Japanese Machine Tool Manufacturers have Successively Invested in China to Increase Production

Due to the fierce demand for orders from China, Japanese machine tool enterprises have plans to expand production and tackle demand in China. Among them, the robot manufacturer FUJI transmission plan will increase China ' s production capacity by 80 %.

According to data released by the Central Japan Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry, in May 2021, the eight major machine tool companies under its jurisdiction sold orders to China of 8 billion yen, a sharp increase of more than double the same month last year.

The report pointed out that Japanese robot manufacturer FUJI will invest hundreds of millions of yen to set up two new plants in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. The goal is to increase China's annual production capacity to 350 units by 2023, which will be an 80% increase from the current. Yamazaki Mazak will set up a new plant in the Liaoning plant that produces CNC lathes and other products to increase production capacity in stages by the end of 2022. DMG Mori Seiki's new plant in the suburbs of Shanghai will be opened in 2023, and the new plant of the Tianjin plant will also start production in 2025, thereby doubling the production capacity of Chinese machine tools. Brother Industries also built a new plant in the Xi'an plant, which produces cutting machines, this spring.

The report points out that for machine tool manufacturers in central Japan, the importance of the Chinese market is rising. In May, the orders of the main eight manufacturers in China ( Y8 billion ) accounted for 24 % of the global ( Y32.8 billion ).  Due to the strong demand for automation and semiconductor in China, the order amount of machine tool enterprises in central Japan in May was also much higher than that in May 2019 ( JPY 6.6 billion ) before the outbreak of the epidemic.

Japan ' s machine tool orders to China hit record highs

The Japanese Machine Tool Industry Association ( JMTBA ) released statistical data on June 22, which pointed out that due to the surge in export orders, the overall order amount ( final value : domestic sales + foreign sales ) of Empty City in Japan in May 2021 increased 1.4 times compared with the same month last year ( a surge of about 140 % ) to Y12.3936 billion, which showed an increase for the seventh consecutive month, and the largest increase in recent 11 years ( since August 2010, a surge of 170 % ).  The monthly order amount is the Y100 billion mark that breaks through the boundary line between the good and bad orders for the fourth consecutive month.

Among them, Japan's machine tool orders from China (sold to China) in May 2021 surged 1.7 times (about 170%) to 38.751 billion yen from the same month last year, showing an increase for the 12th consecutive month. The monthly order volume is second only to 41.207 billion yen in November 2017, the second highest in single-month history.

The Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun reported on April 14 that orders for machine tools for infrastructure-related and semiconductor manufacturing equipment from China were strong. At present, DMG Mori Seiki's Tianjin plant orders have been scheduled to February 2022, and the demand for automotive and semiconductor manufacturing equipment will increase in the future. Therefore, DMG Mori Seiki will build a new plant to meet demand.

According to reports, DMG Mori Seiki plans to build a new machine tool plant in China, which is expected to start production in January 2025. By then, DMG Mori Seiki's annual production capacity of machine tools in China will increase to 1,000 units, which will be approximately double the current level. The new plant will be located near the existing Tianjin plant of DMG Mori Seiki, with an estimated investment of about 3 billion yen.