As a "machine manufacturing machine", after more than ten years of development, China's machine tool industry has become the largest importer and consumer nation for eight consecutive years. “Although China is currently a major machine tool manufacturing country, there is a trend toward a low-end manufacturing process.” Duan Jiaxuan, a researcher at CDIC Advisors Machinery Industry, said in an interview.

According to the data released by the China Machine Tool Industry Association, in 2011, the growth rate of China’s machine tool product imports remained high, with a total import volume of US$ 20.29 billion and exports of US$ 8.90 billion.

The 2010 deficit was only US$8.042 billion. By 2011, the trade deficit of China's machine tool industry was as high as US$11.39 billion, and the number of imports that grew year by year was increasing. The increase in the number of imports means that China's machine tool industry is currently like a "virtual person."

“The main reason for this gap is that, on the one hand, in recent years, the explosive growth in the demand and supply of ordinary machine tools in China has constrained the overall technological level of users, and has also slowed down the overall manufacturing level of the machine tool industry. On the one hand, domestic companies have insufficient capacity for independent innovation, and they cannot meet the demand for products with high technical requirements such as heavy-duty machine sheets, which is also a structural problem in China's machine tools, Li Junhua said.

Qian Zhiqiang, deputy director of Kunshan Aokesen Machinery Co., Ltd., said in an interview with reporters, “The core technology of machine tools is the CNC system. At present, not to mention the system, even the slightly better quality CNC machine tools made in China are used. Ball screw, bearing mainly imported from Japan.By China's own production of ball screw, bearings in the accuracy, long life problems. The major domestic machine tool factory, CNC system 100% outsourcing."

It is understood that in the machine tool industry, CNC machines are based on the number of axes, 3-axis and 5-axis are medium-to-high-end products, and more than 5 axes are high-end products. At present, China's machine tools are mostly low-end products with 3 axes or less.

As for why there are many low-end products in our country, Duan Jiaxuan said that China's machine tool manufacturing started relatively late, and short boards such as the lack of professionals have not been able to make up for it in a short time. To weaken dependence on imports, we should vigorously introduce and cultivate talents and increase investment in R&D of machine tools is the solution. Whether domestic machine tools can break through the siege of imported machine tools, but also whether China's high-end machine tool manufacturing can reach the world's leading level in the future.

Technological innovation and institutional upgrading of machine tool products are the development direction of the domestic machine tool manufacturing industry. Under the current economic situation, enterprises with low efficiency and high energy consumption are bound to be eliminated. Only by following the market demand and taking the road of high-tech sustainable development can we base ourselves on the market. Experts in the industry stated that a large part of China's imported machine tools belongs to mid-range machine tool products, and the demand for mid-range machine tool products has increased significantly, reflecting the defects in the technical level and industrialization of domestic medium-to-high end products.