The competition in China's mid-end machine tool market has entered a white-hot, many domestically-made machine tools are blazing new trails, and strive to open up the international market to seek development. In 2014, how should domestic machine tool companies develop?
Foreign machine tools are competing with domestic machine tools for the market, and this has always been a fierce, smoke-free war. From March 28 to 31, 2014, the EMAG Group, a global leader in the machine tool manufacturing industry, demonstrated its advanced technological advantages at the Shenzhen International Metal Cutting Machine Tool Show (SIMM). EMAG's advanced products and technologies have absolute competitive advantages in market competition, which has caused many domestic machine tool companies to increase their pressure.
Nowadays, although some Chinese companies have developed mid-to-high-end CNC machine tools, most of them are assembled on the basis of the manufacture and import of key functional components of domestic machine tools. This does not fully indicate that we have mastered the overall R&D and manufacturing technologies for mid- to high-end CNC machine tools and key functional components. Affected by R&D capabilities, 80% of domestic high-end CNC systems, 90% of high-end CNC systems, and 85% of high-end CNC machines are dependent on imports from abroad.
Domestic Market: Intense competition in the mid-range machine tool market
At the beginning of this year, the world-famous machine tool manufacturing company Dama Giesen exhibited 16 sets of equipment on the site of CCMT, and put forward its slogan of “Leading Technology: Made in China – Made for China†and became one of the highlights of this year's CCMT. The move of DMG-Silicon Precision Machinery to compete for the Chinese market indicates the ambition of foreign machine tool companies for the Chinese market. Some of the major German machine tool companies have introduced new strategies for the Asian market, especially the Chinese market: they are extending downwards on the basis of high-end dominance and focus on expanding the mid-market. This move further exacerbated the plight of the domestic machine tool industry. In addition to price advantages, the advantages of imported machine tools such as high precision, good stability, and efficiency, automation, and intelligence are beginning to appear. This has led some domestic machine tool companies producing middle- and low-end machine tools to undergo a difficult downturn.
On February 21 this year, Kunming Machine Tool held its 2014 annual meeting. The company's general manager Chang Baoqiang emphasized at the meeting that in 2014 the company will continue to promote management innovation, business innovation and technological innovation. At the same time, many domestic machine tool companies are undergoing upgrading and transformation. The purpose of the transformation and upgrading is to make their products become high quality, efficient, and high-end. However, it should be noted that while the domestic machine tools are clamoring for the transition slogans to compete for high-end markets, the low-end market is also gradually being eroded by foreign machine tools. The most unacceptable situation is that we have lost the mid-to-low-end market, but the high-end market has low recognition of domestic machine tools, which eventually led to the loss of watermelons. On the other hand, to consolidate the existing market share in the low-end market is not to not innovate and transform, but to consolidate the low-end market, while step by step to the high-end market. It is impossible to obtain a firm foundation by seeking fast and seeking good results.
In the past, the state did not pay enough attention to the machine tool industry. The idea of ​​quick success and quick success of the enterprise has a heavy weight in terms of mainframe, light components, and quality compared with foreign machine tools. Now, the state has begun to pay attention to the development of the machine tool industry. Domestic machine tools have obtained a more favorable development environment under the support of national policies. Professionals believe that machine tool companies should increase investment in scientific research and pay attention to improving the quality of parts and components. In the production of high-quality machine tool parts, at the same time, research and development of CNC machine tools supporting the program, do a good job industrial links. In the history of development, machine tool companies should pay attention to dealing with the relationship between short-term interests and long-term interests. They should take a long-term view, do not be petty, and use savvy products to lay a solid foundation for future development at a high level. In addition, customized non-standard and personalized products can also be produced according to the buyer's needs, with a purpose and purpose to meet the market demand.
Compared with foreign machine tool companies, China's machine tool companies should take advantage of their advantages in product after-sales service while occupying a good "geographical advantage". In terms of transportation, we can consider using faster and better services and thoughtful product upgrades to gain advantages for domestic machine tools. China's logistics industry is also in a period of upgrading. In line with the convenient transportation of logistics, plus the promotion and sales of Internet e-commerce products, under a variety of flexible packaging, domestic machine tools can constantly enhance their own competitive strengths, in foreign countries. Machines can create more advantages for themselves when competing for the market.
Foreign Markets: Domestic Machine Tools Open up Others
In the battle for foreign markets, the main targets of China's machine tool exports are Southeast Asia. The lack of demand in the domestic market simply driven by foreign markets is not a long-term solution. In the past, China's exports of Southeast Asian machine tools have begun to change in the form of low-end machine tools, and it is very dangerous to hold the idea that “selling China's low-end machine tools to Southeast Asia will make up for the vacancy in the domestic marketâ€. In the process of economic and industrial development in Southeast Asia, the demand for machine tools is gradually shifting to the mid-range. Without excellent products, it will be difficult to gain a foothold in the world's machine tool market.
Yunnan CY Group Co., Ltd. Cui Peiqiang said that while increasing the export of machine tools in Southeast Asia, it will also explore new offshore markets, such as Russia and South America. Machine tool companies already have awareness and gradually increase their efforts to open up the international market. While facing the Southeast Asian market, we can also appropriately consider entering the European and American markets or exploring other countries' markets.
For the domestic machine tool companies, good and cheap are their advantages, and the recovery of European and American demand for equipment is a major opportunity. In 2014, we believe that domestic machine tools will be able to meet the difficulties, and in the meantime, they will fly their own style.