China continues to maintain the status of the world's largest machine tool consumer and importer

The steady and rapid growth of the economy and the continued growth of the domestic demand market have enabled China to continue to be the world's largest machine tool consumer and the largest machine tool importer in 2008.

It was learned from the 11th China International Machine Tool Show that China's annual import of machine tools in 2008 was 7.59 billion US dollars, up 7.3% year-on-year; domestic consumption was 19.44 billion US dollars, up 20.2% year-on-year. This has made China the world's first consumer and first importer of machine tools for seven consecutive years, becoming the main consumer market for the world's machine tool industry.

Wang Liming, deputy director-general of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, said that the current developed economies are in recession, international demand is shrinking sharply, and the Chinese market is vast and potential demand is large. In particular, the state has invested 4 trillion yuan to expand domestic demand, accelerate development and innovative equipment manufacturing, and expanded the demand for high-end CNC machine tools.

Wang Liming said that modern defense military, aerospace, clean energy, high-speed railway, and large-scale shipbuilding projects have placed higher demands on the machine tool industry. China's machine tools are still the market of choice for the world's machine tool manufacturers and the focus of the world machine tool market.

In 2008, China's machine tool industry exports increased from 8th in the world ranking in 2007 to 6th in 2008. Due to the global market downturn, export growth slowed down, traditional export market demand decreased, and China's machine tool exports to emerging markets increased significantly. The annual export still reached 2.11 billion US dollars, an increase of 27.6%. Due to the decline in corporate profit growth, some enterprises face difficulties in their operations.