Affected by the factors such as the slowdown in macro-economic growth, the decelerated growth of fixed-assets investment, and rapid capacity expansion of downstream sectors in the early stage, China’s machine tool industry has showed a significant decline since 2011. In 2012-2013, the output of metal working machine tools in China dropped by respectively 7.0% and 6.1%. This is particularly true of metal cutting machine tools, whose output fell by 7.3% and 8.9%, respectively.
In the past two years, the weakened demand from the domestic market has led to a decline in imports, with the import volume of metal working machine tools in 2013 falling by 31.4% from a year ago, the first double-digit decline in China's machine tool imports for the past decade except the 2009 financial crisis.
Meanwhile, the import structure of China's machine tool products also changed significantly. The demand for high-precision, high-speed, highly efficient, and intelligent medium and high-end CNC machine tools has increased remarkably. In 2013, this kind of machine tool was largely imported by machining centers (horizontal-type, vertical-type, and gantry-type), with the full-year import value amounting to USD3.38 billion. That was followed by laser process machines and CNC horizontal lathes, etc.
In the first half of 2014, China’s machine tool industry continued to present low growth, but the output rose considerably and the exports turned from negative to positive. It is predicted that machine tool industry for the whole year will return to 2011 levels.
Amid sluggish recovery of the global economy and downturn of China's machine tool market, many foreign companies are stepping up the layout in China. In 2013, Yamazaki Mazak’s new plant in Dalian was completed and put into production; DMG MORI SEIKI’s plant in Tianjin was opened; the German company Trumpf acquired a 72% interest in Jiangsu Jinfangyuan CNC Machine Co.,Ltd. In 2014, ROTTLER worked with Shandong Yonghua Machinery Co. Ltd. to jointly build precision machine tools under the brand name of ROTTLER?YONGHUA in an attempt to develop China’s high-end machine tool market, such as aerospace, shipbuilding, automobiles, and rail transit.
On the other hand, the domestic machine tool enterprises have accomplished transformation and upgrading by adjusting product structure, extending industrial chain, expanding overseas market, and innovating technologies. In 2014, DMTG, together with a third party, established a CNC machine tool company in Russia; SMTCL independently developed i5 numerical control system and achieved mass production; Qinchuan Machine Tool Group completed overall listing; Spark Machine Tool proposed to bring in AVIC’s equity investment.
