According to the statistics of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (VDW), despite the reduction in German machine tool orders and order inventories in the first half of the year, output and imports and exports still increased year-on-year, the growth rate slowed down, but employment and capacity utilization were better than the same period of last year.

1. Order Reduction In the first half of 2012, the order book for the German machine tool industry was EUR 7.96 billion, a decrease of 13% year-on-year. Among them, domestic orders were 2.78 billion euros, down 6% year-on-year; foreign orders were 5.18 billion euros, down 17% year-on-year. Inventories for orders in June were 8.4 months, which was lower than the 9.5 months in the same period of last year; the inventory for annual average orders was 8.6 months, which was lower than the 9.1 months of the previous year.




2. Slower increase in output value In the first half of the year, the total output value of the German machine tool industry was 6.5 billion euros, which was a year-on-year increase of 13%, an increase of 18 percentage points from 2011. The machine tool output value was 4.87 billion euros, an increase of 16% year-on-year, an increase of 18 percentage points. The output value of cutting machine tools was 3.58 billion Euros, an increase of 19% year-on-year, and the growth rate slowed by 19%; the output value of forming machine tools was 1.29 billion Euros, an increase of 8% year-on-year, an increase of 17% from 2011. The output value of the annexes was 1.14 billion euros, an increase of 7% year-on-year, an increase of 14 percentage points from 2011. Assembly, maintenance and installation of 490 million euros, an increase of 6% year-on-year, an increase of 16 percentage points.




3. Both export rate and import rate increased In the first half of the year, the gross output value of German machine tools (excluding assembly, maintenance, and installation) was 6.01 billion euros, an increase of 14% year-on-year, 17% slower than in 2011, and an export of 4.50 billion euros. The growth rate was 27%, which was 4 percentage points lower than in 2011; import was 1.52 billion euros, an increase of 19% year-on-year, and the growth rate was slowed by 23%; domestic consumption was 3.03 billion euros, unchanged from a year earlier, and the growth rate slowed by 37 points. The export rate (export/output value) was 74.8%, an increase of 7.8 percentage points month-on-month; the import rate (import/domestic consumption) was 50.0%, an increase of 7.6 percentage points from the previous quarter.

4. Capacity utilization rate improvement In the first half of 2012, the utilization rate of the entire machine tool industry in the German machine tool industry was 95.9%, which was higher than 93.3% in the same period of last year. The number of employed people was 68,808, an increase of 6.0% over the same period of last year, which was 3.3 points faster than the increase in 2011.

5. Significant increase in exports to the United Kingdom and Mexico In the first half of 2012, German machine tools exported 1.14 billion euros to their largest exporter, China, which was a year-on-year increase of 15%, an increase of 19 percentage points from 2011, accounting for total exports. The proportion is 25.4%, which is a decrease from 2011. Among them, 1.08 billion euros were exported to China's machine tools, an increase of 17% year-on-year, and machinery accessories exports were 62 million euros, a year-on-year decrease of 17%.

The United States and Russia remain the second and third largest markets, with exports of 500 million euros and 220 million euros respectively. The Czech Republic ranks fourth, reflecting the trend of the German machine tool industry increasing production bases in Eastern Europe. The United Kingdom ranks fifth . The increase in exports to Mexico remains as high as 163%, which is a drop from the 387% increase in the first quarter.

The main export market of German machine tools in the first half of 2012


6. Imports of machine tools imported from the Czech Republic In the first half of 2012, the top five importers of German machine tools were still Switzerland, Japan, Italy, the Czech Republic and the United States. China jumped from seventh to sixth, and machine tools imported from China increased by 38% year-on-year, and its share in the import market increased to 4.3%.

The main import market of German machine tools in the first half of 2012


The number of machine tools imported from the Czech Republic increased by 67%, of which imported machine tool products increased by 87% and imported machine tool accessories increased by 36%.

7. Significant increase in exports of gear cutting machine tools In metal cutting machine tools, Germany's main export products are machining centers, lathes, grinders, laser, discharge and ultrasonic machining machines, and gear machines. In the first half of 2012, Germany's export processing center was 770 million euros, an increase of 44% year-on-year, a 6 percentage point slowdown; the export grinder was 440 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 19%, a 16 percentage point slowdown; and export lathes were 420 million euros, a year-on-year increase. 11% slowed by 25 percentage points.

Among the forming machine tools, bending, folding, and straightening machine tools (including stamping machine tools) were the main export products. In the first half of 2012, exports were 280 million euros, an increase of 82% year-on-year, an increase of 30 percentage points.

8. The import of lathes is greatly reduced. The products of metal cutting machine tools imported from Germany are mainly lathes, machining centers, laser, discharge and ultrasonic machining machines. In the first half of the year, the import processing center was 230 million euros, an increase of 2% year-on-year, and the increase rate dropped by 60 percentage points; the import processing center was 180 million euros, an increase of 33% year-on-year, and the growth rate slowed by 39 points; imported laser, discharge and ultrasonic processing machine tools 160 million. The euro fell by 5% year-over-year, compared with a 49% increase in 2011. Imports of bending, folding, straightening machine tools (including stamping machine tools) for 66.1 million euros, an increase of 14%, an increase of 9 points slowdown.