China industry daily Meng fanjun

China's novel coronavirus pneumonia has recovered rapidly, and the market has also rebounded quickly. It is estimated that China's industrial production and capital investment will increase by more than 5% in 2021, and the consumption of machine tools is likely to see strong growth of 10%. Germany is the second largest supplier to China's machine tool industry after Japan and holds a leading position in the high-tech sector. Its technology is widely utilized across various customer fields in China, including automotive, aerospace, mechanical engineering, power generation, and other broad-based machine tool users. At the 17th China International Machine Tool Exhibition (CIMT2021), Shane Sun from VDW China in Frankfurt provided insights.

On April 12th, during the CIMT2021 press conference of the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association, the managing director Wilfried Schaefer stated: "COVID-19 has impacted China's limited exit. German manufacturers will primarily be represented by their subsidiaries in China."

"Finally, we have a real trade show again." Exhibitors and visitors gathered at the booth for face-to-face discussions, which is exactly what many German machine tool manufacturers have been looking forward to.

CIMT is a new starting point for umati to enter China.

Since 2020, German machine tool orders from China began to stabilize, even increasing by 17% in the fourth quarter, showing double-digit growth. In 2021, there are many signs that the global economy will continue to grow. Wilfried Schaefer remarked: "The development in 2021 will be more encouraging, as we should have already entered a turnaround phase."

China Industry Daily found that VDW has a umati booth at CIMT. According to the introduction, umati (universal machine technology interface) is a community of the mechanical engineering industry and its customers, aimed at promoting and disseminating an open standardized interface based on OPC UA. The purpose of the demonstration at CIMT is to introduce the interface specification between machine tools and higher-level IT systems to the Chinese industry and showcase the convenience of its operation. Six companies (also exhibitors at the German Pavilion) have connected their machines. "Unfortunately, the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic have prevented more companies from joining our activities," Dr. Alexander Broos, director of research and technology at VDW, responsible for OPC UA's activities in the machine tool industry, expressed regret.

To fully integrate umati into China, the Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center (AMTC) of Tongji University is supporting its technology infrastructure in Beijing. "We are also very pleased to connect our machines and services with China's machine tool interconnection initiative NC link, which continues the successful cooperation at EMO Hanover in 2019," Alexander Broos stated.

At that time, a group of leading Chinese CNC machine tool manufacturers had established contact with umati. Alexander Broos mentioned that the NC link team has now realized the connection between the OPC UA infrastructure and its own installation. The core element of umati's participation in CIMT is the umati demonstrator, which consists of a data center connected to a computer in real-time and a special dashboard.

German machine tool suppliers are important partners of the Chinese industry.

Over the years, the German machine tool industry has been a valuable partner to Chinese industrial customers, and China has become the largest sales market for the German machine tool industry. In the past two years, Germany's export volume has decreased by nearly 45%, dropping from 2.3 billion euros to 1.3 billion euros. The main products involved include processing centers, grinders, spare parts, lathes, etc. In contrast, China's import volume has not faced such a severe decline, with only a 28% decrease in 2020. Most of the imported products delivered are spare parts and accessories. Wilfried Schaefer believes that China's demand for modern production technology remains substantial, especially as the next step for Chinese industry is to introduce higher quality products that can also meet global market needs.

Wilfried Schaefer concluded: CMEA is a very good exhibition platform. On this platform, Chinese customers will trust and choose the products displayed by German manufacturers, and CMEA will contribute significantly to promoting bilateral business development.

The same is true for the German Machine Tool Manufacturers Association. For many years, the association has been applying to the German Federal Ministry of Economy and Technology to establish a German joint exhibition stand at the China International Machine Tool Exhibition and is responsible for implementing the project. Currently, Germany has become the largest foreign exhibitor at the 17th China International Machine Tool Exhibition (CIMT 2021), with 150 companies showcasing various machine tools, cutting tools, clamping technology, measuring technology, molds, CNC systems, and software, covering a total exhibition area of 7500 square meters.

"It's a great opportunity for us to participate in the exhibition, which will enable umati to gain popularity and experience abroad," Alexander Broos concluded, "we hope this will happen again soon in other markets."