Leading world on machine tool sales
(ZHANG YU'AN)
03/26/2003
China has become the world's largest consumer and importer of machine tools, creating abundant opportunities for trade and economic co-operation in the global manufacturing industry, a senior industry official announced yesterday in Beijing.Last year, the country's consumption of machine tools shot up to US$5.5 billion, an increase of US$800 million or 17 per cent over the previous year. This makes China "the largest machine tool consumer in the world for the first time," said Xu Shangwen, vice-president of the China Machine Tool and Tool Builders' Association. About half of the machine tools China uses are imported, making it the world's largest importer of machine tools as well, she said. Xu attributed most of the strong growth in machine tool consumption and imports to the Chinese Government's efforts to stimulate domestic consumption, greater investment in fixed assets, textiles, machinery, metallurgy and increased spending by the private sector. The cut in import duties on foreign machine tools also played an important role in boosting imports. After the country entered the World Trade Organization in late 2001, the import duty on machine tools was reduced from 14.45 to 10.14 per cent. The duties on some categories of machine tools fell to as low as 5 or 8 per cent. Xu predicted that China's high rate of growth will push its consumption of machine machine tools to US$7 billion and imports of machine tools past US$3.5 billion in 2005. Rising demand and growing purchasing power have made the country a hot spot for trade and co-operation for the global machine tool industry. As a result, the total exhibition space demanded by domestic and overseas exhibitors at the forthcoming Eighth China International Machine Tool Show (CIMT 2003) has surpassed the total space available at Beijing's China International Exhibition Centre, according to the association. The total booked exhibition space at the CIMT 2003, to be staged from April 16 to 22, will reach nearly 80,000 square metres, including 7,800 square metres of floor space at two temporary exhibition halls. More than 1,200 domestic and overseas machine tool manufacturers, research institutes and traders from 26 countries and regions will gather at the exhibition to display more than 1,000 products, many of which are the most advanced in the world. "Almost all the famous machine tool makers in the world will come to Beijing," Xu said.
|
