South Korea's Machine Tool Industry Shows Restorative Growth

From January to July, South Korea's machine tool orders amounted to 1,814.70 billion won, and the output value was 2,319.1 billion won, both falling for two consecutive months. In terms of trade, in July, exports of machine tools were 170 million U.S. dollars, a decrease of 26.65% from the previous month and imports of 120 million U.S. dollars, an increase of 3.63%. Exports from January to July totaled 1.33 billion U.S. dollars and imports were 860 million U.S. dollars. Exports reversed their growth for three months, while imports reversed the decline.

In 2010, the South Korean machine tool industry showed a recovery growth, and the scale of the industry hit another record high. According to data published by Gardner Publications Inc. (Gardner Publications Inc.), in 2010, South Korea's metal processing machine tool production ranked fifth in the world with US$ 4.49 billion, a year-on-year increase of 63%; exports were ranked seventh with US$ 1.68 billion, and year-on-year growth. 37%; Imports ranked fourth with an increase of 34% from US$1.44bn, while consumption was ranked fourth with a YoY increase of 59% from US$4.26b. It can be seen that South Korea has become an important part of the world machine tool market.

According to the Korea Machine Tool Industry Association (KOMMA), the Korean machine tool industry was able to recover quickly from the financial crisis, and a number of indicators were significantly higher than the record of the best results in 2008. This benefited from domestic autos, electronics and The recovery of the general domestic demand of machinery companies is significant. On the other hand, it is due to the sustained growth of the Asian market including China, and emerging markets such as Central and South America.

Due to the promising prospects of the Chinese machine tool market, Korean machine tool manufacturers have expressed that they will develop products suitable for the needs of Chinese users, thereby expanding the market share in China. Doosan is Korea's largest machine tool company. Its executive director of company sales said that compared to German and Japanese machine tools, Doosan's machine tools are low in price, but they are not inferior in quality and functionality. China's automobiles, construction machinery, and wind power are all key development priorities. Doosan is also actively looking into the market demand from these areas. Doosan will accelerate the development of new products and strive to increase its market share in China from the current 3% to 7-8% within five years.