In the production workshop of a CNC machine tool company in Kunshan, Jiangsu, more than a dozen five-axis machining centers are running at high speed, and the beating processing parameters on the operation screen show the busy order delivery rhythm.
Workshop director Li Bin said that this production line has been operating at full capacity since the first quarter, and the production schedule of some high-end models has been scheduled to the third quarter.
This scenario is not unique in the first quarter.
The first quarter report card recently released by the China Machine Tool and Tool Industry Association provides a macro footnote to this busyness.
In the first quarter, the industry achieved operating income of 250.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.0%; total profit was 6.7 billion yuan.
The output of metal cutting machine tools was 213,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%; the output of metal forming machine tools was 42,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%. Both output indicators continued the growth trend of the previous year.
Statistics from key companies contacted by the China Machine Tool Industry Association show that new orders for metal cutting machine tools increased by 7.8% year-on-year, and orders on hand increased by 12.6% year-on-year. Enterprises have sufficient order reserves, laying the foundation for subsequent growth.
However, the industry average profit rate of 2.7% also reveals another reality: the structural transformation of the machine tool industry is still on the way, and the prosperity of various sub-sectors is obviously differentiated.
“Currently, the industry is at a profound turning point – from ‘scale expansion’ to ‘value creation.'” Mao Yufeng, secretary-general of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, said that with the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the development of strategic emerging industries and the cultivation of future industries, the process equipment in the production process will undergo thorough upgrades and improvements. A market worth hundreds of billions is undergoing structural and continuous expansion, which will definitely bring more opportunities to the Chinese machine tool market.
Plotting the operating data of the machine tool industry in the first quarter into a chart, an upward-stretching recovery curve is clearly visible.
In terms of revenue, the scale of 250.2 billion yuan and the year-on-year growth rate of 9.0% set a good level in the first quarter of the past three years.
The data of different industries showed an overall trend of improvement: metal cutting machine tool operating income was 44.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.5%; cutting tool operating income was 30.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.0%; machine tool functional parts and accessories operating income was 15.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%.
At the same time, the operating revenue of metal forming machine tools was 21.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.1%; the operating revenue of abrasive grinding tools was 100.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.1%.
Demand from downstream industries such as automobiles, electronics, aerospace, and general machinery has recovered across the board, injecting impetus into industry growth.
The total industry profit has more than doubled from 2.9 billion yuan in the same period in 2025 to 6.7 billion yuan.
According to the association’s calculations, the metal cutting machine tool industry has a total profit of 2.7 billion yuan, with a profit margin of 6.1%; the metal forming machine tool industry has a total profit of 700 million yuan, with a profit margin of 3.4%; the machine tool functional components and accessories industry has a total profit of 800 million yuan, with a profit margin of 5.1%; the cutting tool industry has a total profit of 3.8 billion yuan, with a profit margin of 12.3%; the abrasives and abrasives industry is still in the red, with a total profit of
-2.7 billion yuan, but the loss has decreased by 800 million yuan compared with the same period last year, and the loss reduction effect is significant.
Import and export data also send positive signals.
In the first quarter, China’s total import and export of machine tool tools was US$8.38 billion, a year-on-year increase of 9.2%, and the trade surplus was US$3.31 billion, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%.
Exports of metal processing machine tools were US$2.29 billion, a year-on-year increase of 4.4%.
In terms of export destinations, exports to India, Russia, Vietnam, Thailand and other markets have all achieved rapid growth. Among them, exports to Thailand increased by 37.3% year-on-year, showing that the competitiveness of Chinese machine tools in the global market continues to improve.
What deserves attention is the deep-seated changes in the export structure.
Customs statistics show that in the first quarter, the export volume of high-end machine tools surged by 40% year-on-year, and the average export price of domestic five-axis machine tools simultaneously increased by 71%.
This means that Chinese machine tools are getting rid of the traditional path of “low price and high volume” and moving steadily towards the high-end market.
The policy side continues to release positive signals.
The “15th Five-Year Plan” outline lists industrial machine tools as a strategic focus, and clearly proposes to focus on weak links in the industrial chain, promote key core technology research, and accelerate independent innovation in the entire chain in areas such as high-end CNC machine tools and intelligent CNC systems.
Seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have implemented detailed plans, clearly proposing to upgrade old machine tools that have been in service for more than 10 years.
The Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments jointly issued a document to include the scientific and technological innovation loans supported by the scientific and technological innovation and technological transformation re-loan policies into the scope of central fiscal interest discount support. Qualifying projects will be provided with interest discounts based on 50% of the actual project loan interest rate of the enterprise. The annual interest discount limit for a single enterprise project is 10 million yuan.
From top-level design to implementation, this series of policies has built a solid support system for the high-quality development of the machine tool industry.
If there is any one item in the first quarter data that best reflects the qualitative changes in the industry, it is the performance of high-end machine tools.
“New technologies such as artificial intelligence, digital twins, industrial Internet, and ultra-precision manufacturing are deeply integrated with the machine tool industry. Machine tools are transforming from traditional processing equipment into the core carrier of intelligent manufacturing. The speed of technological iteration is unprecedented. If you do not innovate, you will be eliminated.” Mao Yufeng pointed out that this is not an incremental improvement, but a paradigm revolution.
Whoever can complete this transition first will be able to take the initiative in future competition.
Since 2025, the national level has provided unprecedented policy support for industrial machine tools, forming a complete policy system from top-level design to implementation, providing a strong policy guarantee for the recovery of the machine tool industry.
The data in the financial reports of listed companies confirms this trend.
From the perspective of corporate performance, manufacturers such as Guosheng Zhike, Haitian Precision, Neway CNC, and Code CNC all achieved year-on-year positive growth in the first quarter.
Among them, Haitian Precision achieved operating income of 815 million yuan in the first quarter, a year-on-year increase of 10.15%; net profit attributable to the parent company was 111 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.57%.
In the first quarter, the company’s gross profit margin was 43.94%, a year-on-year increase of 4.08 percentage points; the net profit margin was 20.84%, a year-on-year increase of 4.73 percentage points.
According to the first quarter report information disclosed by Code CNC, in the first quarter, due to the company’s high delivery rate of high value-added equipment such as six-axis five-linkage blisk machining center and high-speed blade tip grinding center, the average price of the complete machine increased by approximately 17% compared with the average price in 2025.
The company has been deeply involved in the field of five-axis linkage CNC machine tools for a long time, with an independent matching rate of core components as high as 85%. It has adopted the strategy of “product adaptation + scene exploration” to continue to expand into emerging fields such as semiconductors and medical care, and its profitability continues to increase.
“Downstream demand has spread from traditional manufacturing to emerging growth tracks, and the structural opportunities for high-end machine tools are more prominent.” Zhou Ershuang, an analyst at Soochow Securities, said that since the first quarter, downstream demand for machine tools has generally recovered, with the electronics industry leading the growth rate, and demand for automobiles, precision molds, etc. improving significantly compared with the first quarter of last year.
At the same time, emerging tracks such as AI liquid cooling, humanoid robots, semiconductors, and commercial aerospace have gradually become new sources of growth in the machine tool industry.
Zhou Ershuang further analyzed that taking AI liquid cooling as an example, the demand for processing parts such as liquid-cooled connectors, liquid-cooled plates, elbows, brackets, valve sleeves, and valve cores has increased. As the requirements for heat dissipation power and processing accuracy increase, traditional centering machines are gradually unable to meet the processing needs of some complex parts. High-end equipment such as turning-milling composites, turret lathes, and five-axis machine tools are expected to benefit from increased demand and equipment upgrades.
Humanoid robots have become a key layout direction for machine tool manufacturers.
Zhou Ershuang said that humanoid robots involve many parts, and their gears, sheet metal parts, etc. all require machine tool processing, so the humanoid robot sector has become a battleground for machine tool manufacturers.
The demand for high-precision machine tools in the semiconductor field is concentrated, but currently it is still dominated by foreign investment; the demand in the commercial aerospace field is strong, and customers mostly purchase domestic equipment. For example, Halma blade milling is recognized in the aerospace field.
Although the overall recovery trend is clear, the first quarter data also clearly shows structural differentiation.
According to the association’s calculations, the total profit of metal forming machine tools dropped slightly by 3.5% year-on-year, and the profit margin was the same as the same period last year; the profit margin of machine tool functional parts and accessories was 5.1%, a year-on-year decrease of 0.2 percentage points.
More importantly, new orders and orders on hand for metal forming machine tools fell by 14.2% and 9.3% respectively year-on-year. New orders turned from growth in the previous year to a decline, and orders on hand continued to decline.
These indicators show that some traditional sub-sectors are still facing certain pressures during structural adjustments.
Although the losses in the abrasives and grinding tools sub-sector have narrowed, they have not yet returned to the profit range.
The performance of some companies also shows a trend of differentiation.
Qinchuan Machine Tool’s operating income in the first quarter was 1.144 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.64%, maintaining a growth trend; net profit attributable to the parent company was 24.27 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 11.71%.
Shenyang Machine Tool’s operating income in the first quarter was 814 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 118.81%; net profit attributable to the parent company was -33.8354 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 6.35%.
These differentiations exactly reflect that the industry is undergoing a profound transformation from “scale expansion” to “quality improvement.”
Mid- to low-end general-purpose products are caught in the red ocean of price competition, while high value-added products such as five-axis linkage and intelligent CNC systems are in strong demand.
This “ice and fire” pattern is a reflection of the decisive role played by the market in resource allocation.
Looking at the overall situation of the industry, the phased challenges brought about by structural adjustment are a necessary process for industrial upgrading.
The China Machine Tool and Tool Industry Association pointed out in its operation report that in the first quarter, the industry’s overall revenue and profits continued the growth trend of the previous year, and the overall operating efficiency improved. However, the prosperity of each sub-industry was obviously differentiated, and the differences in operating performance increased.
With the full implementation of the “15th Five-Year Plan” and the continued efforts of the equipment update policy, this differentiation will accelerate the survival of the fittest and promote the industry as a whole to move towards high-end and intelligent directions.
As the product structure continues to be optimized, low-end production capacity is gradually cleared, and policy dividends are continuously released, the profitability of the machine tool industry is expected to improve year by year.
“Industrial development must always be demand- and problem-oriented.” Mao Yufeng proposed that we should focus on five major breakthroughs and activate new momentum for industrial development.
In terms of technology, we focus on overcoming “stuck neck” problems such as high-end CNC systems and precision functional components, and lay out cutting-edge technologies to make research and development results truly adapt to production needs; in terms of products, we focus on high-end customization and system integration, and develop five-axis linkage and ultra-precision machine tools to create specialized equipment for niche fields;
In terms of industry, we will cultivate a collaborative ecology of leading enterprises and specialized and new enterprises, and deepen industry-university-research cooperation; in terms of market, we will deeply explore the domestic market, expand emerging overseas markets, and build a diversified market layout; in terms of model, we will accelerate the transformation of digital intelligence, develop producer service-oriented manufacturing, and follow the path of green and low-carbon development.
