June 6, 2007 -- Thanks to the rise of Brazilian currency and the depreciation of the New Taiwan dollar against the U.S. greenback, exports of Taiwan-made machine tools enjoyed a whopping 79% year-on-year growth to reach US$17.3 million in the first quarter of this year. Of the Taiwan-made machine tools exported to Brazil in the first quarter of this year, the highest-growth items included machining centers, lathes, and pressing machines.

Gary Yang, director of the exhibition section under the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI), said a standard 1.1-meter machining center can be sold at US$114,000 in Brazil while it is quoted at only NT$1.2 million (US$36,360 at US$1:NT$33) in Taiwan. If relevant import taxes are excluded, the Taiwan-made machine tool exported to Brazil is quoted US$74,500 FOB (free on board) on average, 90% higher than that quoted in Taiwan.

Yang noted over the past few years, manufactures of machinery, aerospace and automobile parts in Brazil have shown strong interest to procure Taiwan-made machine tools which have obtained good image there. In addition, the purchasing power in Brazil has been raised in the wake of the appreciation of Brazilian currency against the U.S. greenback.

Because of the price competitiveness and good quality seen in Taiwan-made machine tools, many distributors of Brazil are scrambling to struggle for the agent rights of Taiwan-made machine tools. For instance, DEB/MAQ is the agent for distributing the machines made by Falcon (Chevalier) Machine Tools Co. and You Ji Machine Industrial Co.; Terrettini has obtained the sales agents from Victor Taichung Machinery Works Co., Chian Chang Machine Co., Wang Tzyy Machine Factory Co., and Ray Feng Machine Co.; Mega Group, Brazil’s largest machine-tool distributor, has the exclusive rights to distribute the machine tools made by Fair Friend Enterprise Co., Far East Machinery Co., Yu Shine Precision Machine Co., Chin Fong Machine Industrial Co., Dees Hydraulic Industrial Co., and Poly Gim Machinery Co.

Although Brazil saw a decline in imports of machine tools last year, it still increased procurement of Taiwan-made machine tools. According to statistics compiled by the TAMI, Taiwan saw a 13.2% year-on-year growth in exports of machine tools to Brazil with a market share of 9%, last year.

Source: Taiwan Economic News
Source: Factiva