China's import and export of metal processing machines are showing increasing prices

Since 2010, China's machine tool industry has continued its upward trend in the fourth quarter of 2009, and its stability has improved. Each indicator has approached or surpassed the level of the same period in 2008 before the financial crisis. As the market is hot, China's machine tool import and export trade market is gradually warming up, and the volume of imports and exports has increased significantly. However, it is worth noting that the average unit price of imports and exports of metal processing machines in China has declined, and it needs to attract the attention of relevant departments.

Increase import volume and lower import unit price

In 2009, the import value of metal processing machine tools in China was 5,900 million U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 22.3%. In January-August 2010, as the demand in the domestic market continued to pick up, the demand for machine tools in the downstream industries was very strong, and investment in fixed assets was increased one after another. As a result, the import volume of machine tools increased significantly. Statistics released by the Customs show that from January to August, China imported 68,460 Taiwan-made metal processing machine tools, an increase of 63.9% year-on-year; the cumulative amount of imports was approximately US$5.62 billion, an increase of 42.2% year-on-year.

However, at the same time as the amount of imports has increased significantly, the average import unit price of metal processing machines in China has declined. From January to August, the average unit price of imported metal processing machine tools was US$82,088 per unit, a year-on-year decrease of 13.26%. From the point of view of specific products, from January to July, the average import unit price of China's machining centers was approximately 112,000 U.S. dollars per unit, down 54.8% year-on-year. The average import unit price of CNC machine tools was approximately US$210,000 per unit, a year-on-year decrease of 32.9%. It can be seen that the drop in the unit price of imports of high-end machine tools is even more pronounced.

The unit price of imported machine tools continued to show a declining trend year-on-year. On the one hand, the overall import volume of China's machine tools since 2010 was relatively large. The demand for various grades of machine tools, including low-grade machine tools, increased; on the other hand, it was due to the Imported machine tools from Germany, Italy, France and other countries are mainly high-end, resulting in a significant increase in the average unit price, reaching US$295,000 per unit. The number of machine tools imported from Europe this year has fallen by a large margin, affecting the average unit price of imported machine tools. However, compared with 2008, the average unit price has increased. From the overall trend, China's demand for high-end metal processing machine tools is still more than low-end machine tools.

The falling unit price is not conducive to the adjustment of export structure

In 2009, the export value of metal processing machine tools in China was 1.41 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 33.0%. Since entering 2010, China's metal processing machine tool exports have also seen a trend of volume increase and decrease. From January to July, the export volume of metal processing machine tools in China was 4.287 million units, an increase of 33.9% year-on-year; the export volume was 9.974 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 26.6% year-on-year; the average export unit price was approximately 261.1 U.S. dollars per unit, a slight increase of 4.3% year-on-year. Although the overall average unit price did not drop significantly, the average export price of CNC metal processing machines fell by 17.1% from the point of view of specific products. The larger decline in the number of CNC cutting machine tools, machining centers, CNC punch press, CNC gear processing machine tools. It can be seen that the export unit price of high-end machine tools has dropped significantly. The continuous decline in the unit price of exports is not conducive to the structural adjustment of the export products of the industry.

The continuous decline in the unit price of exports is mainly due to the small export volume of metal processing machine tools in China, and the decentralization of individual metallurgical machine tools. Individual major projects can affect the changes in export conditions, and the global financial crisis has exacerbated this change. From January to June, India became the first major export market for metal processing machines in China, accounting for 6.3% of China's exports of gold-cutting machine tools and 9.3% of metal forming machine tools. The United States and Japan rank second and third among China's machine tool export destinations. The pattern of China's export market continues to change. The European and American markets continue to decline, while the recovery of Asian economies such as India, Myanmar, and South Korea has become apparent, and has become China's major export market for machine tools.

Adjust the structure to expand exports

In the economic crisis, China's machine tool industry exposed the issue of product export structure, and the proportion of low value-added products exports has increased. At present, the export of some low-value machine tools and low-value cutting tools has obviously increased, and the number of individual low-grade machine tools has increased rapidly. Therefore, industrial enterprises should continue to work hard to adjust the structure of export products, further consolidate the achievements made by the industry in optimizing the structure of export products in recent years, and avoid further expansion of the export share of “two high and one capital” products.

At present, due to the slow recovery of international markets such as the United States and Europe, the machine tool industry must pay close attention to the development trends of Europe, the United States, Japan, and other developed economies in the world, and consolidate the traditional export markets of the industry; on the other hand, it should focus on ASEAN and other regions in Asia. The three emerging countries in the four countries of the BRIC countries, the VISTA five countries and other emerging export markets with potential for growth have expanded their exports.