Let’s look back 2019 of the FA industry!

How was the FA industry in 2019? SEISANZAI Japan summarizes major events related to the FA industry both in Japan and overseas below.

The order of machine tool is severe

It was a severe economic situation for the machine tool industry in 2019. There was a suppression of  capital investment in major user industries, such as the automotive industry against the backdrop of trade-friction between the U.S. and China, and it affected the order of machine tool to decrease. According to Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association(JMTBA), the total amount of orders received in June 2019 dropped by 37.9% from the same month of the previous year to 98.9 billion, which was less than 100 billion yen for the first time in two years and eight months. The total amount of orders in August 2019 was 88.4 billion yen, a 37.0% decrease, less than 90 billion yen for the first time in six years and four months.

The total orders received in October 2019 (preliminary report value) also fell to 87.4 billion yen, a 37.4% drop. In the single month of October, it fell below 90 billion yen for the first time in nine years since 2010. Following these circumstances, JMTBA announced the downward revision of the total amount of orders in 2019 to 1,250 billion in September.

New presidents named one after another in FA industry

The leading FA builders named their presidents one after another in 2019. Yamazaki Mazak changed the president for the first time in 18 years on June 24, 2019, and Takashi Yamazaki was inaugurated as president. “We don’t simply enlarge the size of the company. We offer better technologies and products to our customers around the world as a manufacturer with a 100-year history,” he said. Tomohisa Yamazaki, former president became a representative chairman.

Dr. Atsushi Ieki of Okuma was assigned to president on June 21, 2019. It was for the first time in 13 years for Okuma to change the president. “The era of Reiwa is for automation. The next increase in demand will be driven by automation,” he said, and he expressed his intention that Okuma focuses on developing automation technology.

Yoshimaro Hanaki, former president was assigned to a chairman with representativeness. Kazunari Okada was appointed to be the president of ISCAR Japan, Hiroaki Kazama took office as president of TSUGAMI on June 19. Yoshiaki Sugino, president of Sugino Machine on June 26, and Shinsuke Suhara, president and COO of FUJI on June 27 were appointed respectively.

The manufacturing suffered damage from typhoons

Typhoon no.15 landed in Japan on September 9, 2019 and Typhoon no. 19 on October 12, causing significant damage to the manufacturing industry, including the FA industry.

Typhoon no.15 landed with the largest power in written history, and it was the record-breaking storm mainly in Chiba Prefecture. The power outages also occurred, and FA manufacturers were also damaged. Typhoon no. 19 also caused record-breaking damage mainly in East Japan. In some parts of the Kanto and Tohoku regions, recovery has not yet been planned even in the middle of November, more than a month after landing the typhoon. SUBARU suspended operations of Gunma Plant in Ota-city, Gunma Prefecture, for nine days. In addition, many machine tool users were flooded with facilities in their factories, and machine tool manufacturers have focused their efforts on supporting restoration.

Machine tool trade shows were held in Japan and overseas

The common trends over the world are “automation” and “robot”

CIMT2019

China International Machine Tool Show (CIMT) 2019 was held in Beijing, China for six days from April 15 to 20, 2019. There were more than 1,700 exhibitors, the largest ever, and the total number of visitors excluding exhibitors was 139,079. In China, the need for automation has been increasing due to rising labor costs and strict regulations on overtime, so the automation systems combining machine tools and robots were shown.

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EMO Hannover 2019

EMO Hannover 2019 was held in Hannover, Germany, for six days from September 16 to 21, 2019. 2211 companies from 47 countries and regions exhibited and about 117,000 visitors came there. The keyword for this exhibition was automation. The more people said, “it’s almost like a robot exhibition,” the more prominent the exhibition of automated systems that combined machine tools and industrial robots.

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MECT2019

MECHATRONICS TECHNOLOGY JAPAN (MECT) 2019 was held in Nagoya, Japan for four days from October 23 to 26, 2019. A record number of 477 companies and organizations participated. A total of 90,244 visitors came during the four days of the exhibition. MECT was held in Chubu region where the manufacturing industries is popular, and many visitors came wearing coveralls. At the venue, automation proposals using robots were prominent. The theme of the exhibition, organized by the organizer, was also robots, and robot manufacturers suggested effective ways to use robots for small and medium-sized businesses.

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Thank you very much for reading SEISANZAI Japan in 2019. This is the last article uploaded this year. We will see you soon in 2020. Wishing you a bright and happy New Year!