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Organized by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) and the Taiwan External Trade Development Council (TAITRA), the 27th Taipei International Machine Tool Show (TIMTOS) was held from Monday March 4th to Saturday March 9th at the Nangang Exhibition Center. Based on the number of exhibitors and booths, TIMTOS is now the third largest machine tool show in the world. Another interesting development is India is now the overseas market with the most potential for Taiwanese machine tools.

The topic of this year’s show was “Industry 4.0 & Smart Manufacturing.” According to figures compiled by TAMI, 1,230 companies exhibited in 7,000 booths this year, a record-breaking number that’s almost a thirty percent increase over the previous year. TIMTOS has surpassed the China International Machine Tool Show (CIMT) and the Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF) as the third largest machine tool show in the world, lagging behind only EMO Hannover in Germany and the International Manufacturing Technology Show in Chicago, U.S.A.

Among the many exhibitors from abroad, Switzerland and Germany had their own national pavilions as always, while the U.S., Denmark, and Turkey rolled out their own national pavilions for the first time this year. This proves more and more nations are investing in TIMTOS.

In 2018, Taiwan exported 3.7 billion U.S. dollars’ worth of machine tools, an increase of 9.5% over 2017.

China and Hong Kong remain the top two markets for Taiwanese machine tools, accounting for 32% of all exports. But due to China’s slowing economy and trade war with the U.S., the value of exports increased by only 1.3% in 2018. Taiwanese manufacturers are looking for new markets; the next nine biggest markets are the U.S., Turkey, India, the Netherlands, Thailand, Germany, Vietnam, Japan, and Italy.

It’s noteworthy that while only 4.3% of the exports went to India, the value of exports in 2018 increased by 44%, making it the fastest growing market for Taiwanese machine tools. India was the eighth biggest market in 2016; last year, it surpassed Vietnam, Thailand, and Germany to become the fourth largest. At this rate, it will soon overtake Turkey to rank among the top three.

The main reason is because Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been a big proponent of “Made in India” since taking office in 2014. His plan to increase manufacturing from 16% to 25% of India’s GDP has increased demand for machine tools. What’s more, since India is now the fourth largest automobile market on the planet, the automotive industry is also driving demand for machine tools.

According to the Indian Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association, India is already the eighth largest market for machine tools in the world. Because domestic machine tools satisfy less than half of their demand, supply from around the globe is pouring into India, causing the import of machine tools to grow by 26% in 2018.

Translated by Jack C.

Edited by Sharon Tseng