Japanese machine tool makers step up sales to China

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 set up a combined sales company in China with Jitmei, and will integrate sales operations 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.' On the other hand, Yamazaki Mazak will start the 'MotherCare' service that uses the mobile communication network to monitor construction machine tools 24 hours a day as early as mid-April. Once the machine tool is found to be faulty, it will automatically send fault information 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 the statistics of the Japan Machine Tool Industry Association, the order value of Japanese machine tool manufacturers in 2012 was 1,212.4 billion yen, a decrease of 8.6% compared with 2011. Orders to China fell 6.8% due to sluggish demand due to an 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.