Why can't China's machine tool industry dance?

After the heavy-duty machine tool industry in China has undergone technological transformation and product development exercises in recent years, both the production capacity and the product technology level have made great progress, but there are still a lot of deficiencies compared with foreign products. The biggest differences are the technical level and operating speed of the core operating components, the product accuracy retention, the reliability of the machine tool, and the overall level and quality of the machine tool manufacturing process.

“The reason why many users favor imported products is not because the performance of domestic products cannot be achieved, but because the performance of domestic machine tools is unstable and the quality is not guaranteed. Although the purchase of domestic machine tools is a lot cheaper, but the use of domestic high-end machine tools is scared, even The quality of the domestic high-end machine tools, the huge gap between the basic components, functional components and numerical control systems is a major cause of disasters, and urgently needs to focus on accelerating improvement.” Recently, in the 11th At the press conference of China International Machine Tool Show, the vice president of China Machinery Industry Federation Cai Weici and other industry officials bluntly stated that there is still a big gap between the technological level of China's machinery industry and the international advanced level, and it still requires functional components and numerical control systems. The basic product area will focus on improving and shortening the gap.

Say goodbye to rapid growth and enter the strategic transition In the Chinese machinery industry, the machine tool industry is in a special position in the “parent machine” industry. Most of its demand orders come from various types of enterprises in the machinery industry; at the same time, its level is also in various industries in the machinery industry. The upgrade has special significance. Therefore, the development of the machine tool industry depends not only on the overall development of the Chinese machinery industry, but also on the healthy development of the entire industry.

Compared with the situation in China's machinery industry, the changes in the machine tool industry and the contradictions faced in the past year were all more pronounced. Data from the China Machinery Industry Federation shows that during the 10 years of the “10th Five-Year Plan” and “Eleventh Five-Year Plan”, the Chinese machine tool industry achieved a sustained ultra-high speed development. Until the first half of 2011, the demand was still very strong. Machine tool companies are in a state of exuberant production and sales; but from the second half of last year, demand growth has slowed down significantly, new orders have fallen sharply, economic conditions have gradually become severe, and profit margins have continued to decline. Despite the rapid growth in the first half of the year, the growth rate of the total output value of China's machine tool industry last year fell from nearly 39% at the beginning of the year to 32.5% at the end of the year, and the profit growth rate has dropped dramatically from 57.5% at the beginning of the year to 29.8% at the end of the year. It can be seen that the situation of the Chinese machine tool industry changed drastically last year.

Cai Weici believes that the cooling of the demand situation is not the only problem, and that the inadequacies of the Chinese machine tool industry are at work. "That is, the product structure of the Chinese machine tool industry does not meet the needs of users."

According to the data, in 2011, China's machine tool industry imported 20.7 billion U.S. dollars, while exports accounted for 7.3 billion U.S. dollars, and the import and export deficit was as high as 13.4 billion U.S. dollars. It can be seen that the demand for China's machine tools and tools is objective. It is only that the domestic machine tool companies cannot fully satisfy it; if it can achieve the basic balance between imports and exports, the Chinese machine tool industry could increase another 13.4 billion US dollars last year (equivalent to nearly 100 billion yuan. ) Sales. Last year, the trade deficit between China's machinery industry and the world’s recognized mechanical industrial powers Germany and Japan were as high as 49.2 billion U.S. dollars and 57.8 billion U.S. dollars, respectively; last year, the average export price of CNC machine tools in China was only 33,000 U.S. dollars per unit, while the import unit price was 219,000 U.S. dollars. USD/Taiwan, the export price is only 15% of the import; "All these kinds of things, have clearly told us that China's machinery industry's technological level and the international advanced level there is still a big gap." Cai Weici frankly.

Consolidating basic technologies to tackle high-end machine tools “The machine tool industry is not only an important part of the basic industry, but also an important foundation for ensuring the healthy development of strategic emerging industries.” Shi Yong, director of the Information and Research Institute of Machinery Industry Information Institute, believes that the global financial crisis and the economy Since the recession occurred, the United States, Europe, Japan, Russia and other countries and regions have taken a closer look at the development strategy in order to cope with the crisis, recover the economy, and seize the future development. They are continuously accelerating the "reindustrialization" and nurturing the development of new products. The strategic emerging industries supported by technologies such as energy, energy conservation and environmental protection, bio-medicine, new materials, new generation information networks, smart grids, and marine airspace are re-establishing industrial systems led by strategic emerging industries globally. “The equipment manufacturing represented by the machine tool industry is the driving force for China’s new round of economic cycles, or the central link for the development of strategic emerging industries.”

In addition, as China's low-cost comparative competitive advantage no longer exists, accelerating the development of the machine tool industry, robotic automated production line equipment is an inevitable requirement to participate in global industrial competitiveness. China's machine tool industry is facing dramatic changes in market demand. The scientific development of China's machinery industry and the entire national economy is changing the status quo of "quantity" and "quality" in the past for a long period of time. It will be used as a "working machine" in the future. The machine tool industry will put forward higher and higher levels and quality requirements, and “attacking the high-end, ramming foundations” has become the main direction of the future structural adjustment of the Chinese machine tool industry. If the machine tool industry does not respond positively, it will inevitably fall into a dilemma of continued decline. .

Cai Weici stated that the huge import and export deficit indicates that the demand for high-end machine tool products in China exists objectively and will continue to grow rapidly. If the Chinese machine tool industry can transform excess mid- to low-end production capacity into high-end production capacity that meets user needs, especially in the Basic functional areas such as functional components and numerical control systems can focus on efforts to shorten the gap. The competitiveness of the Chinese machine tool industry will be significantly improved, and the international status of China's machine tool industry will certainly be further improved.

The so-called "high-end", Cai Weici stressed that not only refers to the high parameters of the host performance, but also should include the high quality of the product. "In addition, the high-end is not limited to tangible products, but it should also include the ability to provide users with complete solutions." He called for Chinese machine tool companies to be closer to users, eager for the user's urgency, in-depth study of user technology, It strives to provide users with various personalized services quickly and well.

China's heavy machine tool manufacturers still lack the capability for independent innovation and basic theoretical research. The application of today's latest technology and its newly developed technology to new products in a modular manner is also a development trend of heavy-duty machine tools in China.