Here is the English translation of the text:
The machinery and machine tool industries are both in the "front row of the tsunami," bearing the brunt of the dual impacts of tariffs and currency appreciation, yet their fates are vastly different. The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) estimates that driven by strong demand from the semiconductor industry and the motivation for replacement and upgrading in other sectors, exports of electronic equipment and inspection/measurement equipment will grow. As a result, the total export value of machinery is expected to see an annual increase of 5% to 10% this year. Conversely, the machine tool industry is still awaiting orders for the fourth quarter, and it is feared there may be a wave of layoffs and factory closures by the end of the year.
Since the implementation of U.S. reciprocal tariffs, the machine tool industry has been hit far harder than the broader machinery industry. Several business owners, who wished to remain anonymous, complained that while Taiwan's semiconductor and ICT product exports to the U.S. continued to grow in the first three quarters, the negative consequences of the trade surplus with the U.S. are being borne by the machinery and machine tool sectors, which run a trade deficit. As the 20% U.S. reciprocal tariff on Taiwan continues to compound, Taiwanese machine tool exports to the U.S. reversed and began to decline starting in July. With a lack of orders, machine tool factories have successively reported implementing unpaid leave.
Although two machine tool companies, Baide and Taiwan Takisawa, applied to cancel their unpaid leave programs in August and September respectively, the number of machine tool firms implementing "work four, rest three" unpaid leave schedules has only increased. A supervisor at Fuyu confirmed that orders for their grinding machines are currently slow. Although the company has over NT$200 million in orders on hand, this has not yet reached their standard. The company applied to the Changhua County Government for reduced working hours in the fourth quarter of last year and has not yet lifted the measure.
TAMI President Chuang Ta-li pointed out that Taiwan's machinery exports for the first three quarters reached US$23.259 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%. This was primarily due to increased demand from the semiconductor and other industries for electronic and inspection/measurement equipment for replacement and upgrading. However, machine tool exports for the first three quarters amounted to US$1.522 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 6.4%. The fourth quarter has historically been weaker for machinery exports, and Chuang remains conservative about the Q4 outlook, forecasting that full-year machinery export growth will be at least 5%.
Industry insiders revealed that for the majority of the machine tool industry, there are no clear signs of improvement in orders or exports for the fourth quarter. Some smaller-scale machine tool and component manufacturers have already shut down, either because they are unwilling to operate at a loss or because there is no second generation willing to take over the business. It is even rumored that some machine tool operators in central Taiwan are hanging red banners outside their factories to sell the properties.
