A numerical control machine tool (NC machine tool) is an automated machine tool equipped with a program control system. Depending on the performance and grade of the NC machine tool, NC machine tool products can be classified into high-end NC machine tools, medium-end NC machine tools, and low-end NC machine tools. High-end NC machine tools refer to NC machine tools that have functions such as high speed, precision, intelligence, integration, multi-axis linkage, and network communication.

   As the 'mother of industry', machine tools are a symbol of the level of a country's manufacturing industry. CNC machine tools were invented by American inventor John Parsons in the last century. With the development of electronic information technology, the world machine tool industry has entered an era of mechatronics centered on digital manufacturing technology, with CNC machine tools being one of the representative products. CNC machine tools are high-efficiency automated machine tools equipped with program control systems, which can well solve the machining problems of complex, precision, small-batch, and multi-variety parts, representing the development direction of modern machine tool control technology.

   Industrialized countries such as Europe, America, and Japan have successively completed the industrialization process of CNC machine tools. China started in the 1980s and is now in the development stage. Although our country's casting machine tool industry has achieved certain results, it still faces many restrictive problems. Compared with foreign products, the main gap of China's CNC machine tools lies in the high-speed, high-efficiency and precision of the machine tools.

  The market size of CNC machine tools is large, exceeding 300 billion yuan in 2017. 

  From the perspective of China's CNC machine tool market, it has benefited from the rapid development of industries such as automobiles, aerospace, ships, power equipment, and engineering machinery in China, which have generated huge demand for the machine tool market, especially CNC machine tools, leading to rapid growth of the CNC machine tool industry. According to statistics, from 2014 to 2016, the sales revenue of CNC machine tools in China exceeded 240 billion yuan each year; in 2016, the sales volume of CNC machine tools in China was 273.23 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.69%. In 2017, the sales volume was approximately 306.03 billion yua n, exceeding 300 billion yuan for the first time.

   Downstream applications are still primarily dominated by the automotive industry, while consumer electronics will become the mainstream market for future applications.

   From the perspective of downstream consumer demand proportion in the CNC machine tool industry, the automotive sector is the main downstream demand field, accounting for approximately 42% of consumption; followed by aerospace, with a consumption proportion of about 18%; molds and engineering machinery are the third and fourth largest consumption fields of CNC machinery, with proportions around 15% and 10%, respectively.

  In the future, with the gradual popularization of smartphones, faster upgrade cycles, and the promotion and development of consumer electronics such as tablets and wearable devices, as well as communication equipment—key terminal products in the 3C industry—the 3C sector is expected to enter a period of rapid growth. Consumer electronics will become a new driver of industry expansion and will strongly boost the development of lightweight CNC machine tools used in this field.

   The structural contradictions in the product demand of CNC machine tools have escalated, and the localization rate of high-end products remains low.

   In recent years, China's CNC machine tool industry has experienced a significant imbalance between supply and demand, mainly manifested as overcapacity in low-end CNC machine tools and insufficient supply of high-end CNC machine tools, leading to a structural imbalance in supply. The low-end CNC machine tool industry has a low entry threshold, with many enterprises entering the market. In addition, the effective market demand for low-end CNC machine tools has been insufficient in recent years, resulting in overcapacity in this field. On the other hand, with the development of the national economy and the upgrading of industrial structure, the application of high-end CNC machine tools has become increasingly widespread, and product demand is growing larger and larger, while supply is difficult to meet demand.

   Due to a late start in the development of high-end CNC machine tools in our country, domestic production capacity currently cannot meet domestic demand, and most high-end CNC machine tools in China rely on imports. By 2016, the high-end CNC systems supported by the CNC Machine Tool Special Project had cumulatively sold more than 1,000 sets, and the domestic market share increased from less than 1% before the project's launch to about 5%. In 2017, the localization rate of high-end CNC machine tools in China was approximately 6%, which is still relatively low. However, from the demand side, by 2013, the proportion of demand for high-end CNC machine tools in China had already reached about 10%, and by 2017 it was between 15% and 20%, which is significantly higher than the 6% localization rate.

    At present, China's manufacturing industry urgently needs to transform from a "manufacturing giant" to a "manufacturing power." After decades of development, China's CNC machine tool industry has become the world's largest producer and consumer, with rapid advancements in both technology and production capacity. It now has the foundation to support the national transformation of the manufacturing sector. In the future, demand for CNC machine tools in China is expected to shift from mid-to-low-end to high-end. In other words, there is significant potential for import substitution in the high-end CNC machine tool segment.

   Driven by three major trends, China's CNC machine tool market is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan in the future.

   The focus of economic development in China's 13th Five-Year Plan is to achieve a transformation in the mode of economic growth. Advanced manufacturing is the direction for upgrading traditional manufacturing, and the development of high-tech industries such as electronics and information, biotechnology, new energy, and new materials will open up new demand for precision, efficient, and specialized CNC machine tools. From the perspective of regional development, the upgrading of industries in China's eastern regions, the revitalization of old industrial bases in the northeast, and the accelerated development of central and western regions provide a domestic market for the CNC machine tool industry. Economic globalization, the transfer of international capital and industries to China, exchanges of international technology and talent, and the vigorous development of China's foreign trade have provided an external environment for the development of China's CNC machine tool industry, placing the CNC machine tool sector in a rare strategic development period. In the future, China's CNC machine tool industry will mainly exhibit the following three development trends:

    First, the overall competitiveness of domestically produced CNC machine tools will be significantly improved, which will lead to a fundamental change in the market share of domestically produced CNC machine tools.

    Secondly, a group of multinational machine tool companies that have established wholly-owned or joint ventures in China, such as Germany's DMG MORI, the United States' Haas, and Japan's Mazak, will form production capacity through localized production.

    Finally, the industrialization of popular CNC machine tools will be formed. Popular CNC machine tools and machining center CNC machine tools are the fastest developing and the largest proportion category of products in various products, and also the most widely used equipment in manufacturing. As a medium-type CNC machine tool, popular CNC machine tools have become the mainstream of consumption, accounting for more than 30% of CNC machine tools, with a growth rate much higher than that of other types of machine tools, including CNC machine tools.

    From 2018 to 2023, China's CNC machine tools will still maintain a growth rate of 10%-12% due to technological development and the gradual recovery of the downstream market. By 2023, the market size of China's CNC machine tool industry will exceed 50 billion yuan.