The Japan Earthquake Punches China's Machine Tool Key Components

Recently, the China Machine Tool & Tool Industry Association's "2010 Survey of Production and Consumption of Metalworking Machine Tools in the World" pointed out that the Japanese machine tool industry rebounded fully in 2010 after experiencing a 59% heavy recession in 2009 and returned to the second largest producer of machine tools. s position. However, on March 11th, a major earthquake struck Japan. Both the normal life of the people and the country’s economic development have been greatly affected. Japan's industry, which has electronics, machinery, and automobiles as its core industries, will also face severe tests.

However, fortunately, the vast majority of Japanese machine tool companies are not directly affected by the earthquake, but due to large-scale power cuts caused by the earthquake, the factory can not be normal production, coupled with logistics after the earthquake blocked, the short-term normal operation of the enterprise Have a certain impact.

Japan’s machine tool companies calmly faced the impact of the magnitude 9 earthquake on Japan’s entire manufacturing industry, but the performance of Japanese companies responding calmly admirably. Mori Seiki Co., Ltd. immediately announced its customer announcement on its official website, announced the emergency support contact details for Mori Seiki, and stated that it will fully assist each customer's equipment to resume production as soon as possible, and guarantee the new machine. The delivery date. According to reports, the company’s headquarters in Nagoya City, Iga, Nara, and Sunworking Machinery, as well as the Tokyo office, did not suffer any damage. However, in Chiba and Isehara, the company’s building was slightly damaged, but the damage was basically Can be repaired within a week.

Since most of the machine tool factories in Japan have deviated from the earthquake-hit areas and have not been affected, the impact of the post-earthquake era on the Japanese economy will inevitably afflict the Japanese machine tool industry. According to a Japanese tool agent company in Beijing, Japan has issued a notice that new orders will be delayed. As for whether or not there will be product price increases due to the lack of logistics, it has not been stated. Due to the implementation of meticulous management, almost zero-stock Japanese parts manufacturing companies have faced the embarrassment of insufficient supply capacity after the earthquake struck.

Japan is the second largest exporter of machine tools in the world. In 2007, the export value of machine tools was 7.46 billion U.S. dollars, and in 2008 it was 8.52 billion U.S. dollars. It only slipped to third in 2009, and the export value was 4.22 billion U.S. dollars. Relying on the growing demand from countries such as China and India, in 2010, the export orders of the Japanese machine tool industry gradually increased, making it return to the position of the second largest machine tool in the world.

The Chinese machine tool component industry needs to be affected by the so-called pull-in effect. The Chinese machine tool industry that depends on high-end numerical control systems, knives and other products imported from Japan will also be affected.

"This month we can rely on the inventory provided by Japanese companies to guarantee orders, but the Japanese side has made it clear that it will not be available in the next month!" said Lu Changrong, general manager of Nanjing CNC Machine Tool Co., Ltd., with a slightly sad face. For most domestic high-end CNC machine tool manufacturing companies, the CNC machine tool's core components - CNC system is mainly supplied by Germany's Siemens and Japan's Fanuc two major suppliers. The recent earthquake in Japan triggered power restrictions in the Tokyo headquarters. FANUC was unable to produce properly and there was a temporary shortage of products. For this reason, the company had to actively look for alternative manufacturers, and if it fails to find it, it is likely to cause the company's overall sales efficiency to decline for a period of time.

Some people in the industry believe that although the impact of Japan's shortage of spare parts is short-term, it has revealed that China's machine tool industry is too dependent on imported systems and components. However, from another perspective, the earthquake in Japan may be against China. The transformation and upgrading of machine tool companies played a stimulating role.

In 2010, China imported 15.72 billion U.S. dollars worth of machine tool tools throughout the year, of which, machine tool products reached US$4.22 billion, an increase of 59.8% year-on-year, while domestically-manufactured metal processing machines only increased by 35.1%. In 2010, Japan was affected by external demand from emerging markets (China, India, etc.). From the beginning of 2010, the amount of orders has been growing substantially. In comparison, China's machine tool exports reached US$7.03 billion in 2010, and the machine tool industry’s most important product metal processing machine tool exports only US$1.85 billion, most of which are low-end products that do not have market competitiveness. Experts in the industry believe that the pulling effect of the previous 4 trillion yuan investment, the disconnection of production and research of domestic high-end machine tools, and the tax incentive policy of the country's high-end imported machine tools are all reasons for the significant increase in imports of high-end machine tools.

In addition to the mainframe products, it is understood that the cost of the imported CNC system equipped with Chinese-made high-end machine tools accounts for more than 60% of the manufacturing cost, and there is still a high level of dependence on imported parts such as knives. All along, the country has strongly supported companies that encourage the development of high-end numerical control systems and hopes to get rid of dependence on the “foreign” system as soon as possible. The Japan earthquake has intensified the contradiction between supply and demand to a certain extent. It is believed that Chinese enterprises will increase their R&D efforts, independent innovation, and user companies' acceptance of domestic CNC systems.