In 2021, the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, China led the world in epidemic prevention and control and economic development. The economy maintained steady recovery and the quality of development was further improved. China’s GDP grew by 8.1% year on year and by 5.1% on average over the two years. Imports and exports of goods grew 21.4 percent year-on-year. The added value of industrial enterprises above designated size grew by 9.6% year on year and by 6.1% on average over the two years. The added value of the equipment manufacturing industry increased by 12.9 percent over the previous year.

Under favorable macroeconomic conditions, the machine tool industry continued its recovery growth trend since the second half of 2020 in 2021, with continuous improvement in market demand and significant growth in import and export. Machine tool industry operation continues to maintain a good trend.

Annual industry operation characteristics

1.Major economic indicators are high and low, but still maintain high growth

Thanks to the good situation of COVID-19 prevention and control and economic development in China, the machine tool industry in 2021 continued the stable and good trend since the second half of 2020. Influenced by the base of the previous year, the growth rate of major economic indicators such as operating revenue was high in the first place and low in the second place, but the growth rate of the whole year was still high. At the same time, the growth of each sub-industry of machine tools in 2021 was also relatively balanced, and all industries generally achieved significant growth. The industry’s decade-long downward trend is expected to reverse.

2.Signs of weakening growth momentum appeared in the second half of the year

Since the second half of 2021, adverse factors have increased, including repeated epidemics and natural disasters in many places, and power cuts in some areas, which have adversely affected market demand and industry operation. Raw material prices continue to remain high, putting pressure on industry costs. The growth rate of new orders and orders in hand of key enterprises fell faster than that of the previous year. The growth rate of profits in many sub-industries fell below that of revenue, and the growth momentum of the industry weakened.

3.Imports and exports increased significantly and the trade surplus continued to expand

Both imports and exports of machine tools grew rapidly in 2021, and the growth rate of exports was nearly twice that of imports. The trade surplus in 2021 more than doubled from 2020. Exports of metalworking machine tools grew faster than imports