Taiwan’s machine-tool exports in the first half of this year alone increased 9.4% from a year earlier to US$2.09 billion, according to Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI).

The association’s statistics show that the Taiwan industry’s exports to the United States in the first half surged to 11.9% of its total, to US$131 million, up from 6.9% in the same half of last year. The U.S. is Taiwan’s No.2 market for the machines.

Exports to Thailand in the first half increased at annual rate of 84.7%, to account for 6.1% of the island’s total exports of the machines. Thailand has become Taiwan’s No.3 export destination for the machines.

Although mainland China remained Taiwan’s biggest market for machine tools in the first half, the mainland absorbed US$709 million worth of Taiwan-made machine tools, dwindling 14.5% from US$830 million of a year earlier. In the meantime, the mainland accounted for 34% of Taiwan’s total exports of machine tools, down form 43.4%. The mainland has since 2006 imported over 40% of the Taiwan machines.

According to Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders’ Association Secretary General J.C. Huang, Taiwan’s exports of the machines in the first half of this year to Indonesia and Malaysia remained steady and to Germany and Holland were satisfactory.

In spite of the first half growth, Taiwan’s machine-tool makers are cautious about business of the next six months, estimating exports for the whole year to stay on par with last year’s US$4 billion level.

Nevertheless, TAMI Secretary General C.C. Wang estimated that Taiwan’s machine tool exports would rise 5% to US$4.2 billion by the end of this year.

Although many of the island’s machine-tool makers suffered impact from reduced exports to mainland China, the recession did not take much toll on AWEA Machantronics Co., Ltd., Goodway Machine Corp. and Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Ltd. mostly thanks to their market spread strategy.