German machine tool output will achieve a 1% increase

Recently, the chairman of the German Association of Machine Tool Manufacturers stated at the annual meeting that the development of machine tools in Germany exceeded expectations in 2012, with good orders and high capacity utilization rate. The output value increased by 9% to 14.1 billion euros.

Exports achieved a 20% increase, reaching the highest value of 9.5 billion euros. China is the largest export market, exporting 2.4 billion euros to China's machine tools, which is twice that of the second export market in the United States, an increase of 14%; as of November 2012, the number of machine tools exported to the United States increased by about 33% compared to 2008. The consumption of machine tools in the domestic market was 6.8 billion euros, which was lower than the level before the crisis.

In January 2013, the utilization rate of German machine tools was 92.4%, which was slightly lower than the 2012 average. As of October 2012, the German machine tool hand-held order was 8.3 months, which was one month less than the previous year.

In 2012, the German machine tool orders fell by 10% compared with 2011. The support mainly comes from the demand for forming technology in Europe and the United States. The biggest market segment is the extrusion technology from Germany and the international automotive industry, and the economic cycle has little impact.

In 2012, the employment in the machine tool industry increased by 5%. As of December, the number of people employed in the machine tool industry was 71,000.

In 2012, 40% of EUR 66 billion of German machine tool products were exported to China. Despite the slow market demand, demand for machine tools in Asia is basically stable, while the vitality of traditional Western European markets is not synchronized. German machine tool suppliers face the challenge of adjusting their marketing and product structure.

In 2011, the output of German machine tool companies overseas factories was 1.7 billion euros, an increase of 60%, and foreign factories created 7,750 domestic jobs. The overseas factories are mainly in Switzerland, the United States and Brazil. In 2011, the output value of Chinese factories increased by 55%.

The German machine tool has once again become the winner in the international machine tool industry and achieved a 9% increase. Excluding the impact of exchange rates, China's machine tool output value is declining; Japan's growth rate is modest; driven by domestic demand, US machine tool production increased by 7%; Western European machine tools increased by approximately 4.5%. In terms of exports, the gap between the export volume of German machine tools and Japan has decreased again.

The Association of German Machine Tool Manufacturers, the Oxford Economic Forecasting Agency, predicts that the global industrial production and equipment investment will again increase significantly in 2013, especially in Asia and the Americas, with less demand in Europe.

Orders for German machine tools will continue to increase steadily. Orders will mainly come from Asia. Karp, chairman of the German machine tool manufacturer, said that the stabilization of the world economy in 2013, the purchasing managers index and the Ife boom index all showed that the German machine tool industry began to grow in recent months and domestic demand continued to stabilize.