FOCUS ON MACHINE TOOLS
Bounce-back for European machine tools
During its last General Assembly meeting in June ( held in Edinburgh , Scotland ), CECIMO outlined that in a time of geopolitical challenges , alongside other disruptive factors shaking global economies , Europe ’ s machine tool ( MT ) sector is continuing its recovery in 2022 . On the policy side , with eminent speakers from political and business arenas , European machine-tool producers debated key sectoral issues such as digital transformation , supply chain disruptions , standardisation issues and sustainability .
CECIMO is the European association of machine tool industries and related manufacturing technologies . It brings together 15 national associations of machine-tool builders , which represent approximately 1500 industrial enterprises in Europe ( EU + UK + EFTA + Turkey ), over 80 % of which are SMEs . CECIMO covers 98 % of total machine tool production in Europe and about 33 % worldwide . It accounts for approximately 150,000 employees and a turnover of around 22.5 billion euros in 2021 . More than three quarters of CECIMO production is shipped overseas , whereas half of it is exported outside Europe .
Economic outlook and trends
CECIMO ’ s General Assembly meeting in Edinburgh included forecasts for European machine tool production and policy debates on the future of manufacturing .
“ Growth expectations for 2022 are also supported by strong new orders over the first period of the year .”
CECIMO Spring Meetings .
The latest CECIMO machine tool ( MT ) production estimates confirmed strong recovery of the MT sector , with an 11.6 % increase in 2021 from 2020 levels . Latest world MT production estimates show that global production has recovered somewhat faster and reached about 72.1 billion euros , reflecting an increase of about 19.7 %. Chairman of CECIMO ’ s Economic Committee , Marcus Burton , underlined that ‘’ despite an uncertain global market , Europe remains the world leader in machine tool production which reached about 22.6 billion euros in 2021 .’’
“ Although the MT sector recognises the current problems related to supply chain disruptions and new geopolitical challenges , we continue to see further recovery of our sector in 2022 . In that respect , our initial estimates show that MT production in CECIMO countries will increase by around 12 %. In addition , according to the latest forecasts from Oxford Economics , strong growth in MT consumption at the CECIMO level is expected in 2022 , around 19 %,” added
CECIMO . “ It is important to point out that we do not foresee any significant impact , due to the latest sanctions against Russia , on CECIMO ’ s trade balance and exports because [ its ] share of the Russian market has already reduced drastically due to previous sanctions . Moreover , given the recovery in
Marcus Burton , Chairman of CECIMO ’ s Economic Committee .