German precision machine tool sales will not increase significantly in 2012

Lothar Horn, president of the Association of Precision Machine Tools of the Federation of German Machinery Manufacturers, said that the booming period of the main customer industry is over, and thus forecasts that sales of precision machine tools will increase by only 7% in 2012. In 2011, German precision machine tool companies achieved a sales record of 10.2 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 21%. Sales of cutting machine tools and fixtures surged thanks to the expansion of production in the automotive and machine tool industries. Process measurement and monitoring technology has also achieved good results. Machining machines have had their first bumper harvest since the financial crisis.