A series of new changes and new difficulties, such as the overall shrinking market size, rapid upgrading of demand structure, overcapacity and rising costs, have made the machine tool industry, which has entered the downtrend channel since 2012, unable to shake off the downturn. A series of new changes and new difficulties, such as the overall shrinking market size, rapid upgrading of demand structure, overcapacity and rising costs, have made the machine tool industry, which has entered the downtrend channel since 2012, unable to shake off the downturn. At the International Forum of CEOs of Machine Tools and Tools Manufacturing, sponsored by China Machine Tool Industry Association, dozens of industry leaders from home and abroad gathered to discuss how to meet the new future of industry development in a new and changing environment.

The machine tool industry is facing a severe situation, and the development environment is undergoing significant changes in many aspects. Chen Huiren, executive vice president of China Machine Tool Industry Association, pointed out that on the one hand, the total market demand has dropped significantly, the industry's ten-year violent growth has ended, and the market tends to be rational; second, the demand structure of machine tools has rapidly increased, and users have high precision and high speed. The demand for high-efficiency and intelligent mid-to-high-end CNC machine tools has increased significantly. Compared with the past, the requirements are higher and more demanding.

According to data from China Machine Tool Industry Association, in the first three quarters of last year, the cumulative import value of machine tool products decreased by 19.3% year-on-year, of which metal processing machine tool imports decreased by 24.0%, and Jinqie machine tool imports decreased by 25.7%. In 2009, affected by the global financial crisis, the import volume of machine tools reached a double-digit drop for the first time in the past 10 years.

A large number of domestic companies are not prepared to deal with these changes. Taking the small-cutting machine industry as an example, the statistics of the key enterprises of the China Machine Tool Industry Association show that from January to November last year, when the sales revenue decreased by 7%, the total profit decreased by 82.1%, and the sales profit margin was only 0.65% indicates that the business situation of the company has deteriorated, the profit level has dropped significantly, and some enterprises have been at a loss.

The transformation and upgrading has been said for many years and has achieved remarkable results, but no fundamental breakthrough has yet been made. Chen Huiren said that some enterprises are still accustomed to the past administrative means to promote transformation and development, but the situation has changed. In the future, more industry transformation will rely on market forces to force it.

It should also be noted that some industry benchmarking companies have achieved initial results in the transformation and upgrading under the new situation through solid efforts in innovation and service. Following the order of five large-scale stamping production lines in Ford Motor's two US factories in 2011, the sixth large-scale press line project won by Jinan No. 2 Machine Tool shows that the international competitiveness of some machine tool companies in China is also constantly improving.

Development under the new situation requires new ideas. Long Xinyuan, chairman of Qinchuan Group, combined with Qinchuan's development experience, said that it is necessary for industry players to analyze the cost structure clearly. At the same time, the business structure must correspond to the cost structure. In addition, the business structure must correspond to the market structure, especially the international market. On the one hand, stick to their own superior products, on the other hand, combined with their own characteristics to enter into some market segments where competition is not particularly fierce.

Participants also expressed concern about the current industry's excess production capacity and the resulting vicious competition. According to the data, in the last round of economic stimulus, the number of enterprises in the machine tool industry has expanded rapidly. In 2011, the number of metal cutting machine tools was 1,070, and the output was about 400,000. By 2013, it had reached 1,264, an increase of 18.1%. The output can reach 850,000 units, an increase of 112.4% compared with 2011.

The production capacity is really too big and it is difficult to see hope. Long Xinyuan quoted the history of the US machine tool industry as saying that there are more than 500 companies in the most prosperous period in the US machine tool industry, and now there are only a few dozen, and there are no more than 10 in real scale. He reminded companies in the industry to face up to the status quo of the industry and to make early plans for transformation in combination with their own reality.

According to industry insiders, with the further blurring of domestic and international market boundaries and the technological advancement of domestic machine tools, the mid-end machine tool market has become a hot spot for competition. At the same time, the high-end machine tool import growth has not changed due to domestic high-end demand; The development of line-up equipment, intelligent manufacturing islands, digital workshops, manufacturing services, etc. has not yet formed a scale advantage, which will be the goal of China's machine tool industry to face new changes and create a new future.