European machine tool industry orders grow steadily

The second quarter of 2011 was impressive for European machine tool builders. According to the report of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (VDW), German machine tool orders in the second quarter increased by 83% year-on-year, and overall demand in the first half doubled from the same period in 2010.

From the end of 2008 to the beginning of 2010, the world's machine tool industry experienced a significant decline in demand. However, since the middle of 2010, orders for the machine tool industry began to rise month by month, and the industry situation has improved.

Gerhard Hein, head of the VDW's economics and statistics department, said: "Continuously rising demand has indeed created an excellent performance in the industry in the first half of the year." He pointed out that the industry growth in 2011 was based on improvements and progress in 2010.

VDW statistics show that in the second quarter, orders for new machine tools in Germany increased by 72% year-on-year, while overseas export orders increased by 88% year-on-year. In the first half of 2011, orders for domestic machine tools in Germany increased by 96% compared to the same period in 2010, while orders for overseas markets increased by 107% over the same period of last year. The volume of orders in the first half of the year was even 8% higher than the history recorded in the same period of 2008.

In Italy, according to the report of the Italian Machine Tool Manufacturers Association (UCIMU), due to the strong growth in overseas demand, orders for Italian machine tools increased by 13% in the second quarter compared to the same period in 2010, and the order volume was close to the pre-crisis level. In the second quarter, demand for machine tools from overseas increased by 44.5% year-on-year, but orders in Italy fell by 33.8% year-on-year. In the first half of 2011, Italian machine tool orders increased by 16.3% year-on-year, mainly because overseas orders increased by 37.4% year-on-year, and their local orders still fell by 19.5%. UCIMU Chairman Giancarlo Losma said: "The industry performance this quarter is indeed satisfactory. At present, the productivity level of our factory is close to the pre-crisis level." VDW stated that the continuous increase in new orders has brought the industry's capacity utilization rate to a higher level. At present, the capacity utilization rate of the industry is 97.4%, far exceeding the 76.3% in July 2010. At the same time, the industry’s in-hand orders were 9.7 months, which also reached the highest levels in recent years.

Despite this, the machine tool industry remains cautious about expanding production capacity, mainly due to the current economic uncertainties in Europe and the United States. Hein pointed out that the impact of the financial crisis in 2008/2009 was deeply ingrained