The Taiwan government will strive to develop a "smart" machinery industry hub in the Greater Taichung area in Central Taiwan by accelerating the upgrading of Taiwan's machine tool industry.

Taiwan has been making machine tools even before industrialization began in the early 1950s. For more than 60 years, Taiwan's machine tool industry has not only proven to be profitable, but has also established itself as a strong industrial manufacturing hub as it is a time-tested and reliable center for regional commerce, exporting hundreds of thousands of machine tools and related components to the global market.

Taiwan's machine tool industry is recognized for its strength, good service, and flexibility, and includes a large number of top-notch machine tool manufacturers. As for competitiveness, Taiwan's machine tool industry characterizes teamwork. Aside from making the main metal cutting machine tools and metal forming machine tools, manufacturers also make other industrial equipment, such as lathes, EDMs, components, cast iron, tool magazines, and other products. Manufacturers have allied with noted vendors to facilitate supply to the global market.

Taiwanese machine tool suppliers are skilled in customized machine construction, building according to specific requirements. Taiwan suppliers not only sell their machines to the global market, but also help the buyers by providing information regarding the equipment they wish to purchase. With the substantial technical know-how offered by these suppliers, purchasers are able to save in R&D and at the same time move closer to their target market.

With their capability to develop their own components, Taiwanese suppliers are able to manage the whole production process with very little reliance on imported foreign technology; well-managed services are also a significant perk for global customers.

Taiwan has a large number of top-notch machine tool manufacturers, most of which are clustered in Taiwan's central region. As many as 633 plants are located in the Greater Taichung area, including Hiwin Corp., Tongtai Machine & Tool Co., Yeong Chin Machinery Industries, Awea, and Goodway Machine Corp..

Taiwan's biggest machine industry cluster is located in the Greater Taichung area and is known as the "Golden Valley," covering an area of 60 square kilometers and hosting tens of thousands of factories. The "Golden Valley" of machine tool manufacturers has worldwide influence and an annual output of NT$900 billion. It is estimated that at least 350 thousand professional experts work in this region, dedicated to the field of metalworking, from upstream to downstream.

With the goal of developing smart machinery, Taiwan suppliers are preparing themselves for the Industry 4.0 version of manufacturing. Taiwanese people are now developing corresponding cloud computing, industrial sensors, and data transmission systems for the visualization of manufacturing procedures. In the ICT sector, Taiwanese companies commonly achieve Industry 3.0 by remote control in their manufacturing, and in the near future, it will be the 4.0 version that the machine tool suppliers use to keep up with the latest global trends.

Overall, the growth of Taiwan's machine tool industry lies more in the high-tech industry than in the traditional manufacturing sector, allowing producers to explore products with higher margins.