Industrial and Commercial Times Zhuang Fu'an/Exclusive interview

Faced with the continuous increase in production capacity of the Japanese company Sodick's mainland factory and the Suzhou Sanguang Factory, a joint venture between Mainland and foreign investors, my country's electrical discharge machine products have been losing ground in the mainland market this year, and the industry's export sales performance is generally poor. In an exclusive interview, Wang Wuxiong, chairman of CHMER, the leading domestic wire cutting machine company, pointed out that the most urgent task for the domestic industry is to prevent the spread of wire cutting machine production technology to the mainland to avoid being copied in large numbers by mainland companies; in addition, efforts should be made to develop higher-grade wire cutting machines. Cutting machines can prevent the international market from continuing to fall. The following is the transcript of the interview.

Question: Wire-cut machines are the most expensive models in the electrical discharge machine industry. Do you think higher-grade wire-cut machines should continue to be developed to maintain the competitiveness of the Taiwanese industry? Can you elaborate further?

Answer: Mainland companies have a low-cost advantage and have already suffered a lot from Taiwanese companies in the field of electric discharge processing machine products. If they are allowed to obtain the technology to follow the wire cutting machine market, Taiwanese companies will completely lose the market. Taking CHMER as an example, in addition to strictly preventing wire cutting machine production technology from leaking to the mainland, it also developed new linear motor wire cutting machine products and invested in the research and development of water jet cutting machines with faster cutting speeds, hoping to let competitors compete with mainland China. It is beyond the reach of the industry.

Q: How is the domestic electrical discharge processing machine industry performing this year? What are your views on the economic outlook for next year?

Answer: In the face of the rise of mainland companies and Japanese companies setting up factories in the mainland for mass production, the export value of Taiwan's electrical discharge machines in the first three quarters only increased by 2% compared with the same period last year. Compared with the export sales of lathes, machining centers and other products, the export value increased by more than 10%. The performance pales in comparison; due to the uncertainty of the industrial climate next year, the electric discharge processing machine industry is expected to have a growth rate of only 5 to 10% at most.

Q: How was the sales performance of Taiwan's wire cutting machines last year? Ranked globally?

Answer: Last year, the global sales volume of wire cutting machines was about 9,300 units, and Taiwan accounted for about 1,100 units, ranking third in the world after Japan and Switzerland, and ahead of countries such as Germany and Spain.