Revenues from the nation’s machine tool makers grew 15.8 percent annually to NT$149.4 billion (US$4.74 billion) last year, as demand rose amid the improving US economy and demand for industrial automation increased in China, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday.

“The impressive annual growth of Taiwan’s machine tool industry was also supported by a boom in the international automobile industry and growing domestic investments last year,” a ministry official said by telephone.

The Industrial Development Bureau said it expects the production value of the machine tool industry to grow at least 10 percent to more than NT$160 billion this year, fueled by sustained demand for industrial automation in the US and China.

Increasing export orders from Europe will also help the industry, the official told the Taipei Times.

Machine tool makers have to keep a close watch on currency changes and the potential impact of the Beijing-Seoul free-trade agreement, but at the same time, domestic manufacturers should improve and upgrade their products to stand out from their Japanese and South Korean peers, the ministry said.

The official said that many Taiwanese machine tool makers have been developing computer numerical control in a bid to meet rising demand for industrial automation and to improve competitiveness.

“An efficient way to cope with currency volatility or trade tariffs is to make our products more competitive globally,” the ministry said.

The machine tool industry accounted for 20 percent of the machine industry’s revenue, the Department of Statistics said in a statement yesterday.

Last year, revenues of the nation’s machine industry jumped 10.7 percent to NT$664.7 billion, the ministry said, adding that the strong performance of the machine tool industry contributed 3.4 percentage points to the growth.