Taipei, Oct. 27, 2011 (CENS)--Despite the lingering Euro debt crisis and tepid U.S. economy, Taiwan’s machinery industry posted exports of US$15.4 billion in the first three quarters, up 28% year-on-year, according to statistics compiled by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), of which machine tool exports totaled US$2.95 billion.

The TAMI attribute such outstanding exports of machine tools to the cross-Taiwan Strait economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA), which includes most domestically made machine tools for prioritized duty reductions.

TAMI president C.C. Wang predicts exports of Taiwan-made machinery will exceed US$20 billion this year based on monthly exports to be between US$1.7 billion and US$1.8 billion from September to December.

The TAMI’s tallies show Taiwan exported US$320 million of machine tools in September, up 25% year-on-year, with quarterly exports of such products to be between US$300 million and US$350 million in the fourth quarter. Wang admits that export growth of domestically made machine tools will not likely be high in the fourth quarter due to high comparison of last year, but believes such exports to exceed US$4 billion this year.

Although many European firms have slashed investments by cutting procurement of capital goods, Taiwan’s machine-tool manufacturers still see influx of orders for being able to supply products with high price-to-performance ratios.

Taiwan’s machine-tool industry saw exports to Germany grow 158% year-on-year in the first three quarters, with exports of domestically-made machinery to Germany growing 75% year-on-year.