Swiss machine tool industry: calm after rapid growth

The machine tool industry has always played an important role in the Swiss industry. According to the latest statistics from The Swiss Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Industries (SWISSMEM), as of the third quarter of 2008, there were 90 machine tool members under the association. The number of employees in the enterprise is 11,941. The data shows that in the first three quarters of 2008 (the data for the fourth quarter will be released at the end of February), the total order volume of the Swiss mechanical and electronic engineering industry fell by 12.7% compared with the same period in 2007, of which the order volume from Switzerland fell by 4.4% year-on-year. %, and the year-on-year decline in orders from abroad was 14.8%. If only in the third quarter of last year, the number of new orders of SWISSMEM's member units fell more significantly than the same period of the previous year, at 20.2%, of which the number of domestic orders fell by 9.2%, and the number of foreign markets dropped by a full 22.9% . In terms of sales, the sales in the third quarter of 2008 still increased by 6.5% compared with the same period in 2007. Among them, the Swiss domestic market increased by 1.9% and the overseas market increased by 7.8%. Table 1: Changes in the export value of Swiss machine tools (components/accessories) from 2002 to 2008 (unit: million Swiss francs, 1 Swiss franc is about 0.9461 US dollars). Source: SWISSMEM OZD (General Directorate of Customs) According to SWISSMEM statistics, in the first three quarters of 2008, the export value of Swiss mechanical and electronic engineering products reached 60.859 billion (unit: Swiss franc, the same below), a year-on-year increase of 5.8 %; in 2007, the increase was double-digit, at 13.3%. During the same period, the total value of Swiss mechanical and electronic engineering products sold to the EU (European Union) and EFTA (European Free Trade Association) amounted to 40.1 billion Swiss francs, which accounted for 65.9% of the total SWISSMEM member units; Some accounts for 10.8%. Further study of statistical data can also find that from the situation in 2007, the largest consumer of Swiss machine tools is Germany, with a consumption amount of 1.4158 billion, an increase of 15.2% over the same period of the previous year, accounting for 24% of the total sales of Swiss machine tools; Switzerland digested 18% of machine tools, with a total consumption of 1.0489 billion, a year-on-year increase of 28.4%. It is worth mentioning that the total value of Swiss machine tools sold to China in 2006 and 2007 reached 270 million and 327.9 million respectively, an increase of 33.5% and 21.4% respectively over the same period of the previous year. Undoubtedly, for Swiss machine tool manufacturers, the importance of the Chinese market is increasing day by day. Table 2: Changes in the output value of the Swiss machine tool industry in recent years (unit: million Swiss francs, 1 Swiss franc is about 0.9461 US dollars). Source: SWISSMEM OZD (General Directorate of Customs) Table 1 shows the changes in the export volume of the Swiss machine tool industry from 2002 to 2008. It can be seen that more than 80% of the whole machine is used for export, and this development trend has been quite stable for many years. Table 2 lists the changes in the output value of the Swiss machine tool industry in recent years. Compared with 2002, the output value of machine tools, machine tool parts and accessories in Switzerland in 2003 decreased slightly, but the output value in 2004 rebounded again, reaching a scale that was basically the same as that in 2002 and slightly exceeded. After that, the entire machine tool industry entered a period of rapid development, especially in the past two or three years. From the point of view of the whole machine, the output value of the first three quarters of 2008 is basically the same as that of the whole year of 2005. It is not difficult to find that after the rapid growth of the Swiss machinery manufacturing industry, the speed has now slowed down slightly.