At the largest sales market in German industry, 150 companies from the fields of machine tools, cutting tools, clamping technology, measuring technology, tool and mold making as well as NC controls and software presented their products and solutions. They occupied a gross exhibition area of 7,500 m².

"Due to existing travel restrictions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, German manufacturers are mainly represented by their Chinese subsidiaries," explains Dr. Wilfried Schäfer, Executive Director of the VDW (German Machine Tool Builders' Association). This also applies to the VDW, which has been applying to the Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology for a joint German stand at Cimt for many years.

Although the Chinese market was hit very hard by the Covid-19 crisis, it has recovered quickly. Forecasts predict that industrial production and investment will both increase by more than 5 percent in 2021. Consumption of machine tools could reach growth of 10 percent this year.

Valuable partners for China's industry

"Germany is the second largest machine tool supplier to Chinese industry after Japan and a leader in the high-tech segment. Its technologies are used in a wide variety of Chinese customer segments, for example in the automotive and aviation industries as well as in mechanical engineering, power generation and other broad-based machine tool users," explains Shane Sun from VDW China. With its many years of intensive know-how in all these areas worldwide, the German machine tool industry is a valuable partner for Chinese industrial customers.

Over the past two years, German exports have shrunk by almost 45% from EUR 2.3 billion to EUR 1.3 billion. The main products supplied were machining centers, grinding machines, parts and accessories as well as lathes. Chinese imports were not quite as badly affected. They fell by 28 percent in 2020. The focus of deliveries was on parts and accessories.

For the current year, the signs are pointing to growth again. Orders from China stabilized last year and even saw a double-digit increase of 17% in the fourth quarter. "This promises a more pleasing development for the current year, as the turnaround should have been achieved," says Wilfried Schäfer. "The demand for modern production technology is still huge in China, especially as Chinese industry wants to take the next step towards higher-quality products that are also in demand on the global market," he concludes.

Cimt is a springboard for Umati to China

The VDW was also represented at Cimt with an Umati stand. Umati (universal machine technology interface) is the community of the mechanical engineering industry and its customers for the promotion and dissemination of open, standardized interfaces based on OPC UA. The aim of the presentation at Cimt was to publicize the interface specification for the communication of machine tools with higher-level IT systems in China and to show how easily it works.

Six companies, which are also exhibitors at the German pavilion, have connected their machines. "Unfortunately, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have prevented more companies from doing so," regrets Dr. Alexander Broos, Head of Research and Technology at the VDW and responsible for OPC UA activities in the machine tool industry.

The core element of Umati's participation at Cimt was the Umati demonstrator. It consists of a data hub to which machines are connected live, as well as its own dashboard. Real machines are connected to this. Their data flows into Umati's own dashboard. The data can be viewed live on your own device via a QR code.