Chinese and American Machine Tool Industry Analysis

The rapid growth of the global tool market China and the United States compete in the global machinery, automotive, aerospace, energy, medical, rail transportation, die machine tools and other industries are indispensable tool equipment. Judging from future development trends, the global tool market is expected to grow by 3% to 5% over the next five years. With this growth rate, we are still ranking the world's number one spot. From the perspective of the supply of domestic tools, domestic tools occupy the mainstream position, up to 65%. Over the years, we have also made outstanding companies such as Drilling, and together with the original four major tool factories, there are about 10 key enterprises that have moved from the traditional tools into the modern cutting tool industry and have developed every year. Well, they have entered a period of rapid growth. This is a very good performance.

Data show that in 2010 China's total domestic production of knives was 29 billion yuan, in addition to supplying the domestic market, exports of tools 7 billion yuan. In the same year, China's total sales of imported tools and domestic tools reached 33 billion yuan, ranking first in the world. China's cutting tools grew by 40% in 2010, and the growth in the first three quarters exceeded 50%. In 2010, the sales of foreign cutting tool companies in China also grew very well. There is no market demand or development, and there is no market. Demand, this is our biggest advantage.

In the sales of 33 billion yuan, the imported 11 billion yuan of cutters are all modern and efficient cutters. Of the 22 billion yuan made in domestic cutters, only about 2 billion yuan is available for modern high-efficiency cutters, accounting for 10% to 15%. The foreign brand tool sales accounts for 1/3 of China's tool consumption. This shows that while China has become the world's most promising tool market, high-end markets are occupied by multinational companies. This is a big problem.

In 2011, the domestic tool market maintained rapid growth and it is expected to create a new historical high. Statistics show that only the first half of the domestic tool market achieved a growth of 25% to 30%. Although the growth rate has declined since July, it can still achieve 15% growth for the whole year. In comparison, the international tool market has maintained a stable recovery in recent years, but the conservative estimate of the average annual growth rate is only maintained at about 3% to 5%. After the domestic market has experienced rapid growth in the past year, it will gradually maintain a stable year. The average growth rate is between 10% and 15%. Therefore, the domestic tool market capacity growth rate will be more than three times faster than the international market.

China has become the world's most promising tool market, and many multinational tooling groups are also in the development strategy of the post-crisis era. Without exception, all of them have made cutting tool sales in China the top choice. Each company’s Asia Pacific headquarters and R&D Centers, training centers, logistics centers, etc. have all settled down in China, and China has been taken as the center to radiate into Asia, serving customers more directly and conveniently to better meet the special needs of customers in the Asia Pacific region. Luo Baihui, secretary-general of the International Mould, Hardware and Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, believes that the reason why the Chinese market will receive such attention is that the market share in the Chinese market accounts for an increasing proportion of its global market share. In order to firmly grasp the Chinese market, foreign tool manufacturing companies are carefully studying the needs of China's equipment industry. For example, Seco Tools set up the Industry Development Department this year, aiming to study the industry and focus on providing typical parts processing for the industry. solution. The technical experts of this department are each responsible for a key industry, pay attention to the development of the industry, solve the technical problems of tool application in the industry, and provide tool application training to customers in this industry from time to time.

Steve Morency, president of the US Cutting Tool Association (USCTI), said that from a global perspective, the market is quite busy from North America to some parts of Europe and most parts of Asia. At the EMO 2011 machine tool show held recently, participants seemed to be looking for a processing solution that could solve production problems, not just casual purchases. The sales of machine tool manufacturers at the show seemed quite strong. Many industries have provided growth opportunities. Aviation (especially commercial aircraft), automotive, medical and energy industries are all in the ascendant.

Sales figures reported by USCTI member companies indicate that since the second quarter of 2009, tool sales have fallen to the trough, the recovery has been very good. Although sales growth slightly stagnated in the first few months of 2010, the sales value for the whole year still increased by 24%. Sales growth in 2011 appeared even stronger. By August of this year, sales increased by more than 31% to reach $1.134 billion. However, Morency believes that there are also some problems and concerns that inhibit this optimism. One of them is the slow recovery of the US economy and the high unemployment rate. In addition, due to tight supply, raw material prices have been rising. In the past 12-18 months, the price of cemented carbides has risen by 40%-50%, and people are worried that they may increase further in the future.

However, Morency is optimistic about the future of the tool market. He predicts that I am very optimistic about the prospects for next year. The growth in tool sales should reach double digits, unless there is a major setback, the growth rate may be 15%-20%. between.

Patrick W, Vice President of Strategic Information and Research, American Manufacturing Technology Association (AMT). McGibbon is optimistic that the US machine tool industry is unlikely to fall into another recession in the near future. He said that this possibility is only about 20%. Now, our product prices are very competitive in the world except China. The labor costs in China have risen rapidly. Therefore, U.S.-made machine tools, to be exact, all U.S.-made products will soon be more competitive than Chinese products.

McGibbon said that the recovery momentum of U.S. machine tool manufacturers has been stronger than expected and is particularly strong in some machine tool markets. Our three major markets are automobiles, construction machinery and aerospace. The construction machinery market is showing rapid growth. The annual output of the automotive industry is only 12 million vehicles, but its profitability has increased substantially. Compared with the previous year's output of 17 million vehicles, the industry's profitability is very low. Of course, lower wage rates will also help profitability.

McGibbon added that the growth rate in 2012 may be slightly worse than in 2011. This is because this year is too hot. We are now approaching the peak level in 2007.

As an important part of the equipment manufacturing industry and an important process equipment in the cutting process, hardware tools determine the processing efficiency, precision, quality, and cost of parts in the manufacturing industry. Regarding the gap with advanced technology, Luo Baihui believes that from the perspective of users, there are two biggest gaps: First, the product structure of the entire industry is backward, the traditional universal standard tool still accounts for the majority, and sales are very good, even There have also been so-called low-alloy high-speed steel blades. The low-grade products have been slow to change and counterfeit. This problem is very serious. At present, China's high and low-end sales are all very good. This phenomenon is worth considering. Second, on the whole, there are still gaps in equipment, technology and services. Although the equipment conditions and technologies of some companies are improving, they still cannot meet the needs of users. The main problems are still in the service. In terms of solutions, we have shown that the combination of us and users is not good enough. With the premise of producing, researching, and researching, it is now possible to increase production, use research, and use words. Modern advanced manufacturing technologies are led by user companies. Users in our country must also take this lead, thus stimulating the development of a large number of material suppliers and machine tool suppliers.

According to the analysis of Luo Baihui, the general secretary of the International Tooling and Hardware & Plastic Industry Suppliers Association, the approximate cost components of a workpiece are machine tool cost 30%, fixed overhead 25%, operator 20%, raw material 20%, and tool 5%. Customers choose tools, in addition to whether it can complete the processing quality, but also pay more attention to how to reduce the cost of the workpiece and achieve higher product profits. However, from the perspective of cost savings, the tool's cost is only about 5%, which is relatively low. Therefore, the tool company's service awareness must shift from the tool itself to the entire value chain of the workpiece to significantly reduce the customer's production costs. The focus is on the entire production process of the workpiece, including equipment operation time, minimum scrap rate, yield increase, and efficient personnel utilization. According to this idea, the tool company should build a brand value-added solution for all its customers, starting from procurement and planning, across the entire production process itself, until the disposal of tools and recycling. The program has four standardized service modules, including planning, production and logistics, maintenance, training and expertise. Only about 5% of the tool cost can be reduced by 20% to 50% of the production cost by continuously improving the whole process service program, which fully reflects the value of the brand.

China has begun to focus on efficient and high-quality tooling market. In recent years, the development of many high-end manufacturing technologies in China has brought new requirements to the tool. For example, automotive tools must have high efficiency, high stability, and specialization. With the continuous development of the automotive industry, new requirements have emerged. From a technical point of view, there are mainly heavy-duty, composite, and specializations. The trend of standardization, high speed, and variety of varieties. In the field of aerospace manufacturing, with the wide application of difficult-to-machine materials such as titanium alloys and high-temperature alloys, how to properly select and use cutting tools for efficient and high-quality cutting has become a very important topic in the industry.

Closer to the water, the Chinese-made knives were supposed to have the advantages of time, location, and humanity in providing tool services for the aforementioned manufacturing fields. In fact, the imported tools basically occupy the high-end users of the machining industry, especially in the automobile engine manufacturing workshop, the aircraft engine manufacturing enterprise machining workshop or the steam turbine manufacturing workshop, and are almost imported tools in the efficient and high-precision machining tools. Monopoly, it is difficult to see the traces of domestic tools. The domestic tools are mostly used in medium and low-demand customer groups, such as agricultural machinery, motorcycles, agricultural vehicles, general machinery, and middle and low-end machinery manufacturing industries.

Not only that, the extensive development of the manufacturing industry has led to an unbalanced development of machine tools and cutting tools. According to Luo Baihui, general secretary of the International Mould and Hardware & Plastics Industry Suppliers Association, the consumption ratio of CNC machine tools and cutting tools in foreign developed countries is 2:1. The domestic proportion is too low, and the total amount of tool consumption is less than 1/5 of the total consumption of machine tools. Many manufacturing companies spend a lot of money to purchase machine tools, but they are shrinking in tool consumption, and they are reluctant to purchase advanced and efficient tools. The market demand for traditional tools has been high for a long time. This is also an important reason why many domestic tool companies do not want to enter advanced and efficient tool production.

At the same time, we must face up to the gap between Chinese cutting tool companies and foreign companies, including basic technologies, innovation capabilities, promotion capabilities, and service capabilities. The user needs and tool companies should be made to lead in innovation. Leading companies should take the lead in the application of technology. However, some key domestic enterprises and new outstanding private enterprises have made great progress in the development of modern and efficient tools, such as Zhuzhou Diamond, Xiamen Jinlu, and Arnold Tool. These companies attach importance to technological progress and put service first. Significant results have been achieved in related fields.

In the tool industry, CNC machine tools have become the mainstream of manufacturing equipment today. They are shouldering the heavy responsibility of providing the key equipment for CNC manufacturing. The level of processing technology in the manufacturing industry is greatly affected by the overall level of the tool industry, and the development of the manufacturing industry will also promote the development of the tool industry. Luo Baihui believes that the future of multi-functional composite tools, high-speed and high-efficiency tools will become the mainstream of tool development. In the face of increasing difficulties in machining materials, the tool industry must improve the tool materials, develop new tool materials and a more reasonable tool structure.

1. Increased use of hard alloy materials and coatings. Fine-grained, ultrafine-grain carbide materials are the development direction; coating of nano-coatings, gradient-structured coatings, and new structures and materials will greatly improve tool performance; and the application of physical coatings (PVD) continues to increase.

2. Increased use of new tool materials. The toughness of tool materials such as ceramics, cermets, silicon nitride ceramics, PCBN, PCD, etc. has been further enhanced, and the number of applications has increased.

3, rapid development of cutting technology. High-speed cutting, hard-cutting, and dry cutting continue to develop rapidly, and the application range is rapidly expanding.

4, tool development is more targeted. The focus of tool maker R&D is no longer the generic brand and general structure. In the face of complex and varied applications and processing conditions, we have developed more targeted insert geometry, grades, and corresponding tools to replace general-purpose grooved and branded inserts and tools.

5, the role of tool makers change. From the simple tool production, supply, expansion to the development of new cutting technology and the development of corresponding complete sets of technologies and solutions, to provide users with comprehensive technical support and services.

6. The degree of informatization has been improved, the cooperation between cutting tool manufacturers has increased, and competition in the market has intensified.