In 2014, machine tool industry in China is with estimated value of USD 11.63 billion with a year-on-year increase of 22.1%, among which USD 3.40 billion with a year-on-year increase of 18.8% came from metal- working machine tools, USD 2.27 billion with a year-on-year increase of 20.6% from metal- cutting machine tools and USD 1.12 billion from metal- forming machine tools, increasing 15.3% year on year. The Top 3 exports are cutting tool (USD 2.62 billion), metal- cutting machine tool (USD 2.27 billion) as well as abrasive and grinding tool (USD 2.18 billion).
In 2014, machine tool industry in China reported an import value of USD 17.78 billion with a year-on-year increase of 10.8%, among of which USD 10.83 billion with a year-on-year increase of 7.6% came from metal- working machine tools, USD 8.84 billion with a year-on-year increase of 11.1% from metal- cutting machine tools and USD 1.99 billion from metal- forming machine tools, decreasing 5.8% year on year. The Top 3 imports are metal- cutting machine tool (USD 8.84 billion), metal- forming machine tool (USD 1.99 billion) as well as CNC machines (USD 1.65 billion).
Among the countries of import, Japan ranks first with USD 5.16 billion which increases 23.6% year on year, Germany follows next with USD 4.29 billion which decreases 0.8% year on year and Taiwan ranks third with USD 2.31 billion, increasing 18.0% year on year.
The rapid development of heavy chemical industry is going to end and the growth in fixed asset investment keeps going down, which has influenced the sales of machine tools oriented towards this area. A good case in point is the drop in the production and import of heavy machine tool since 2011. In 2014, the average production and sales of heavy machine tool manufacturers in China was only 51.0% of that in 2011 and the import value of heavy machine tool in 2014 covered 75.0% of that in 2011.
