GARDNER
Publications Inc.
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Editorial Contact:Joe Jablonowski
914-834-2300
2/15/2008
For Immediate Release
Survey: China Once Again Extends Lead in Consumption of Machine Tools
Five years ago China moved from fourth to first place in consumption of machine tools. Since then it has retained that position and even strengthened it, ahead of other principal users like Japan, Germany, and the United States.
According to the most recent annual survey of production and trade in that class of equipment, Chinese factories installed an estimated $15.4-billon worth of machine tools in 2007, once again out-investing their competitors.
Chinese consumption improved 17% in a year that saw many other industrialized nations making investment increases. Several European countries saw their gains magnified by the changing value of the U.S. dollar. Japan, on the other hand, slipped 2% in new installations (-3%, when measured in dollars); but it’s still the second-largest market for machine tools, ahead of Germany.
For the United States, the world’s fourth-largest market, consumption dipped 3% compared to 2006. Throughout the 1990s, the United States had been far and away the world’s leading purchaser of machine tools. But it saw a sharp decline in consumption during 2001, followed by another drop in 2002, and it started to regain ground in 2003.
Machine tools like lathes and presses are the basic building blocks of manufacturing. They are used in durable-goods industries to make items ranging from aircraft to appliances as well as other, more specialized, production machinery. In the survey, each country’s consumption is calculated as its domestic output, plus its imports and minus its exports.
On the output side of the study, the World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey shows that countries with substantial machine-tool-producing industries created $71-billion worth of equipment last year. That represents a 17.9% increase from the $60.2-billion those same 29 countries shipped in 2006.
In terms of production, Japan retains the lead for 2007 with total shipments of $14.4-billion, ahead of Germany with $12.7-billion. The two countries have been at the top of the world’s leading producers ever since 1991 when East Germany and West Germany were combined.
China once again made very substantial gains in production in 2007, and now firmly holds onto third place in output, ahead of Italy and South Korea. Others in the top ten ranked by production are Taiwan, the U.S., Switzerland, Spain, and Brazil.
As a bloc, five Asian nations (Japan, the Peoples Republic of China, Taiwan, South Korea, and India) account for $33.9-billion, or 48% of the survey total production.
The statistics are cited in the 2008 World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey, the annual study released this week by industrial publisher Gardner Publications, Inc. It is presented in a special edition of Metalworking Insiders’ Report, the semimonthly newsletter for machine-tool executives, and will appear in several other Gardner publications.
Editors of the annual survey, which began in 1965, assemble figures from trade associations, government agencies, or major producers in the 29 countries that account for an estimated 94% of the total world shipments. Copies of the six-page study, including supplemental tables on ranking by imports, exports, trade balance, and per-capita consumption, are available to news organizations on request. Results of the 2008 study also will be posted on
Major Purchasers
Machine Tool Consumption, $-millions
2007 (est.)2006 (rev.)
1. China $15,390.0 $13,113.0
2. Japan 7,619.4 7,858.6
3. Germany 7,252.1 5,139.7
4. United States 6,171.8 6,361.2
5. Italy 5,056.0 3,786.2
6. South Korea 4,150.0 4,020.0
7. Taiwan 3,785.0 2,887.0
8. Brazil 1,822.2 1,423.2
9. India 1,774.8 1,191.2
10. Mexico 1,669.6 1,245.9
Source: Gardner Publications, Inc.
Apparent Consumption = Domestic Production, Plus Imports, Less Exports
Top Producers
Machine Tool Shipments, $-millions
2007 (est.)2006 (rev.)
1. Japan $14,443.6 $13,557.6
2. Germany 12,725.4 10,120.3
3. China 10,090.0 7,060.0
4. Italy 7,272.7 5,707.5
5. South Korea 4,550.0 4,112.0
6. Taiwan 4,378.0 3,841.0
7. United States 3,578.0 3,688.9
8. Switzerland 3,323.8 2,964.2
9. Spain 1,436.8 1,226.8
10. Brazil 1,157.8 956.9
Source: Gardner Publications, Inc.
Metalworking Insiders’ Report, Joe Jablonowski, Editor & Publisher, P.O. Box 107, Larchmont, New York 10538-0107 USA. Phone 914-834-2300. E-mail: