China's machine tool industry encountered many problems

The consumption of metal cutting tools in China generally extends the growth trend in 2010 as a whole and increases in the total amount. According to calculations, China's tool consumption in 2011 was approximately 39 billion yuan, an increase of approximately 13% from 2010; the domestic tool consumption was approximately 27 billion yuan, which is less than 4% growth compared to 2010; and the imported tool consumption About 12 billion yuan, an increase of about 25% over 2010.

However, if we analyze from the consumption structure, we will find that there are many problems in the consumption structure of domestic tools.

In the world-wide industry, the proportion of tool consumption is probably: high-speed steel cutters account for 35%, diamond and cubic boron nitride tools account for 10%, and welded carbide cutters, solid carbide and indexable carbide It is the remaining part.

This is not the case in China's cutting tool industry. According to statistics of domestic sales of member companies of the Tooling Industry Association Tool Branch in 2010, about 69% of China's domestically produced cutting tools are high-speed steel tools, and cemented carbide tools only account for about 28% (the rest are tool systems, diamonds). And cubic boron nitride tools, etc.). Even with imported cutters, about 53% of tool consumption in China is high-speed steel tools, while carbide tools are 45%, while diamond and cubic boron nitride tools account for only 2%.

Luo Baihui, chief analyst of Jinmo Tool Network, pointed out that although China has become the world’s largest consumer of machine tools and is also the world’s largest consumer of cutting tools, our tool consumption structure cannot even reach the world average. Our current situation is: Although our machine tool output numerical control rate and machine tool production numerical control rate are increasing year by year, but from the trend of the decline in the average price of its machine tool, we can see that our CNC machine tool may be easy to play in the NC. This means that the overall level of metal cutting in China is not high.

This low level of overall processing and our rising labor costs and appreciation of the renminbi hides the risk that our Chinese manufacturing will gradually become uncompetitive. Economists and entrepreneurs in some countries, including the United States Consideration is being given to moving some manufacturing companies that have been moved to Asia back to their home countries.

For example, if we use high-performance high-speed steels containing cobalt and even powder metallurgy high-speed steels (P/MHSS) instead of ordinary high-speed steels, which are now commonly used, our high-speed steel tool manufacturing levels can also reach a higher level. In developed countries in Europe and America, since the 1970s, the market share of high-speed steel tools has gradually been eroded by cemented carbide tools. However, with the advent of powder metallurgy high-speed steel tools, the market share of high-speed steel tools has rebounded. This is because powder metallurgy high-speed steel tools are more popular than users because they have higher hardness, better toughness and wear resistance than ordinary high-speed steel tools. Because of the application fields such as high-impact and large-removal machining, powder metallurgy high-speed steel tools are less brittle than ordinary old models, and are less prone to chipping, which in turn replaces a part of cemented carbide. Tool.