German machine tool company focuses on developing the mid-range market in China

Data shows that global machine tool consumption increased by about 9.3% last year, but has slowed down this year. Martin Kapp, the President of the European Machine Tool Commission and the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, recently stated that global machine tool consumption is expected to increase by only 2% this year, but in terms of total consumption, it will reach an unprecedented 68.1 billion euros. And various signs indicate that next year's machine tool consumption will resume rapid growth and create new industry records.

Although the global market demand for machine tools has slowed down this year, China's machine tool market still maintains a relatively fast growth rate, leading the development of the Asian market. As the world's largest producer and consumer of machine tools, China is playing an increasingly important role in the global machine tool market. Martin Kapp stated that China has become the largest market for the European machine tool industry, and its growth rate is also the fastest. The forecast of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association shows that by 2017, China's machine tool consumption will be between 30.6-37.6 billion euros, compared to 23.9 billion euros last year.

Wilfried Schaefe, Executive Director of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, stated that China is an important export destination for Germany, accounting for nearly 30% of its total exports in 2012 Data shows that last year, the export value of the German machine tool industry was about 8.3 billion euros, of which over 2.4 billion euros came from China. Although the export value of the German machine tool industry decreased by 3% in the first half of this year, the export value to China increased by 6%, accounting for 27% of the total This makes it necessary for the German machine tool industry to maintain its market share in China.

According to reports, in the eyes of German companies, the mid-range market is the most promising market. However, in the mid-range product market, German companies face strong competition from Chinese companies. Because the technological gap between the two countries in this field is relatively small, while Chinese companies provide better services to customers. A survey by the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association shows that compared to German machine tool companies, Chinese companies usually establish service and distribution centers covering the mainland region to ensure that they can fulfill the promised 1-2 year warranty and full life after-sales service to customers. Even during holidays, after-sales personnel from Chinese companies can arrive at the customer's location within 48 hours to provide repairs and spare parts, and the cost is also lower. Compared to this, customers' experience of after-sales service for German machine tools is not ideal, mainly due to the gap in response speed and maintenance costs compared to Chinese machine tool companies. Therefore, the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association calls on German machine tool companies to appropriately localize products with small R&D and technology gaps in China, enter a large market through local production, but still maintain an import strategy in the high-end product field. Narrowing the service gap with Chinese machine tool companies, enhancing service flexibility and communication with customers.