The machinery industry is the basic industry of the national economy. Whether the machinery industry is developed or not is an important symbol to measure the degree of industrialization of a country. The machine tool industry is also the foundation of the machinery industry, which provides "working machine" for the machinery industry. In modern machine tool industry, the mainstream product is CNC machine tool. It integrates multi-disciplinary technologies such as precision machinery, computer, communication, hydraulic pneumatic, optoelectronic, etc. it has the characteristics of high efficiency, high precision, high automation and high flexibility. It is the foundation and core of contemporary machinery manufacturing industry. Developing CNC machine tools is an inevitable choice on the road of national industrialization. The user surveys organized by China Machine Tool Industry Association for many times show that the aerospace, aviation, national defense and military industries need large-scale, high-speed, precision, multi axis and high-efficiency CNC machine tools; the automobile, motorcycle and household appliance manufacturing industries require high-efficiency, high reliability and high automation CNC machine tools and complete sets of flexible production lines; the power station equipment, shipbuilding, metallurgical and petrochemical equipment, and rail transit equipment manufacturing industries need high-precision CNC machine tools characterized by heavy duty, it, bioengineering and other high-tech industries require nano and submicron ultra precision machining CNC machine tools, and the industrial upgrading of traditional manufacturing industries such as construction machinery and agricultural machinery and the development of private enterprises also require a large number of CNC machine tools. CNC machine tool is an indispensable strategic material in the national defense industry. Many complex and high-precision parts in the national defense industry need to use multi axis linkage, high-precision and high-speed CNC machine tools. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the former Soviet Union secretly purchased six large-scale five axis CNC milling machines from Japan's Toshiba machinery company to process high-precision and low-noise propellers, thus improving the performance of nuclear submarines and making it difficult for the US Navy to track their whereabouts. As a result, the "Toshiba incident" of US sanctions against Japan was triggered.
Of course, those high-performance and high-precision CNC machine tools account for a small proportion in the whole machine tool products, and even the whole machine tool industry accounts for a small proportion in the national economy. However, due to the important strategic position of CNC machine tools in the national economy and national defense construction, developed countries still spare no effort to protect and support their own machine tool industry.
CNC machine tool imports remain high for a long time
Since China became the world's largest machine tool consumer market in 2002, the share of imported machine tools in the domestic market has remained high.
In the past five years, the import rate of machine tools has basically kept pace with the consumption rate of domestic machine tools, and its domestic market share has been maintained at about 60%. As the mainstream product of the machine tool consumption market, the market share of domestic products is lower. In 2001, the market share of domestic products was 29%, and then decreased year by year. In 2004, it decreased to 26.9%, and in 2005, it rose to 30.4%.
Ding Xuesheng, consultant of China machine tool and tool industry association, divided CNC machine tools into three levels: economical, popular (medium-grade) and high-grade. After comparing the price and performance of domestic and foreign products, he made an in-depth analysis.
Economic CNC machine tool is a unique product in China. This kind of CNC machine tool is generally controlled by two axes and can process general parts. Its CNC system is also a domestic supporting system. The machining accuracy and efficiency of economical CNC machine tools are low, but because of its good performance price ratio, it is especially suitable for the initial stage of industrialization. At present, China's demand for economic CNC machine tools is relatively large. In 2005, the domestic output of economic CNC machine tools reached more than 35000, accounting for about 90% of the domestic market.
At present, the annual output of domestic popular CNC machine tools is more than 3000, accounting for less than 10% of the domestic market. According to statistical analysis, although the price of imported machine tools is 10% ~ 15% higher than that of domestic ones, there are still 70% of middle-grade CNC machine tools imported.
As for high-end CNC machine tools, domestic products are still at the stage of market development, and the domestic market is basically foreign products.
Relevant analysis shows that in the import channel of CNC machine tools, foreign investment imports account for a considerable proportion. In addition, machine tools imported from key technological transformation projects of enterprises and key construction projects of the state enjoy preferential tariff and value-added tax, and the import amount is not small.
As early as the beginning of the WTO negotiations, China reduced the import tariff rate of CNC machine tools to 9.7%, and the tariff rate of CNC systems to 5%, which is lower than the average 10% level of developing countries stipulated by the WTO. As foreign investment and imported machine tools for domestic key projects enjoy tax preference for a long time, foreign machine tool manufacturers enjoy super national treatment much more favorable than Chinese enterprises in China, and China's relatively weak CNC machine tool industry is even more squeezed.
CNC machine tool industry faces great development opportunities
The rapid development of the national economy and the introduction of the national policy to revitalize the equipment manufacturing industry have brought new strategic development opportunities for the development of China's machine tool industry. At present, the revitalization of the equipment manufacturing industry has become a major development strategy of the country. The country has provided a good policy environment for the revitalization of the equipment manufacturing industry, including the CNC machine tool industry.
