Taipei, April 21, 2008 (CENS)--Thanks to the increased demand of the European and emerging markets, Taiwan`s leading manufacturers of machine tools, including Awea Mechantronic Corp., Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Goodway Machine Corp., and Shieh Yieh Machinery Industry Co., are gearing up to expand production in the second quarter of this year.

The above-mentioned machine-tool manufacturers, except Shieh Yieh, saw outstanding performance in the first quarter. Tongtai, for instance, witnessed its sales shoot up 50% year-on-year in the first quarter, but Shieh Yieh suffered a 20% sales decline due to delayed orders from foreign customers and a high comparison base last year.

Tongtai attributed its outstanding performance in the first quarter to the sales growth in the European Union, Eastern Europe and Russia. In addition, the company scored orders for 140 units of printed circuit board drilling machines in the first quarter, double that of last year. The company is optimistic about this year`s operations as it currently has NT$2.884 billion (US$94.65 million at US$1:NT$30.2) worth of orders in hand.

Edward Yang, president of Awea and Goodway, said both companies would be able to achieve a 20% annual sales growth this year. In the next two or three years, both companies will see combined sales amount to NT$10 billion (US$331.12 million) yearly.

Awea and Goodway posted NT$6.62 (US$0.22) and NT$6.6 (US$0.218) in earnings per share last year, respectively. Each of them will dole out dividends of NT$4 (US$0.13) in cash and NT$0.5 (US$0.016) in stock to shareholders this year.

Shieh Yieh posted NT$3.11 (US$0.1) in EPS last year. The company`s board of directors has resolved to grant dividend of NT$1.25 (US$0.041) in cash and NT$0.6 (US$0.019) in stock this year.

Despite the mounting pressure from foreign exchange losses, domestic leading machine-tool manufacturers still posted handsome operating profits in the first quarter of this year. For instance, Tongtai scored an average gross operating profit margin of 21%, translating into pretax earnings of NT$72.42 million (US$2.39 million), or NT$0.43 (US$0.014) in earnings per share, in the first two months of this year, up 55.9% year-on-year. But the company suffered a foreign exchange loss of NT$10 million (US$331,120) in the first two months of this year.

Shieh Yieh scored NT$53.58 million (US$1.77 million) in pretax earnings, or NT$0.52 (US$0.017) in EPS, in the first two months of this year. The company said it raked in gains of NT$29.11 million (US$963,900) from overseas investments in the first two months.


(by Ben Shen)