Despite a hike in raw material prices and tight supply in cargo shipping services, Taiwan's machinery outbound sales still moved higher by 30.7 percent from the previous year to US$2.22 billion in March, TAMI said.
The country's machinery exports rose 22.5 percent to NT$81.92 billion for the month, TAMI added.
Data compiled by TAMI showed that electronic equipment exports soared 135.2 percent from a year earlier to US$532 million in March, topping other segments in the machinery industry, ahead of inspection equipment exports, which totaled US$385 million and power transmission equipment exports, which hit US$225 million.
The machine tool segment came in fourth after posting US$223 million in exports, up a meager 0.2 percent from a year earlier, the data indicated.
In the first three months of this year, Taiwan's machinery exports grew 27.4 percent from a year earlier to US$7.62 billion. Outbound sales rose 20.1 percent to NT$215.97 billion in Taiwan dollar terms.
In the three-month period, TAMI said, electronic equipment exports totaled US$1.16 billion, up 57.8 percent from a year earlier, to make up 15.3 percent of the total, followed by inspection equipment with US$1.07 billion in exports and power transmission equipment with US$598 million.
China served as the largest buyer of Taiwanese machinery in the first quarter after purchasing US$2.47 billion-worth of goods to account for 32.4 percent of Taiwan's total, ahead of the United States with US$1.62 billion and Japan with US$491 million, TAMI said.
In addition to the top three markets, South Korea, Singapore, the Netherlands, Germany and Hong Kong were also among the important buyers of Taiwanese machinery, TAMI said.
TAMI said that as the global economy is expected to rebound sharply this year, Taiwan's machinery exports could hit US$30 billion in 2021, while production value of the industry could breach the NT$1 trillion mark this year.
