Growth in heavy industries fuel machine tools demand

Machine tools and cutting tools are vitalin in the production of a wide range of end user industries. The most prominent among these are the heavy industry, automobile and aerospace & defence. The global machine tools and cutting tools market has grown significantly from 2002-2012. Continued interests in the mining and power generation across the world coupled with demand from the recovering automobile industry have contributed to this growth. Aerospace and Defence is another significant consumer of machine tools and cutting tools.

The heavy industry market account for the major share in terms of consumption of machine tools and cutting tools, estimated at 57.3% globally in 2012. The heavy industry primarily comprises of equipment and vehicles used in mining and power generation. Cutting tools are used in the manufacture of components as small as fastener lugs used in conveyor belts to heavy equipment like rock drills. Demand for cross bits used in manufacturing rock drills and  tools used in production of fasteners like taps, counter sink and thread cutters are likely to increase.

Nuclear power accounts for 12.3% of the electricity produced globally and this is expected to increase in the long term. South East Asian countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam are expected to account for 29 nuclear reactors by 2025. All these developments are likely to lead to manufacturing components for the new power plants. This in turn is likely to increase the demand for machine tools and cutting tools used in the fabrication of nuclear power plant components like turbines shafts, propeller and impeller that work under hostile conditions. This requires them to be made of the highest quality steel and steel alloys that are difficult to machine. Diamonds react with iron under high temperatures and hence diamond tools are not suitable to process steel and alloy steels. Demand for cubic boron nitride (CBN) tool which can be used to machine steel is likely to increase.

In the last 10 years, the growth of the global automobile industry has been highly uncertain. Automobile industry, which is the second largest consumer of machine tools and cutting tools market across the world. The large number of components used in an automobile requires diverse tools that have unique functionalities. As of 2012, China and India are booming in the production of cars and commercial vehicles with China replacing USA and Germany as the top manufacturer of automobiles.

There is stiff competition in the Chinese automobile market between the automobile giants Volkswagen and General Motors. Honda is planning to produce and promote sales of hybrid vehicle coupled with the launch of ten new cars two exclusive to the Chinese market. In 2011, similar trends were observed in the Indian sub-continent where major automobile makers like Mercedes, BMW and domestic leaders Maruti Suzuki and Mahindra & Mahindra are likely to expand their production facilities by 2020.

The two most commonly used tools used in the automobile industry are cemented carbide and diamond cutting tools.  Diamond tools are used in the machining of lightweight non-ferrous materials like aluminium, copper, tin and composite materials. The growing demand for these materials in the fabrication of automobile components is likely to increase the demand for diamond tipped cutting tools. Diamond tipped tools tend to react with ferrous materials at high temperatures and hence are not suited to machine steel and its alloys. Under such circumstances, cemented carbide tools are used to carry out the same process. With such complex requirements, the machine tools and cutting tools manufacturers are likely to enjoy the demand for each of the aMen Shoes - Originals