Machine Tool Industry: Imports Strongly Rebound Fine-tuned Export Pattern
Import rebound showed strong demand for high-end
Data show that in January this year, China's machine tool import growth reached 20%. This data has caused many industry insiders to make eye contact. The domestically-made machine tool that has already occupied half of the domestic machine tool market will continue to spur progress this year, but does not want to make imported machine tools take the lead in the first year.
Fortunately after February, the increase in machine tool imports gradually stabilized at 10%. From January to May, the total value of machine tool imports was 4.9 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 11.8%, which was still 5.3% higher than the same period last year. Metal processing machine tools imported 2.96 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%.
The China Machine Tool Industry Association’s marketing department believes that whether the strong rebound in machine tool imports in the first five months of this year is related to the state’s implementation of a series of policies to promote trade balance and encourage the import of advanced technologies and equipment remains to be further observed, but one thing is certain: The continuous increase in imports indicates that the domestic market still has a large demand for high-end machine tools.
According to statistics, the three types of products, including gold-cutting machine tools, molding machine tools and numerical control devices, accounted for 74% of the total imports of China's machine tool products. The following table shows the import status of various small industries.
It should be noted that the statistics on the “drawing tool†tariff number has been removed this year. As a result, a negative growth of 37.44% has occurred in the cutting tool, and the trade in the “CMM†tariff number has been added to the measuring tools, resulting in a measuring instrument. Surging 2.5 times, removing incomparable factors, the actual import of measuring instruments increased by 36.7% year-on-year.
Among the gold-cutting machine tools, machining centers, grinders, special-purpose machine tools and lathes are still the most imported products, accounting for approximately 80% of the total imports of gold-cutting machine tools; forming machines, forging or stamping machine tools, punching machines, forming bends Imports of machine and shear machine tools accounted for about 70% of the import value of forming machine tools.
Among the imported machine tools, the unit prices for drilling, boring, and broaching fell more significantly, dropping by 49%, 33%, and 20%, respectively, while the average import unit prices for forging or stamping machine tools, gear processing machines, and grinding machines increased significantly.
Although the growth rate of domestic CNC machine tools has slowed down and the market demand has decreased, the import volume of functional components and other products has remained at a high level, indicating that domestic production of medium and high-end machine tools has grown rapidly. For example, China's numerical control device imports increased by 68.9% in the first five months. Imports of machine tool fixtures, abrasives, and machine tool components all maintained double-digit growth.
Export structure optimization
In the first five months of this year, the export of machine tool products still maintained rapid growth, the proportion of numerically controlled machine tools in total volume increased, and the proportion of ordinary low-value-added machine tools decreased, indicating that the export structure has been further optimized. The China Machine Tool Industry Association’s marketing department believes that the exchange rate imposes certain pressure on export companies and is also a factor that forces companies to increase the added value of their export products.
Data show that in the first five months of this year, total machine tool exports reached 2.74 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 51.4%. Among them, metal processing machine tools exported 810 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 36.7% over the same period last year, an increase of 3 percentage points year-on-year. CNC machine tools exported 260 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 55.85% year-on-year, accounting for 31.7% of the value of metal processing machine tool exports.
Among the gold-cutting machine tool exports, CNC machine tools accounted for 47.9% (29.9% last year), low-value machines such as bench drills, sawing machines, polishing machines, and grinders accounted for 24.9% (37.8% last year); the growth rate of export of forming machine tools decreased significantly. , from 79.5% last year to 49.5%, of which CNC machine tool exports accounted for 21.3%, unchanged from the same period last year.
The four small industries that have the largest impact on China's machine tool industry are gold-cutting machine tools, abrasives, cutting tools and machine tool parts, and their exports account for two-thirds of the total exports of machine tools. The specific situation is shown in the table below. Except woodworking machine tools, the unit prices of other export products in various small industries have increased.
Due to the lack of growth in the international market, the appreciation of the renminbi against the US dollar, the increase in raw material prices, and the increase in labor costs, the export pressures companies are facing are increasing.
On the other hand, China's export market is also quietly changing. The United States is the largest market for China’s machine tool exports. However, in the first quarter, China’s machine tool exports to the United States have seen negative growth; but at the same time, the markets in India, Brazil, Russia, and South Korea have grown rapidly, which has ensured the growth of China's machine tool product exports.
Wu Bolin, director-general of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, believes that with the increasing share of emerging markets such as India in China's machine tool export market, the export market has formed a diversified new pattern.