The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) yesterday called on the government to help with technology, research and talent support, as well as other measures, as the industry faces a multitude of challenges.
“The industry has been facing challenges stemming from the US-China trade dispute, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, rising raw material prices and climate change in the past few years,” TAMI chairman Larry Wei (魏燦文) said at an event in Taipei, while presenting a report to the government.
Vice President William Lai (賴清德) and senior adviser to the president Shen Jong-chin (沈榮津) were among the government officials in attendance.
Photo: Lin Jin-hua, Taipei Times
“We hope the government can help foster a better academia-industry environment for collaboration and assist association members in cultivating talent and improving international marketing. We also expect to obtain subsidies for the development of homegrown machinery and equipment and other government support for sustainable operations,” Wei said.
The machinery industry plays an indelible role in Taiwan’s economy, TAMI said, adding that it consists of more than 14,000 firms with 270,000 employees.
Due to a global economic slowdown, the nation’s machinery exports last year fell 15.3 percent year-on-year to US$29.47 billion, while its total production value plummeted 16.5 percent to NT$1.21 trillion (US$38.33 billion), it said.
Last month, machinery exports grew 8.2 percent year-on-year, ending 17 consecutive months of declines, which Wei said was a “sign of life” amid an improvement in the global economy, adding that he expected the industry to show a “gradual recovery” throughout this year.
Overall production value this year is expected to recover to the 2022 level of about NT$1.45 trillion, he said, citing a pickup in orders for machine tools, plastic and rubber machines, as well as woodworking and metal cutting tools.
TAMI projects three major goals for the machinery industry by 2035: Doubling the annual production value to NT$3 trillion, achieving an added value rate — which is the ratio of added value to production value — of more than 35 percent, and elevating production value per capita to NT$6 million.
To achieve these goals, the association has proposed measures to help its members better engage with customers, enhance their presence in foreign markets and improve the industry’s global competitiveness, it said.
In a small town in Paraguay, a showdown is brewing between traditional producers of yerba mate, a bitter herbal tea popular across South America, and miners of a shinier treasure: gold. A rush for the precious metal is pitting mate growers and indigenous groups against the expanding operations of small-scale miners who, until recently, were their neighbors, not nemeses. “They [the miners] have destroyed everything... The canals, springs, swamps,” said Vidal Britez, president of the Yerba Mate Producers’ Association of the town of Paso Yobai, about 210km east of capital Asuncion. “You can see the pollution from the dead fish.
SELL-OFF: Investors expect tariff-driven volatility as the local boarse reopens today, while analysts say government support and solid fundamentals would steady sentiment Local investors are bracing for a sharp market downturn today as the nation’s financial markets resume trading following a two-day closure for national holidays before the weekend, with sentiment rattled by US President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff announcement. Trump’s unveiling of new “reciprocal tariffs” on Wednesday triggered a sell-off in global markets, with the FTSE Taiwan Index Futures — a benchmark for Taiwanese equities traded in Singapore — tumbling 9.2 percent over the past two sessions. Meanwhile, the American depositary receipts (ADRs) of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the most heavily weighted stock on the TAIEX, plunged 13.8 percent in
A wave of stop-loss selling and panic selling hit Taiwan's stock market at its opening today, with the weighted index plunging 2,086 points — a drop of more than 9.7 percent — marking the largest intraday point and percentage loss on record. The index bottomed out at 19,212.02, while futures were locked limit-down, with more than 1,000 stocks hitting their daily drop limit. Three heavyweight stocks — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), Hon Hai Precision Industry Co (Foxconn, 鴻海精密) and MediaTek (聯發科) — hit their limit-down prices as soon as the market opened, falling to NT$848 (US$25.54), NT$138.5 and NT$1,295 respectively. TSMC's
MULTIFACETED: A task force has analyzed possible scenarios and created responses to assist domestic industries in dealing with US tariffs, the economics minister said The Executive Yuan is tomorrow to announce countermeasures to US President Donald Trump’s planned reciprocal tariffs, although the details of the plan would not be made public until Monday next week, Minister of Economic Affairs J.W. Kuo (郭智輝) said yesterday. The Cabinet established an economic and trade task force in November last year to deal with US trade and tariff related issues, Kuo told reporters outside the legislature in Taipei. The task force has been analyzing and evaluating all kinds of scenarios to identify suitable responses and determine how best to assist domestic industries in managing the effects of Trump’s tariffs, he
RSS