Decrypt the development trend of the machine tool industry in the first three quarters of 2010 in the United States

In the first three quarters of 2010, the U.S. machine tool industry rebounded rapidly, especially in September, when orders and spending increased. In most of the countries in the world, the growth rate of the machine tool industry slowed down in the second half of the year. The growth rate of the US machine tool industry rose in a contrarian direction. This was mainly due to the increased support from the U.S. government and the reduction of some product taxes, and the success of the IMTS show. This led to a large number of orders, and the depreciation of the dollar also helped companies reduce export costs.

Accelerated growth in machine tool orders and consumption According to the statistics of the American Manufacturing Technology Association (AMT) and the American Machine Tool Distributors Association (AMTDA), the cumulative spending of U.S. machine tools for the first three quarters of 2010 was 2.09 billion U.S. dollars, 1.2 billion U.S. dollars for the same period in 2009 The dollar increased by 74.1%. As can be seen from Figure 1, after months of changes in order volatility, US machine tool orders and spending have accelerated in September, and consumption increased by 156.8% year-on-year.

In the first three quarters, orders for US metal-cutting machine tools were 11,244, spending was 1,938 million U.S. dollars, and consumption increased by 86.7% year-on-year; orders for metal forming and manufacturing machine tools were 976, spending amounted to 152 million U.S. dollars, and spending was the same Still down 6.4%.

The export of metal processing machine tools increased by 23.8% in September. According to AMT statistics, in the first three quarters of 2010, the U.S. exported 1.315 billion U.S. dollars worth of metal processing machine tools, an increase of 23.8% from the previous year's 12.371 billion U.S. dollars; The machine tool was 661 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 31.8% from 501.4 million U.S. dollars in the same period of last year. In September, China became the most important export market for metal processing machine tools in the United States. Its export volume increased by 123.8% from the previous month to US$43.8 million. The second largest export market was Mexico, which exported 19.4 million US dollars, a decrease of 24.9% from the previous month; The top five markets are: China Taiwan (18.7 million US dollars), Canada (14.1 million US dollars) and India (9.6 million US dollars).

Metal processing machine tool exports still fell by 5.2%. Japan and Germany were the main sources. In the first three quarters of the previous year, the United States accumulatively imported 1.278 billion U.S. dollars worth of metal processing machine tools, which was 5.2% lower than the 1.927 billion U.S. dollars for the same period of last year; the total number of imported CNC machine tools was 1.156 billion U.S. dollars. The $1.2795 billion in the same period last year also fell by 9.6%. From the perspective of machine tool import sources, Japan and Germany are still the main source of U.S. machine tool imports. However, in September, U.S. imports of machine tools from Japan reached 99.4 million U.S. dollars, a decrease of 15.6% from the previous month; imports from Germany were 24.8 million U.S. dollars, a decrease of 46.8% from the previous month. %. The remaining top five sources of imports are: China Taiwan (14.8 million US dollars), Switzerland (13.4 million US dollars) and South Korea (13.4 million US dollars).

September is the watershed of the real recovery of the industry AMTDA chairman Peter Borden said that in September 2010, it was a watershed for the industry to recover from recession in 2008-2009. In September, orders for US machine tools reached 1992, which was the highest since September 2008. This reflects the rebound of the industry and the maintaining status of U.S. manufacturing. What is more noteworthy is that this is the result of the current operation of many factories that need to purchase capital goods, which are still below their production capacity. Despite the current credit crunch, there is also the problem of increasing government debt and potential taxation. The successful holding of the IMTS and depreciation of the US dollar are all catalysts for the recovery of the industry. In addition, due to the strong demand of the association, Congress will extend the depreciation allowance to December this year, so it is expected that the strong recovery of industrial orders will continue until the end of the year.

The United States extended the duty-free period of some machine tool equipment in August. The President of the United States signed the American Manufacturing Improvement Act (H.R. 4380), which will reduce or suspend the partial tariffs that US manufacturing companies must pay when importing raw materials for production. This bill involves the machine tool industry, which is mainly extending the two-year tax exemption period for certain manufacturing equipment to December 31, 2012. If it is used for processing iron or steel wire, it is certified for non-highway use, and the rim diameter is Radial tires of 63.5 cm and above in numerical control machine tools and their components, as well as CNC shears for radial tires with a rim diameter of 63.5 cm and above, certified for use on non-highway applications Machine and its parts and so on. These measures can reduce the cost of enterprises and help increase their market competitiveness.