Japanese machine tool industry orders decline, companies will strengthen sales in China

According to data, in the first quarter of 2013, the total amount of Japanese machine tool orders was 243.03 billion yen, a year-on-year decrease of 23.0%. Among them, domestic machine tool orders were 84.95 billion yen, down 13.2% year-on-year; foreign orders were 158.07 billion yen, down 27.4% year-on-year. Order sales were 310.76 billion yen, of which CNC machine tools were 302.49 billion yen, down 15.2% and 14.6% year-on-year respectively; hand-held orders were 476.01 billion yen, and CNC machine tools were 453.25 billion yen, down 21.1% and 21.4% year-on-year. In 2013, the United States replaced China as the largest overseas market for Japanese machine tools. At the same time, major Japanese machine tool manufacturers will strengthen their sales offensive to China. Mori Seiki plans to integrate sales operations with its capital and business partner Gildemeister AG in Germany this fall, while Yamazaki Mazak in Japan will start a 24-hour wireless monitoring service for machine tools. The market size of China's machine tools and related products is the largest in the world and is thought to exceed 2 trillion yen. Japanese machine tool manufacturers hope to use their advantages in technology and maintenance to differentiate themselves from Chinese companies that focus on price wars to ensure competitiveness. Mori Seiki will establish a combined sales company in China with Jitmei, and will integrate the sales business in October. In terms of investment ratio, Gitemai contributed 51% and Mori Seiki contributed 49%. Including the production department, the two companies will deploy 1,000 employees in China and set up 12 sales and service points. Mori Seiki's Tianjin plant, which has invested about 4 billion yen, is expected to start in October to expand sales of machine tools. Mori Seiki plans to increase the number of sales and service locations in China to 20 by 2020, and increase the number of staff to 1,500. Mori Seiki President Masahiko Mori said, 'We will strive to combine Mori Seiki and Jitmai in sales. From the current 30 billion yen to 50 billion yen.' In addition, in mid-April, Yamazaki Mazak launched the 'MotherCare' service that uses the mobile communication network to monitor construction machine tools 24 hours a day. Once the machine tool is found to be faulty, the fault information will be automatically sent to Mazak's maintenance base. The staff can diagnose through the Internet, and even without dispatching maintenance personnel to the site, maintenance can be carried out, and more than 40% of customers can be introduced to this service. In addition, it also plans to add 1 service base in western China in 2 to 3 years. The candidates are Xi'an and Chengdu. At present, the company has 5 bases in Shanghai, Beijing and Chongqing. The high added value of products will be actively promoted to highlight the difference from Chinese companies that use low prices to attract consumers. According to statistics from the Japan Machine Tool Industry Association, orders to China fell by 6.8% last year due to sluggish demand due to the economic slowdown in China, the largest market. However, since Japanese companies are ahead of Chinese manufacturers in terms of technological strength such as machining accuracy, it is estimated that direct competition will not be formed.