German Machine Tool Development in the First Half of 2013

In the first half of the year, the total output value of the German machine tool industry was 6.54 billion euros, an increase of 1% over the same period of last year. Among them, the machine tool output value of 4.87 billion euros, an increase of 1%; cutting machine tool production value of 3.63 billion euros, unchanged from the previous year; forming machine tool output value of 1.24 billion euros, an increase of 2%; annex output value of 1.15 billion euros, flat; assembly, repair and installation 520 million euros, an increase of 4%. In the first half of 2013, employment increased to 71,495, an increase of 3.2%, the highest level since 2009.

In the first half of 2013, the order book for the German machine tool industry was EUR 6.94 billion, which was a year-on-year drop of 13%. Among them, domestic orders were 2.25 billion euros, down 19% year-on-year; foreign orders were 4.69 billion euros, down 9% year-on-year. The inventory of orders in the first half of 2013 was an average of 7.7 months, which was lower than the 8.6 months of the previous year. The inventory of orders in June was 7.4 months.

In the first half of 2013, the total output value of German machine tools (excluding assembly, maintenance, and installation) was 6.02 billion euros, which was the same as the same period of last year; exports were 4.48 billion euros, down 3% year-on-year; imports were 1.35 billion euros, down 16%; domestic consumption 2.89 billion euros, down 3%. The specific performance in the larger decline in the import rate and the increase in China's machine tool annex exports.

In the first half of 2013, the German machine tool export rate (export/output value) was 74.5%, down 2.8 points year-on-year, but higher than the 2012 annual average. The import rate (import/domestic consumption) was 46.8%, down 7.4 points year-on-year, also lower than the 2012 average, indicating that the domestic equipment investment in Germany has decreased.

In the first half of 2013, the total value of German machine tool exports was 4.48 billion euros, and China’s exports to China were 1.21 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 6%, accounting for 27.0% of total exports, a decrease of 0.3 percentage points from 2011. Among them, the machine tools exported to China accounted for 1.12 billion Euros, a year-on-year increase of 4%, accounting for 29.3% of Germany's total machine exports; the export of machine tool accessories was 93 million Euros, an increase of 48%, again becoming the largest exporter, accounting for 14.1%.

Germany is the third largest machine tool importer in the world, second only to China and the United States, and about 40% of market demand is resolved through imports. In the first half of 2013, of the 1.35 billion euros of machine tool imports, Switzerland remained the largest source of imports, followed by Japan, Italy, the Czech Republic, and Austria. China rose to the sixth place, surpassing the United States for the first time, accounting for 4.4, compared to 2012. The average annual level increased by 0.3 percentage points, and the total imports from China accounted for 4.8% of the total imports, and the proportion in the vicinity was 3.5%.

According to the production value calculation, in the first quarter of 2013, German cutting machine tools accounted for 55.8% of the total output value of the machine tools, forming machine tools accounted for 18.7%, both declined. From the perspective of exports, in the first half of the year, German machine tool exports increased by 1%, forming machine tools fell by 15%, accounting for 66.0% and 19.3%, respectively. From the import point of view, in the first half of the year, only the number of multi-station processing machine tools and milling machines increased in Germany's imported cutting machine tools, and the wire processing machines in forming machines saw a larger increase.