The Rajkot machine tools industry has flown in the face of a recent downturn in the economic fortune of the area by witnessing steady growth over the last few months.

The growth has been put down to an increased demand, especially for CNC machine tools, in addition to increased automation within the sector itself allowing for faster and more efficient production.

“We were wary about our growth amidst the current economic slow down. But domestic demand for machine tools have been on a constant rise, not only in Rajkot but also across India. In fact, demand for CNC machine tools itself have increased by 30-40 per cent while that of conventional ones grew by 10-15 per cent as compared to last year,” said Jay Mavani, joint secretary, Machine Tools Manufacturer’s Association of Rajkot (MTMA).

He added “As most of the companies in Rajkot as well as in other parts of the country are moving towards automation, demand of automatic and semi automatic machines has increased during past one year and will continue this year too.”

He’s not the only one who sees a bright future either, as Parakramsinh Jadeja, managing director of Jyoti CNC, added “Auto components and engineering sector is doing very well and automation progress is going on various sectors. Further, we have lots of orders yet to be completed and more are on their way in the coming days.”

The CNC machine tools sector especially is one that its experiencing large scale growth and Jyoti CNC seem to be perfectly poised to take advantage of this.

The Taipei Manufacturing Technology Show, which is set to open on May 3rd and will feature a host of machine tool related exhibitions, is expected to see a large Swiss presence this year as machine tool manufacturers in the country hold on to the belief that the Taiwanese market is becoming one of the strongest in the world.

A Swiss pavilion will be set up at the exhibition, marking itself out as the only European one there, and it will feature 10 machine tool makers from the country who are looking to build relationships with Taiwanese machine tool businesses.

“The prominent Swiss machine tool presence at the MT duo indicates the importance and the vitality of this industry,” the office said in a statement.

This means that, in addition to the vast array of Taiwanese machine tools on offer, visitors will also be able to view a wide array of Swiss-made tools.

It seems like a match made in heaven too, as Taiwan is the fourth largest machine tool exporter in the world, with Switzerland following close behind in fifth, having been the country’s second largest supplier of machine tools during the course of last year as well.

Vince Cable has announced that he will be looking towards the manufacturing industry to double its contribution towards the economy in the coming years, with special mention made of the machine tools industry.

However he has also acknowledged that their is a skills shortage in the sector  and had highlighted the issue of apprenticeships as a main area of concern for manufacturers.

The secretary of state for business, innovation and skills was speaking at Birmingham’s NEC, which had been playing host to the UK’s largest exhibition of machine tool companies on Thursday.

“In order of importance, almost everybody is raising the issue of skills,” he said. “As you know, we’re putting quite a lot of resource into apprenticeships. But the problem, particularly for advanced manufacturing, is they need trained engineers. That takes some years.”

Figures demonstrate that the manufacturing sector currently contributes 10% of Britain’s UK gross domestic product, whereas it amounted to a third 40 years ago.

However sales have been recovering and are now closing in on pre-recession levels, with Mr Cable adding “I would certainly hope and expect that the manufacturing sector would grow as a share of the economy and I don’t think a high teens figure is totally unrealistic.”

Despite a potentially shaky economic situation in Europe, a host of industry experts are claiming that the German machine tool sector will continue to remain stable.

This is despite the fat that debt crises in Europe have affected sales in the first few months of the year.

“We expect negative growth rates in output for only a few months this year, which will be ironed out during the course of the year. We’re sticking to our prognosis of zero growth for 2012,” the head of the VDMA industry federation, Hannes Hesse, told a news conference in Hanover.

“We’re currently experiencing a cyclical weakening that started last summer, but is currently very moderate and has not, overall, continued in the last months.

“Incoming orders in the machine tool sector will start moving upwards by mid-year at the latest,” the industry chief concluded.

It seems to be quite an optimistic view considering the uncertainty of the European market, coupled with the expansion of the Chinese and Taiwanese sectors. Imports from those Asian markets will do as much to slow the European market as a tough economy so it is quite difficult to see just where the German machine tools market is going to find the sales required to keep it stable.

Despite a potentially shaky economic situation in Europe, a host of industry experts are claiming that the German machine tool sector will continue to remain stable.

This is despite the fat that debt crises in Europe have affected sales in the first few months of the year.

“We expect negative growth rates in output for only a few months this year, which will be ironed out during the course of the year. We’re sticking to our prognosis of zero growth for 2012,” the head of the VDMA industry federation, Hannes Hesse, told a news conference in Hanover.

“We’re currently experiencing a cyclical weakening that started last summer, but is currently very moderate and has not, overall, continued in the last months.

“Incoming orders in the machine tool sector will start moving upwards by mid-year at the latest,” the industry chief concluded.

It seems to be quite an optimistic view considering the uncertainty of the European market, coupled with the expansion of the Chinese and Taiwanese sectors. Imports from those Asian markets will do as much to slow the European market as a tough economy so it is quite difficult to see just where the German machine tools market is going to find the sales required to keep it stable.

Riello, which is one of the leading machine tool manufacturers for the aerospace industry in their role of creating titanium-cutting machines has announced that they are looking for a new strategic shareholder.

The company are likely looking for a Chinese investor, as this would allow the country to provide resources to their thriving business. In an interview with the Financial Times, chief executive Andrea Riello pointed out that the company were looking for a shareholder to enhance their global presence, especially in regions like China and India.

“The nationality [of a potential shareholder] is not an issue for me,” he said.

Riello’s parent company, Madelli, has pioneered a whole new generation of machine tools that are used for cutting titanium, making their devices vital to the aerospace industry.

According to the Financial Times “Crucially, titanium components can be bonded to the lightweight carbon-fibre composite materials increasingly used in new aircraft without triggering concerns about corrosion.”

The machine tool manufacturer Unison has unveiled a brand new set of all-electric twin-head solid bar and tube bending machines at the recent MACH 2012 exhibition.

MACH 2012 is an international exhibition of various technologies within the machine tools industry and is often used as a showcase for new products by manufacturers and developers.

The machines displayed by Unison are intended to be used by manufacturers of tubular parts as they sport a function in which they can produce two bends at the same time, thus shoring up production efficiency.

The machine tools feature a fully electric architecture and sport motion axes that are controlled by servomotors. Two bending heads are also supported by independent linear carriages.

The machine tool industry is looking a little more buoyant in the United States after it was revealed that orders for machine tools and related technologies rose by almost 10% during the course of February.

Overall the sector drew in sales of $444.06 million when compared to the $406.34 million that was attained in January. Not only is this a rise on the previous month’s figures, but it also highlights an increase year-on-year as the February 2011 figures were at $328.44 million, marking a 35% increase over the time period.

The information was published in the recent U.S. Manufacturing Technology Orders (USMTO) report and was based on data provided by a range of companies in the sector.

The USMTO report includes data on sales of domestic and imported machine tools and related equipment and it even breaks down into regional statistics.

“Manufacturing technology orders are off to their best start since 1998,” stated AMT president Douglas K. Woods. “U.S. manufacturers continue to seek increases in productivity through automation and innovative technologies to increase their global competitiveness.”

We know that the demands of the machine tools industry are ever changing. As new machines enter the market, companies will vie against each other in an effort to get their hands on the machines that they hope will enable their business to operate at the top-level, ensuring maximum capacity and efficiency along the way.

Industrial Ventures aims to cater to all of these needs by offering a wide range of different machine tools at a price that suits our customers. Our second hand machine tools are all immaculately maintained to ensure that they remain in full working order, so you don’t need to worry about any potential stigma attached to purchasing a used machine tool.

We offer machine tools for every purpose and, during these difficult economic times, we guarantee that we offer some of the most competitive prices available as we want all of customers to be completely satisfied with their purchase. This is why each of our machine tools is personally inspected to ensure that it is in optimal working condition before we allow it to be sold on.

We are more than happy to speak to our customers, be they new or old, and if you can’t find what you’re looking for on the website we would be delighted if you would get in touch and let us know what you require. We will do our best to meet all of your needs at a price that will leave you delighted.

The Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) has announced that they have re-elected Hsu Hsiu-tsang to his position as chairman of the group, where he will continue to oversee the affairs of more than 2,600 machine tool firms in the country.

He has announced that, as part of his second term, he will aim to help all members of the group to develop key machine tool components and will also focus on the local production of CNC machine tools.

“High-end CNC devices are critical for the machine-tool industry worldwide,” said Hsu. “But such technologies are controlled by industrialized nations as Japan and Germany; so Taiwan’s machine-tool industry has to locally develop CNC devices, which account for between 25% and 30% of overall value of CNC machine tools, to retain its leadership globally.”

The effort to incorporate CNC will also allow for favourable duties for machine tools developed by Taiwanese firms as part of the economic cooperation framework agreement (ECFA).