Taiwan’s Machine Tool Makers Enjoy Swarming Orders

Taipei, Nov. 20, 2012 (CENS)--After undergoing sales recession in October, Taiwan’s machine tool makers as a whole have begun seeing business rally again with swarming orders that are estimated to keep production lines of some of the manufacturers running at full capacity until the end of the fourth quarter.

Last month, most of the island’s leading machine tool makers reported revenue contraction due chiefly to weak demands in mainland China. They included Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd., Shieh Yih Machinery Industry Co., Ltd., Roundtop Machinery Industries Co., Ltd., Falcon Machine Tools Co., Ltd., AWEA Mechtronic Co., Ltd., Goodway Machine Corp., Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Ltd., Kao Fong Machinery Co., Ltd. and Taiwan Takisawa Co., Ltd.

Although many of them are conservative about business outlook for this quarter and next, they are not pessimistic in light of increased orders secured for this month and next.

AWEA, Goodway, Kao Fong, Falcon and Taiwan Takisawa have even landed orders that will keep their production lines humming until the end of the fourth quarter and begun taking orders for the first quarter of 2013.

Executives of AWEA and Goodway said the two companies together secured NT$200-300 million (US$6.8-10 million at US$1:NT$29) or orders at a machine tool trade fair recently held in Taichug, central Taiwan. AWEA is Goodway’s subsidiary.

Goodway now has NT$700 million (US$24 million) of orders in hand, which will keep its production running at full capacity in the coming two months. AWEA has so far secured NT$900 million (US$31 million) of orders.

Victor Taichung executives pointed out the company landed some NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) in orders during the Taichung show and is still tracking two potential deals.

Kao Fong executives pointed out that the company has recently received orders for 30 small-size machining centers from buyers in mainland China and its mainland Chinese dealers have secured at least NT$300 million (US$10 million) of orders.
http://news.cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_42109.html

Taiwan’s Machine Tool Makers Fear Revaluating NT Dollar to Erode Profit

Taipei, Oct. 8, 2012 (CENS)--While remaining profitable in August and September, most of Taiwan’s machine tool makers are worried that continued appreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the U.S. dollar would erode their profit into the fourth quarter.

Executives of Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd., AWEA Mechantronic Co., Ltd., Kao Fong Machinery Co., Roundtop Machineries Co., Ltd. and Falcon Machine Tools Co., Ltd. pointed out that they will become profitless as long as the NT dollar soars past the level of NT$29 for US$1, and will begin seeing loss escalate when the local currency rises above NT$28 against US$1.

They noted that they were still profitable in September, although the NT dollar advanced to NT$29.345 against US$1 in late September, compared with the exchange rate of NT$29.5 they adopted for their exports and quotation in August and September.

Taiwan Takisawa Co., Ltd. announced it had pre-tax earnings of NT$19.8 million (US$678,327 at US$1: NT$29.3) and its core business had profit of NT$20.5 million (US$702,866) in August alone. In the Jan.-Aug. period, the company’s core business had total earnings of NT$126.4 million (US$4.3 million) and its pretax earnings were NT$134.1 million (US$4.5 million), or NT$1.89 per share.

Taiwan Takisawa executives said the company’s August revenue increased from a month earlier and a year ago, due partly to a 3-10% hike in export quotation set in March last year and partly to tight grip on costs. They said the company suffered tens of thousands of NT dollar in foreign exchange loss in August, with the loss increasing in September as a result of continued appreciation of the NT dollar.

Tongtai executives pointed out that the after suffering around NT$600,000 (US$20,477) in foreign exchange loss in August the company might still witnessed further forex loss as the NT dollar continued rising.

Falcon executives noted that although the company had foreign exchange loss in August and September, the loss was not significant. They added that the company had secured tens of millions of U.S. dollar worth of orders at the International Manufacturing Technology Show 2012 in Chicago, held in early September.

Kao Fong executives also said the company forex loss was only minor in August and September. Orders from mainland China, they said, began climbing, to around NT$100 million (US$3.4 million) in September alone.

AWEA executives pointed out that the company might have slight loss in foreign exchange in September after breaking even in the exchange in August.

Roundtop executives pointed out that the company might record foreign exchange loss in the third quarter while having slight loss in the change in August. They said the company has so far secured around NT$400 million (US$13.6 million) worth of orders.

http://news.cens.com/cens/html/en/news/news_inner_41658.html

Chinese eye German machine tool group MAG-sources

Chinese companies are eyeing German machine tool group MAG, two sources close to the transaction said on Monday, in a sign appetite remains high among Chinese groups for the acquisition of German industrial know-how. State-owned Shenyang Machine Tool (SMTCL) confirmed it is in talks to acquire Goeppingen-based MAG, while two sources close to the situation said rivals such as Dalian (DMTG), Quier Machine Tools and YierMT Group are also looking at the asset. Separately, private equity investors such as Triton and DBAG are also looking at the group, which last year posted sales of 900 million euros ($1.1 billion) and employs 3,500, one source said. "After a successful evaluation phase, we are in talks with a large number of qualified potential bidders from around the globe," a MAG spokesman said. The companies and the private equity firms declined to comment. Chinese companies have already this year scooped up a number of German groups to gain access to technology, brands and worldwide distribution. In April, Xuzhou Construction Machinery Group (XCMG) agreed to buy a majority stake in privately-held machinery manufacturer Schwing, following a similar deal a few weeks earlier, when car parts maker Hebei Lingyun acquired car door latches specialist Kiekert. In January, Sany Heavy Industry said it would buy Schwing rival Putzmeister in a 360 million euro ($443.1 million) deal, and LDK Solar invested in solar group Sunways. GLOBAL GROUP Were it to purchase MAG, it would not be the first investment in Germany for Shenyang's SMTCL, which ranks itself among the seven largest machine tool manufacturers in the world. In 2004, the group acquired German heavy-duty machine tool builder Schiess. MAG was built into a global machine tool group by American investor Eng Mo Meidar, who from 2005 scooped up ailing subsidiaries of companies like steel conglomerate ThyssenKrupp and KUKA and restructured them. In May this year, Eckhard Cordes, a former executive at Daimler and Metro, took the helm as MAG chairman to lead the recovery of the maker of machine tools for the durable-goods industry. Goldman Sachs has been mandated to look for a buyer for MAG Europe and MAG Americas - which may be sold separately - with first bids expected by September, the MAG spokesman said, adding: "We hope to find a buyer by October." MAG Europe, which accounts for two thirds of the group's sales, could attract a price tag of about 250 million euros, another source said. MAG IAS, which delivers 80 percent of MAG Europe's sales, posted a 2011 loss of 52.4 million euros. http://in.reuters.com/article/2012/07/09/maggroup-china-idINL6E8I96CO20120709

Germans Revamping Machine Tool Tradition

The lathe and milling-machine tools that German company Gildemeister wants to produce in Russia are so sophisticated that the plan required a security clearance from the German government.
The technology has a dual purpose, meaning that it can be of interest to the defense industry, and the permit took two years to obtain — even with the support of the two countries' ambassadors, said Gunter Bachmann, a top executive at the company.
Construction of a plant outside Ulyanovsk — which will initially produce machine tools for aircraft and automakers — will hopefully start in August, he said.
Russia is one of the top 10 countries with the highest demand for metal machining tools at a time when President Vladimir Putin has enunciated a goal of a reindustrialization.
"A machine that works on metal is the beginning of any manufacturing," Bachmann, a member of Gildemeister's executive board, said in an interview.
A local plant will allow the company, a global leader in the sector, to save on transportation costs of the equipment that weighs upward of five metric tons and on customs procedures. No foreign machine-tool builders have production units in Russia at present.
Gildemeister, which has plants across Europe and in China, aims to produce 1,000 machine tools per year in Russia to add to its current annual output of 7,000 units, he said.
The 20 million euro ($25 million) plant, which is expected to crank out the first tools by 2014, will eventually contract Russia-based suppliers for basic parts, but will rely on imports of Siemens computer controls for the foreseeable future.
The reasons for choosing Ulyanovsk include its proximity to Gildemeister's customers — aircraft maker Aviastar and Ulyanovsk Automobile Plant, part of Vadim Shevtsov's carmaker Sollers.
Aviastar plans to ramp up output of the Ilyushin-76 jet and its latest modification, and start mass manufacturing of Tupolev-204 SM passenger jetliners. The auto plant is undergoing an upgrade.
Gildemeister's equipment is used to manufacture auto parts and plane engine parts among other things.
The Ulyanovsk region government agreed to provide tax breaks for a period that is still a matter for negotiation, Bachmann said. He lauded Governor Sergei Morozov for support with such things as purchasing land for the plant and securing required permits.
"We were told that things like that could last very long," Bachmann said. "In Ulyanovsk, they happened instantly."
Eduard Malilov, a marketing manager at the Savyolovsky Machine-Tool Building Plant, conceded that the Germans, like other Western producers in the sector, were a formidable rival.
"It's difficult to compete with the Swiss and the Germans when it comes to quality," he said at the company's booth at an industry exhibition.
Savyolovsky, located 130 kilometers from Moscow in the Tver region, also sells to Aviastar — and sometimes the same type of tools as Gildemeister, he said. Another rival on the market is equipment from China that comes at bedrock prices, he said.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/business/article/germans-revamping-machine-tool-tradition/459534.html#ixzz1wvQ6O82l

New & Used Machine Tools, Industrial Magnets & Manufacturing Machines Introduced by ILG

The Midwest region of the U.S. is home to a number of world class manufacturers, and the area is the latest marketplace for IndustrialLeaders.com to showcase its Quality Systems (QS) program to boost American manufacturing. Today, the company introduced its latest suppliers of quality approved machine tools, magnetic equipment and industrial machinery at:

http://www.industrialleaders.com/listings/machine_tools.html - New & Used Machine Tools.

http://www.industrialleaders.com/listings/machinery_semiconductor.html - Manufacturing Machinery.

http://www.industrialleaders.com/listings/magnets_magnetic_equipment.html – Industrial Magnets.

The machines currently being offered on Industrial Leaders, according to the company spokesperson Carson Daniels, includes a variety of CNC machines, horizontal machining centers (HMCs), vertical machining centers (VMCs), precision grinders, drills, boring mills, EDM machines (new and used) as well as pressbrakes, metalworking equipment, CNC machinery and other machines for broaching, cutting, grinding, boring, die casting, toolmaking, prototyping, forging, gearing, centerless grinding, testing, shearing, stamping, turret punching, welding, workholding, measuring, milling, painting, coating, surface finishing, 3, 4, & 5-axis machining and other processes. According to Daniels, most of the machine tool dealers on the site offer both new and used CNC equipment for metal fabrication, sheet metal work, plastic molding, foundry casting and other industries. In addition to the newly added machinery dealers, IndustrialLeaders.com also increased offerings for various magnets such as rare earth, permanent magnet, electromagnets as well as manufacturers of custom-made Alnico, SmCo, NdFeB, ceramic and ferrite magnets and allied products. Buyers and suppliers of such items are welcome to post and explore offering at www.IndustrialLeaders.com.

About Industrial Leaders

Founded in 2003, Industrial Leaders is a publisher of over 192 specialized industrial directories as well as several B2B marketplaces, forums, buying guides, social networking sites and other resources for the manufacturing community. The company focuses primarily on promoting U.S. manufacturers worldwide. Domestic and foreign companies looking to purchase industrial supplies, equipment and machinery utilize the site to locate suitable suppliers in the United States serving national and international markets at http://www.IndustrialLeaders.com.
http://www.pr.com/press-release/416827

Machine tool industry trade deficit widens to $11.39b in '11

The fundamental reason why trade deficit of the machine tool industry continues to expand is that China's machine tool industry has yet to shake off the development pattern that is largely characterized by scale expansion. With contradiction between the quickened upgrade of the demand structure in the domestic market and the supply capability of the industry, it's necessary for the industry to take faster steps towards the high-end market. 

According to statistics published by China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association recently, in 2011, China imported US$20.29 billion of machine tool products, an increase of 29.3 percent over the previous year; China exported US$8.9 billion machine tool products, an increase of 26.4 percent year on year.

These foreign trade numbers of machine tool industry show two things: first, with international markets recovering to various extents and emerging markets' demands for China's machine tool products going up, the export of China's machine tool products goes back up encouragingly, creating a new high record since 2008; second, China's import of machine tool products continues to grow at a rapid pace, import volume continues to increase, which is also at historic high, and export and import deficit of the machine tool industry has been broadening for the past 3 years. 

China is a large producer of machine tools, but foreign trade of the machine tool industry has always been in deficit. In 2001, the trade deficit of the machine tool industry grew bigger, the basic cause being the significant increase of import, with both the growth rate and the base volume of import bigger than those of export. China imports mainly medium- to high-end metal-cutting machine tools and molding tools that have rather high added value, but what China exports most are tools, props, grinding tools and abrasives; a large part of these exports are low-priced and low-end products and raw materials. The price difference between imported products and exported products doesn't help to reduce the deficit, either. 

"The fundamental reason why trade deficit of the machine tool industry continues to expand is that China's machine tool industry has yet to shake off the development pattern that is largely characterized by scale expansion", said Wang Liming, vice standing chairman of China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association. Mr. Wang points that although the production volume of China's machine tool industry has been large in the past years, the level of its products structure is rather low; it is still at the low end of the global industrial chain, unable to meet medium- and high-end demands in the domestic market; the medium- and high-end markets, particularly the latter, in China is dependent on import, and medium- and high-end numerical control systems and main function parts that are also highly dependent on import; these problems still exist.  

The gradual expansion of trade deficit has also resulted in the slipping inclination of the market share of Chinese machine tools in the domestic market, despite that demands in the domestic market have been growing at a faster pace. According to statistics, in 2011, the market share of domestic machine tools was 66.1 percent, 0.8 percent lower than that in the previous year.

"The contradiction between the accelerated upgrade of the structure of market demands and the supply capability of the industry has become the main contradiction that impedes the development of China's machine tool industry", said Wang Liming, who points out that presently users' demands for medium- to high-end products have increased markedly, but the technical level, overall service quality, and other factors of medium- to high-end domestic products are still unable to meet the requirements of the change.

In future market competition, international machine tool tycoons will continue to take advantage of high technology and use medium-end products that are assembled at low cost through high technology to impact the Chinese market. Therefore, China's machine tool industry must make efforts in medium- and high-end machine tools as soon as possible, and take faster steps towards the high-end market. According to the 12th Five-year Plan of the machine tool industry, the targets by 2015 is to enable domestic numerical control machine tools to take up 70 percent of the domestic market, increase the market share of domestic medium- to high-end numerical control systems in the domestic market from 20 percent to 50 percent, and increase the share of medium- to high-end function parts from 5 percent to 20 percent. 

So, China's machine tool enterprises should accelerate the reform of development pattern, unswervingly follow the development path that centers on inner strength development and technology advancement, and continue to improve enterprises' comprehensive competitiveness. 

http://en.ce.cn/Insight/201204/19/t20120419_23256668.shtml

Artmetal to Produce Machine Tools in Ethiopia

Artmetal is expanding into the production of machine tools and local ferric finished products to fill a perceived need in the market in Ethiopia according to Seid Hassen, General Manager of Artmetal parent company, Wide Business plc.
Artmetal was previously engaged in just the import of iron which costs much less than importing finished machine tools he said.
The Artmetal Supply and Ferric Processing and Engineering Factory in Alem Gena was expanded at a cost of 18 million birr to increase its production capacity to 600 cubic meters of ferric products monthly. 
The company was initially formed with a 3.5 million birr capital investment and offered employment to 40 permanent and 30 temporary employees.
In related news, Artmetal parent company, Wide Business plc s set to establish an agro-commercial farm in the Southern Regional State of Ethiopia, under newly established Bura Agro Integrated Company.
The conglomerate has invested about 25 million birr in integrated agro-commercial irrigation farming on 428 hectares and expects to launch cotton farming on a further 400 hectare plot of land said Seid Hassen, General Manager of the Wide.
The company also anticipates investing in horticulture farming on 28 hectares of land he added.
Wide has used 10 million of the money it had allocated for land and plans to begin planting next year.

http://www.2merkato.com/20120301957/artmetal-to-produce-machine-tools-in-ethiopia