong president Chan Chih-cheng said the new plant would be three times that of the parent plant in Taya of Taichung County. The new plant will focus on the production of such high-value-added products as linear-based machine tools, plasma production equipment, and vacuum pumps and wet manufacturing process equipment for semiconductor industry.

Chan said his company would secure NT$10 billion (US$294.98 million at US$1:NT$33.9) in annual sales five years from now on. To that end, the company will merge with or launch strategic alliances with the manufacturers in this line.

The other three leading firms target to secure annual sales of between NT$6 billion (US$176.99 million) and NT$10 billion (US$294.98 million) in the next few years. To that end, they are preparing to develop high-value-added machine tools or merge counterparts.

Kao Fong is the first local machine tool makers to operate in Central Taiwan Science Park. Guests participating in the ground-breaking ceremony of Kao Fong's new plant in the park included Edward Yang, chairman of the Precision Machinery Research & Development Center. Yang said the domestic machinery industry registered NT$500 billion (US$14.74 billion) in production value last year.

Yang predicted domestic machine-tool industry will grow by 30% annually in production value this year. Other machinery categories, including plastic & rubber processing machines, woodworking machines, textile machines, and mechanical components and parts, will also enjoy substantial annual growth in production value this year, Yang said.

He noted the machine-tool industry would see annual output top NT$1 trillion (US$29.49 billion) in the next few years, because manufacturers in this line are rushing to develop high-tech production equipment to meet the demand by nanotechnology, optoelectronics, semiconductor, and biotechnology industries.

Yang is also the president of both Goodway Machine Corp. and Awea. He said both companies would launch construction of new production facilities in the Central Taiwan Science Park, respectively, sometime in the first quarter of next year. At the prospective new production site, Goodway will strive to develop precision lathes and machining centers and Awea will focus on the development of high-speed and large-sized five-axis machining centers. After the new production facilities begin mass production, both companies will see annual production value reach NT$6 billion (US$176.99 million).

Y.T. Hsu, vice president of Tong-Tai, said his company would kick off construction of a new plant in Southern Taiwan Science Park in the beginning of December this year. Tong-Tai will invest NT$400 million (US$11.79 million) to build the new production facility.

Tong-Tai will challenge NT$10 billion (US$294.98 million) in annual sales in the next few years. To that end, the company will set up a research and development center in Japan and employ some Japanese marketing experts to help it expedite overseas sales.

In addition, other listed firms in this line, including Taiwan Takisawa Machinery Co., Falcon Machine Tools Co. and Roundtop Machinery Industries Co., will make all-out efforts to develop large-sized, complex and high-precision machine tools.