China's machine tool industry will continue to maintain growth during the first half of 2012

Taking metal processing machines as an example, it imported 7.59 billion US dollars in 2011; exported 2.11 billion U.S. dollars; consumed 19.44 billion U.S. dollars; and the domestic market share continued to increase, reaching 61%. In the comprehensive ranking of the world's machine tools in 2011, China ranked sixth, two more than in 2010. In the first half of this year, China's machine tool industry will continue to maintain a relatively rapid growth, laying the foundation for stable growth throughout the year. The slowdown in the growth rate in the second half of the year, especially at the end of the year, was the first time that single-month increases were in single digits. Monthly output of metal-cutting machine tools has continued to increase negatively since July, and the annual sales rate of products has been lower than that of the previous year. It can be seen that the impact of the financial crisis on China's machine tool industry is increasingly evident.

Affected by the sluggish domestic and foreign markets, this year's corporate inventory is 30% higher than the normal year, an increase of 18.7% over the same period of last year. Therefore, in the second half of the year, companies started to restrict production or even stop production to ease the pressure on inventory, and inventory is decreasing month by month.

In terms of exports, China’s machine tool exports in 2011 were US$7.13 billion, up 37.1% year-on-year. The main products driving the rapid growth of China’s exports are abrasives, cutting tools and machine tool parts. The total exports of these three categories of products totaled US$3.36 billion, accounting for 47.2% of the total exports of machine tools, and contributed 54% to the growth of exports. The processing machine tool accounted for 29.5% of the total, and the export growth contribution rate was only 23.6%.

In terms of imports, the total import value of machine tools in 2011 was US$ 12.29 billion, an increase of 4.4% year-on-year, representing an increase of 1.3% from the previous year. Metal processing machines accounted for more than 60% of the total imports of machine tools, reaching US$7.59 billion, an increase of 7.3% year-on-year. The top three products in terms of imports were processing centers, grinding machines and special machine tools, which were 2.09 billion, 990 million and 740 million U.S. dollars, respectively, an increase of 20%, 7.4%, and -0.9% year-on-year.