The global decline in machinery demand his year has hit Taiwanese exports, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, Taipeh; www.tami.org) says. In the first eight months of 2009, all machinery exports fell nearly 39% year-on-year to a value of USD 7.1 bn (EUR 4.7 bn). The setback for plastics was nearly 40% to USD 456m.

Taiwan’s plastics machinery output in 2008 was valued at USD 1.3 bn, with hardware worth USD 1.1 bn exported. At the same time, plastics machinery worth some USD 320m was imported, so that the domestic market had a value of around USD 560m.