European machine tool makers are optimistic about the Chinese market

At the European Machine Tool Exhibition (EMO) that ended in September, the reporter felt that European machine tool manufacturers attached great importance to the Chinese market. First, at the press conference held on September 16th, the president of the European Machine Tool Association, Martin Karp, spent nearly one-third of the time introducing the Chinese market. The content of the survey was a survey commissioned by the association. Second, on September 17, the China Machine Tool & Tool Industry Association held a press conference at the EMO site. In addition to promoting domestic exhibitions, the executive vice chairman of the association, Chen Huiren, also introduced the situation of the domestic machine tool market. The conference was packed with seats. Many foreigners stood listening to the introduction.

How to look at the current difficulties After more than a year of market downturn, the confidence of domestic machine tool manufacturers has been hit, and many people have been confused about the future. Why, then, is the interest of European, especially German, multinational companies in the Chinese market still so strong?

See more or look at the shorts? Have to speak with data. At the press conference, Chen Huiren said that in the first half of this year, the Chinese machine tool industry continued its downward trend for the entire year of 2012. It is still in a downward range, but the downside has narrowed significantly and the operation has become more stable. As of the end of June this year, the production and sales volume of metal processing machine tools decreased by 10.5% year-on-year; the export of metal processing machine tools increased by 1.7% year-on-year.

At the same time, new orders for enterprises continue to be in a downward trend. The key monitoring company data shows that in the first half of this year, new orders for metal processing machine tools reached 23.37 billion yuan (about 3.9 billion US dollars), a year-on-year decrease of 6.0%. The contradiction of overcapacity is even more prominent.

Chen Huiren believes: “Overall, the global economic rebalancing and the slowdown in China’s economic growth have had a profound and profound impact on the Chinese machine tool industry. After experiencing more than 10 consecutive years of rapid growth, due to the market environment With significant changes in other growth factors, the industry is facing and is undergoing a severe test of adjustment and transformation.In fact, the industry has begun to enter a new stage of development, a development stage characterized by adjustment and transformation as the main features. The transition period in the development stage is also the painful period of adjustment and transformation.The development environment changes bring pressure and challenge to the industry development, but also provides the industry with the best opportunity to adjust and transform. The mechanism that he will create will be Industrial restructuring and transformation provide a strong external force."

Under the background of the slowdown in China's economic growth, China's machine tool market has undergone significant changes, and its outstanding features are manifested in two aspects, namely, a significant reduction in total demand and an accelerated demand structure upgrade.

In the first half of this year, China's total import of metal processing machine tools was US$5.26 billion, a decrease of about 17% year-on-year, and the magnitude of the decline was very rare, reflecting the sluggish demand for total machine tool market in China. At the same time, the number of high-end machine tools that Germany, Italy, and the United States exported to China in the first half of the year has maintained a substantial increase.

This is not difficult to explain why European machine tool manufacturers attach great importance to the Chinese market. Despite the fact that demand in the Chinese market has declined compared to the past decade of gold, one fact that cannot be overlooked is that, at present, China is the largest machine tool producer in the world and the largest machine tool consumer market in the world. Output value and consumption amounted to 14.7 billion euros and 23.9 billion euros, respectively.

At the same time, China is also Germany's most important export destination, accounting for about 30% in 2012.

Chen Huiren said: "From the perspective of long-term development, we have reason to hold optimistic expectations for the Chinese machine tool market. This is mainly based on several considerations."

First, there is no change in the fundamentals of the long-term prosperity of the Chinese economy. The process of industrialization, informatization, new-type urbanization and agricultural modernization in China is far from being completed. The development process in the central and western regions is still in its infancy. These processes will inevitably provide broad space for China's economic growth, and at the same time it will inevitably provide a huge and sustained market demand for the machine tool industry. Therefore, China will maintain its position as the world's first machine tool market for a long time.

Second, the new government of China is determined to seek new development momentum for the Chinese economy through reforms, and to vigorously promote economic restructuring and structural adjustment through reforms so as to achieve long-term sustainable development of the Chinese economy. Observers at home and abroad have noticed that since the establishment of the new government in China, expectations for reforms have been significantly enhanced, and the pace of reforms has been markedly accelerated. In many important areas, reforms have begun to enter deeper waters. This kind of positive policy orientation will undoubtedly stimulate the vitality of social innovation and enhance the power of economic development. This will inevitably provide sustained market demand and a favorable industrial development environment for the development of the real economy, including the machine tool industry.

Thirdly, despite the economic downturn in the first half of this year, the Chinese government has not introduced a large-scale stimulus plan but has issued a series of more comprehensive measures. These measures are not only conducive to current economic growth, but also conducive to long-term structural adjustment. Now, the effect of the above-mentioned comprehensive measures has begun to appear. Since the beginning of August, the Chinese economy has shown signs of stabilization. The Chinese government is confident of achieving the goals of economic and social development throughout the year and maintaining the momentum of long-term sustainable economic development.

Foreign companies in the eyes of the Chinese market, the European Machine Tool Association president Martin Karp in the report analysis, Chinese machine tool manufacturers mainly for the domestic market, their technical bottlenecks reflected in innovation, talent and key components. Thus, he predicted that Chinese machine tool manufacturers will give priority to cutting costs, increasing production efficiency, and upgrading technology.

He comprehensively analyzed China's competitors from multiple dimensions.

Technically, most Chinese suppliers consider that they have a significant gap with foreign competitors, especially their quality and stability are not accepted by high-end machine tool customers.

In research and development, Chinese suppliers are aware of the importance of technological competitiveness and are actively developing their independent research and development capabilities. They have also established good technical cooperation with universities and suppliers, but have rarely cooperated with third-party technical experts.

In terms of assembly, the lack of quality labor has become an obvious challenge for Chinese suppliers; Chinese competitors have the ability to produce most of their accessories, but there are still some parts that must be imported to protect overall performance.

In terms of sales and service, Chinese companies have good service capabilities within China, but there are almost no direct services overseas. Usually Chinese suppliers provide one-year warranty and on-site service within 24 to 48 hours for local customers.

In terms of internationalization, most Chinese companies are still targeting the domestic market, while pursuing opportunism on export issues and relying on overseas sales agents to provide sales and services. The report also believes that Chinese companies have almost no interest in or participate in overseas mergers and acquisitions in the short and long term.

In contrast, the German machine tool companies. Although the technical advantages of German machine tools are universally recognized, end users have seen where they need to improve their services compared to their Chinese counterparts.

He analyzed that technology upgrading was highly valued by Chinese companies and was used as a strategy to compete with major foreign competitors. The technological gap between Chinese companies and foreign counterparts will gradually decrease, especially in lathes. However, the gap in the processing center area will still be very high. Big.

For Chinese companies, cost reduction is planned, but most major parts are still imported, especially for high-end machines. This is done to ensure long-term accuracy, reliability, and stability.

China's machine tool industry is diversified and large-scale manufacturers not only produce machine tools but also produce parts. The future growth strategy will still be dominated by China's domestic market, and organic organic growth is a secondary goal. Chinese companies add value to their customers through services and use this as their competitive advantage. At the same time, Chinese companies rely heavily on the government’s support through preferential policies and generous subsidies.

Martin Karp also introduced European companies to the Chinese government’s industrial policy on the machine tool industry. He pointed out that at present, the Chinese government strongly supports sustainable development strategies and has issued relevant policies and guidance aimed at guiding the development of the machine tool industry.

The report noted that in recent years, the Chinese government has issued a series of policies and guidelines for supporting the machine tool industry. The 12th Five-Year Plan of the machine tool industry focuses on transforming China from a mass-producing country to a high-tech one. Producing countries.

Since 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has issued specific policies to support and subsidize Chinese companies to develop high-end machine tools. Government subsidies account for 30% of the total project investment, and are given in the form of incentives, loans, interest subsidies for borrowing, and tax rebates. For example, Shenyang Machine Tool, as the largest machine tool manufacturer, received a large government subsidy.

In addition to the support policies of the Central Government, different levels of governments across the country have also formulated a series of special policy regulations based on local conditions, such as Liaoning Province. State-owned enterprises receive more government subsidies than private enterprises, and the amount of subsidies allocated to private enterprises is limited.

He also mentioned that the economic cooperation framework agreement between the mainland and Taiwan consolidates the competitiveness of Taiwanese manufacturers in the Chinese machine tool market, especially in the low-end market and aftermarket.

Based on the investigation of the Chinese market, German industry has put forward a call for action aimed at optimizing services, localized R&D, and application support.