Japan’s machine tool industry in 2020 : production, orders, imports, exports (3/3)

May 7, 2021

The production, orders, imports, and exports amount of the Japanese machine tool industry in 2020 has been compiled. Due to spreading of COVID-19 pandemic, all amount of Japan’s machine tool production, orders, exports, and imports fell sharply last year. The editorial department of SEISANZAI Japan is going to explain the supply and demand performance of the Japanese machine tool industry divided the article into three parts.

The first part of this article is here.

The second part of this article is here.

Export amount to East Asia is flat

According to the Ministry of Finance’s trade statistics, the export amount of Japan’s machine tools in 2020 was 529,560 million yen, a decrease of 28.0% from the previous year.

By region, the export amount to East Asia was flat at 227,799 million yen, down 0.0% year-on-year. The amount of exports to North America decreased by 40.2% to 120,048 million yen, and the amount of exports to Europe decreased by 44.6% to 85,423 million yen.

By machines, vertical machining centers（MCs） decreased by 19.0% to 112,816 million yen. Horizontal lathes were down 40.2% to 110,080 million yen.

The largest export destination of MCs is China. The amount of exports to China increased by 17.1% to 84,820 million yen. The second export destination is the United States. The export amount to the United States decreased by 44.3% to 41,918 million yen.

Import amount was sluggish

According to the Ministry of Finance’s “Trade Statistics of Japan”, the Japan’s import amount of machine tools in 2020 was 55,530 million yen, down 35.4% from the previous year. Due to COVID-19 spreading, the motivation for capital investment was diminished. As a result, demand of imported machines was sluggish.

Germany has the largest share for importing. The import amount from Germany decreased by 21.4% to 15,248 million yen. The machine most imported by Japan is the horizontal lathe. The import amount of horizontal lathes decreased by 40.8% to 12,096 million yen.