Taiwan’s machine tool exports fell sharply in 2013 despite a general improvement in the global economy in the second half of the year, preliminary statistics indicate.

Machine tool exports were down 16.2 percent from a year earlier to US$3.55 billion because of weak global demand for machine tools amid an economic slowdown, said Carl Huang, secretary-general of the Taiwan Machine Tool and Accessory Builders’ Association, on Tuesday.

Despite the sharp decline in Taiwan’s machine tool exports, "we didn’t perform that badly when compared with other countries such as Japan and South Korea," Huang said.

Taiwan would have fared even better had Japan not secured orders from Southeast Asian countries because of its weak yen, he added.

Huang was cautiously optimistic that the industry will rebound in 2014 because of expectations that the global economy will grow at a faster pace, driven by developed economies.

But he warned that the recovery would not be as strong as the one seen after the end of the 2008 financial crisis.

In 2013, China remained the largest export destination for Taiwan’s machine tools, accounting for 33.6 percent of total exports, but purchases from Taiwan plunged 20.3 percent from the previous year to US$1.19 billion, the statistics showed.

Machine tool exports to the United States, Taiwan’s second-largest machine tool export market with a 11.3 percent share in 2013, fell 24.5 percent, the biggest decline of any region, to US$402.71 million last year.

Rounding out Taiwan’s top 10 machine tool export markets were Thailand, Turkey, Germany, Indonesia, South Korea, Russia, Malaysia and Holland, in that order.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel