Signs of recovery in the European machine tool industry
June 17, 2010
During the fourth quarter of 2009 the orders of machine tools were recovered in all countries where the Cecimo has activity, after a fall in the first quarter of 2009, exceeding 50% - in comparison with the same period of the previous year - as a result of the financial crisis. Michael Hauser, President of Cecimo, European Association of machine tool manufacturers, declared that "the order books are still at very low levels, still will be needed some weeks before that this recovery is clearly seen in sales".
Free trade with emerging markets
The recovery of the European machine tool industry has been driven by the increase in consumption in emerging markets, especially in China. Despite the severe crisis that the sector in 2009, the global market share of the machine tools exported by Cecimo countries increased from 55 to 61 per cent. This data reflects the competitiveness of this European industry on international markets. CECIMO hoped that this trend would have continued in 2010.
We still have to wait until that consumption recovers in Europe, because investment capital of traditional of this type of machines end users are still at modest levels, the capacity utilization is below average and there are still restrictions on creditespecially for small businesses. The current financial instability, which is compounded by the sovereign debt of several European countries, could affect liquidity flows are essential to enable the industry to invest in more modern and energy-efficient production equipment.
Geographic migration of consumption of machine tools to emerging markets of Asia and Latin America makes it necessary that the European industry have equal access and non-discriminatory to those markets.
"Unfortunately, the economic crisis has revived some instinctive national reflexes, materialized in a series of small scale initiatives that, often, are more an obstacle to the economy than a boost," said Frank Brinken, President of the Economic Committee of Cecimo. These obstacles such as, for example, the new regulation on imports of machinery recently introduced in Korea of the South, often take the form of additional local certifications, which are expensive - or significant delays in obtaining licences to import or export.
It is hoped that the free trade agreements, such as the one signed between the EU and the southern Korea, remove non-tariff barriers. Precisely for this reason, Cecimo is a strong supporter of this agreement. Although Cecimo comprises the most lukewarm position of other sectors in regard to the withdrawal of taxes and to the safeguard clauses, Cecimo requests that the European Council should implement the free trade agreement on a provisional basis before the European Parliament's final approval.
CECIMO has put great expectations in two recent initiatives launched by the European Commission: the European strategy for key enabling technologies and the EU 2020 strategy, which will include an industrial policy at EU level. The European Association has direct involvement in the initiative on enabling key technologies in the person Javier Eguren, Vice President of Cecimo. Eguren has recently been included in the high level group as a representative of the subsector of advanced manufacturing systems. The Organization has confidence that the European Union established the regulatory framework needed to pave the way for a future machine tool smart, eco, inclusive, innovative and internationally competitive sector.
