Europe accelerates the pace of structural adjustment of machine tool industry

The deepening international financial crisis has exacerbated the downward pressure on the global economy. Affected by this, the European machine tool industry is facing severe challenges, and structural adjustment has become a top priority. A few days ago, at the European Machine Tool Industry Annual Meeting in San Sebastian, Spain, the meeting announcement issued by the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee (CECIMO) revealed that since the beginning of this year, the EU machine tool manufacturing industry and market sales have experienced a sharp decline. According to the commission's survey of 15 machine tool producing member countries including Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom, in the first quarter of this year, European machine tool production orders fell by 53% year-on-year. Expert analysis of the European Machine Tool Industry Association believes that the important reason for this consequence is the recession of the automobile industry and the machinery manufacturing industry. These two industries have always been the main customers of machine tools. Due to the bleak market prospects and serious lack of investor confidence, machine tool orders and purchases have decreased. However, there are still some bright spots in the European machine tool market. Relevant research shows that from the perspective of industries, renewable energy, public transportation, medical equipment and precision instrument manufacturing are less affected by the economic recession, and the demand for machine tools remains relatively stable; from the perspective of regional markets, European sales to China, India and Mexico The number of machine tools in other developing countries has also maintained a relatively stable trend, especially Asia is likely to become the only region where the export of European machine tools will increase in the future. Last year, although the impact of the international financial crisis on the real economy had already occurred in the second half of the year, the production and sales of European machine tools were not affected that year due to the lagging effect of the manufacturing industry. According to the statistics of the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee at the beginning of this year, the production and sales of the European machine tool industry showed a relatively obvious growth last year. The output of machine tools increased by 9% year-on-year, and the output value was as high as 24.7 billion euros. This makes the machine tool production of the 15 member countries of the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee accounted for 46% of the world's total production last year, while Japan and China, ranked second and third, accounted for 18% and 15% of the market share respectively. However, after entering this year, the European machine tool industry has experienced a sharp decline in orders. Since the European machine tool manufacturing industry is deeply dependent on the growth of the global economy, it has become one of the industries most affected by the economic recession. Javier Eguren, chairman of the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee, said that the global machinery manufacturing industry will fall into negative growth this year. The fundamental reason is that the global infrastructure construction investment is at a standstill, which makes the market demand of machine tool end users weak. It should be pointed out in particular that the automobile manufacturing industry in developed countries has many difficulties, and its demand for machine tools has declined the most. The significant reduction in investment in new production capacity in the world auto industry this year will reduce the sales revenue of European machine tools by about 35%, and the annual output value is expected to be only 16 billion euros. According to the analysis and forecast of the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee, the downturn of the world machine tool manufacturing industry caused by the international financial crisis and the economic downturn will last at least after 2010. This year, the European machine tool manufacturing industry will mainly rely on digesting the product orders of the previous year to maintain production and employment. The production capacity will exceed the market demand by 40%, and the situation is quite severe. In order to overcome the difficulties as soon as possible and increase market competitiveness, relevant experts believe that the European machine tool manufacturing industry should speed up the adjustment of product structure, while appropriately abandoning the low-end technology products, while retaining and enhancing the innovation and research and development potential of high-end technology products in the industry. To this end, European governments and industry organizations should introduce protective policies, such as providing preferential financial assistance for the industry, reducing tax burdens, strengthening training support for technical and management personnel in the industry, and increasing investment in relevant technology and scientific research departments. . In the face of the difficulties encountered by the machine tool manufacturing industry, the European Machine Tool Industry Cooperation Committee recently called for the European machine tool manufacturing industry to adjust the product structure more actively, improve the technical content, and make machine tool production more suitable for automation, numerical control, intelligence, energy saving and environmental protection. demand, so as to continue to maintain the world's leading competitive position and strive to maintain its global market share. Especially in the manufacture of high-precision machine tools, we should strive to increase the market share to 80%. Experts on the development of industry and manufacturing in the EU said that the future of the European machine tool manufacturing industry lies in the close connection with the development of emerging industries. Under the premise of product diversification, the key development direction is: adapting to new energy and renewable energy industries faster , the precision instrument manufacturing industry required by the information industry, the mechanical processing industry related to aviation, aerospace, high-speed railway and public transportation, and the production of a new generation of medical equipment, which will constitute the development strategy of the European machine tool industry in the next 10 years.