21% of imported machine tools come from strong growth of Germany-Germany machine tool trade

At the 2011 China International Machine Tool Show (CIMT) held in Beijing on April 11th and 16th, 156 machine tool companies from Germany made a high profile appearance, with a net exhibiting area of ​​8,600 square meters. Gerhard Hein, Marketing Director of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (VDW), stated at the press conference of the German Association of Machine Tool Manufacturers: “The German Pavilion has once again set a new historical record.” At this exhibition, German exhibitors will be The Chinese industrial sector is fully demonstrating innovative products and solutions. The products include machine tools, laser and non-laser sheet metal processing technologies, control systems, cutting tools, production meters and gripping tools for the cutting and non-cutting industries.

The strong interest of the German machine tool manufacturers in CIMT has proved that China is its most important sales market. The machine tool trade between China and Germany has achieved significant two-way growth in recent years. In 2010, China ranked seventh among the important machine tool suppliers in the German industrial sector. The crackdown on the financial crisis in 2009 delayed the upward trend of China's supply, but it returned to the growth track in 2010. The total import amounted to approximately 74 million Euros, an increase of 50% over 2006, mainly including spare parts, fittings and lathes. .

China is the world's largest machine tool market and the largest importer of machine tools. Of the machines imported in 2010, 21% came from Germany. This means that Germany is the second largest supplier of machine tools in China's industrial sector after Japan. Germany’s machine tool exports have doubled since 2006 and are relatively small due to the global economic and financial crisis. Almost half of the growth was achieved in 2009 and 2010. The latest machine tools deliver 1.7 billion euros. These are all supported by a product portfolio with a broad technical base, including machining centers, grinding machines, honing machines, lapping machines, polishing machines, and gear processing machines.

The Chinese market is an important driving force for the German machine tool industry. VDW believes that China will continue to be the driving force for the future development of the German machine tool industry. Gerhard Hein expressed optimism about the good development of the global macroeconomic situation in the future. He believes that the industrialization and infrastructure upgrades in the development market led by China will continue to require high capital investment and a concomitant increase in demand for top-level production technologies. And these technologies are not limited to Germany.

German machine tool industry output is expected to increase by 30% this year. This means that it is recovering from the global financial crisis at a faster than originally expected. Since the end of 2009, the industry has achieved double-digit growth in quarterly orders. Initially, driven by China, South Korea and India, demand from overseas stimulated the German machine tool trade. "This has contributed to the global expansion of the German machine tool industry with a high export ratio (2/3) and an international reputation for good returns on advanced technology," commented Gerhard Hein. The situation of economic recovery has gradually promoted the demand for domestic machine tools. Since then, the entire machine tool industry in Germany has benefited from the growth in global demand.

Increasing reliance on German machine tools in China's industrial sector All along, German manufacturers are global technology leaders, and today they will continue to strengthen this competitive advantage. For example, one obvious choice is to transfer production skills from one area to another. Medical technology and aviation industry are markets with certain potential. In these two industries, there is a very strict and highly specialized demand for related products, and these demands can only be met with high-precision production technologies. "This is a German manufacturer's expertise to provide their customers with the complex solutions needed to maintain a competitive advantage in the global market," said Hein.

The same applies to the future automotive industry. The optimization of electric vehicles, hybrid drives, and traditional internal-combustion engine engines is indeed a reliable partner for all involved changes because it provides a complete solution for production technology.

It is true that the demand for machine tools will also change. The necessity of climate change and reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is causing people to pay close attention to sustainability issues in production operations. The machine tool plays a key role in it. In order to develop new solutions for sustainable and efficient production systems, many companies are working closely with their suppliers.

Gerhard Hein pointed out that most German medium machine tool manufacturers have invested a considerable proportion of their turnover in R&D. For example, the proportion of investment in the economic crisis in 2009 accounted for 4.3% of the total. With innovation, they produce new products and services that benefit customers around the world. At the same time as accomplishing the above-mentioned results, we have also given sufficient respect to the intellectual property rights of our partners. “We attach great importance to the protection of inventions and patents. We hope that our global partners will share the spirit of effective cooperation with us,” said Gerhard Hein.