In the first half of 2025, China’s CNC machine tool industry will continue its rapid development trend in recent years, and significant progress has been made in terms of market scale, technological breakthroughs, policy support and localized substitution. The following is a summary of the main developments：
- The market size continues to expand
Overall scale：In 2024, the size of China’s CNC machine tool market has reached about 432.5 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 450 billion yuan in 2025, continuing to maintain its position as the world’s largest producer and consumer, accounting for about 30% of the global market share.
Five-axis linkage high-end market：In 2024, the market size of five-axis linkage CNC machine tools will be about 12 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 13 billion yuan in 2025, with significant growth in demand in aerospace, military industry, automotive and other fields.
- Localization substitution is accelerating
Mid-to-low-end market advantage：Domestic CNC machine tools have a market share of 85% in the mid-end market, and domestic substitution has been basically realized in the field of ordinary CNC machine tools.
High-end market breakthrough:The localization rate of high-end CNC machine tools will increase from 6% in 2022 to 10%-15% expected in 2025, and technologies such as five-axis linkage and ultra-precision machining will gradually narrow the gap with the international community.
Localization of key components: The domestic production rate of numerical control systems has risen from less than 1% to 31.9%, and the market share of functional components such as five-axis swing Angle milling heads has increased from less than 10% to over 30%.
- Intelligence and technological innovation
AI and Industrial Internet Applications：The implementation of AI-based adaptive control systems, remote operation and maintenance, intelligent process optimization and other technologies has been accelerated, and the processing efficiency of some enterprises has increased by more than 30%, and the yield rate has reached 99.5%.
Composite manufacturing and green manufacturing：The integrated turning and milling and multi-axis linkage technology are more mature, and the energy consumption optimization technology reduces the energy consumption of some machine tools by 30%.
- Policy support and industry upgrading
National policy promotion：The “Three-year Action Plan for the High-quality Development of the Machine Tool Industry” issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other seven departments requires that the localization rate of high-end CNC systems exceed 45% in 2025, and encourages equipment renewal and domestic substitution.
Device Update Needs: According to a 10-year replacement cycle, 2025 will witness a peak in the renewal of old machine tools, and policies will promote the domestic substitution of high-end industrial mother machines.
- Regional and market competition patterns
Regional distribution：Shandong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other provinces have a leading number of CNC machine tool enterprises, and there is strong demand in East China and South China.
Corporate performance：Leading enterprises such as Genesis, Haitian Precision, Qinchuan Machine Tool and so on have accelerated their layout in the mid-to-high-end market, and some enterprises have maintained revenue growth, but the high-end market is still dominated by foreign capital such as Demag and Mazak
- The Challenge
Shortage of high-end talents: The flow of compound technical talents to the Internet, finance and other industries affects the R&D capabilities of enterprises.
Financial pressure: The investment in high-end technology research and development is huge, and some enterprises have limited profit scales, making it difficult for them to sustain high investment.
International brand competition：The high-end market is still dependent on imports, and it will take time for brand recognition to increase.
summary
In the first half of 2025, China’s CNC machine tool industry will continue to grow driven by policy, market and technology, accelerate the localization process, and improve the level of intelligence. However, the high-end market is still facing international competitive pressure, and it is necessary to continue to make efforts in core technology, talent training and international market expansion in the future.