Since the outbreak of the international war crisis, the world economy has declined, international market demand has shrunk severely, and my country's foreign trade has encountered unprecedented difficulties. The import and export of my country's machine tool industry experienced a significant decline in the fourth quarter of this year. Due to the rapid growth in the early part of the year, the year-on-year growth of exports for the year still reached .%, and the year-on-year growth of imports was .%. Entering the year, the import and export volume of machine tool products dropped sharply at a double-digit rate, the largest decline in the year. According to customs statistics, the annual import and export volume of machine tool tools was US$.0 billion, a year-on-year decrease of .%. Among them, the total export volume was US$0.0 billion, a year-on-year decrease of .%; the total import volume was US$0.0 billion, a year-on-year decrease of .%; the import and export deficit was US$0.0 billion. What cannot be ignored is that in a year when exports continued to decline severely and experienced negative growth that has not been seen in many years, the export share of low-value machine tools has rebounded from the previous year.
Under the influence of the financial crisis, developed countries have vigorously developed high-tech and increased investment in R&D to prepare for the next round of industrial upgrading in the post-financial crisis era. The Central Economic Work Conference held not long ago in our country also proposed: "Continue to implement a proactive fiscal policy and a moderately loose monetary policy. Efforts will be made to improve the pertinence and flexibility of policies based on new situations and circumstances." "We must maintain a moderate growth in investment, focus on completing projects under construction, and strictly control new projects." This means that the state will use limited financial resources to encourage enterprises to develop high-tech products, create technologies that are conducive to energy conservation and emission reduction, benefit agriculture, rural areas, and farmers, and improve people's livelihood, without sacrificing the environment to maintain growth. Restrictions on "one-capital" products are even stricter. The Copenhagen Conference will put greater pressure on countries to reduce carbon emissions. The green barriers built by some developed countries in the world for environmental protection have undoubtedly made it more difficult to enter the international market. Products that pollute the environment and consume high energy are either rejected or subject to heavy taxes and sanctions. Therefore, the research and application of low-carbon economy and green manufacturing technology are the direction of future economic development and the basis for products to enter the international market. Enterprises in the machine tool industry should attach great importance to them and take corresponding measures as soon as possible.
First, pay attention to the country’s investment priorities and accelerate the adjustment of industrial structure. A recent survey of several user industries by the China Machine Tool and Tool Industry Association shows that the country’s huge investment in aviation, automobiles, railways, green energy, ships, electronic information and other industries has driven the market demand structure to develop towards the high end. The state's investment in the above key areas is not only to respond to the financial crisis and expand domestic demand, but also to focus on the long-term development goal of structural adjustment. This indicates that structural adjustment will be the focus of these industries in the post-financial crisis era. In particular, our country is still subject to technological blockade from foreign countries in many key areas, so structural adjustment must be based on independent innovation. This will bring opportunities for industrial upgrading and structural adjustment to the machine tool industry.
The machine tool tool industry should focus on key investment areas, gain a deep understanding of user needs, and increase efforts to develop applicable products. Eliminate backward products and production capacity as soon as possible to avoid vicious competition. We should boldly try to shift to "specialized, refined and special" products. The development of high-speed railway track plate grinding machines by some companies is a successful example of the development of "special machines". There are still many areas where we need to fill the gaps, such as: aircraft tape laying machines, automatic drilling and riveting machines for aircraft, special machine tools for textile needles, processing equipment for parts required in the medical and health care fields such as human joints and prosthetics, etc. At present, these equipment mainly rely on imports, and some are even banned from my country. Only by basing ourselves on independent innovation and developing imported substitute products that meet user needs can we open up new markets. Data show that annual imports of machine tool parts continue to grow, which shows that domestic machine tool parts cannot fully meet the requirements of the host industry. Parts and components companies should seize the opportunity of market growth, develop new products, and accelerate structural adjustments.