First “Real” JIMTOF in Four Years

November 21, 2022

The 31st Japan International Machine Tool Fair (JIMTOF2022) was held for six days from November 8 to 13 at Tokyo Big Sight in Tokyo, Japan.

The number of registered visitors during the exhibition decreased 25.4% from the previous show in 2018 to 114,158. However, both exhibitors and visitors came to the first in-person JIMTOF after four years with high expectations, and lively business discussions were going on everywhere at the venue.

Many exhibitors commented that “much more people than expected visited the booth” and that “the number of visitors with a specific purpose had increased, and influential business offers were received”.

According to the Japan Machine Tool Builders’ Association (JMTBA), the amount of orders received in October this year (preliminary figures) was 141.1 billion yen, down 5.4% from the same month last year and the first time in two years that the figure was below the previous year’s level.　Concerns about the shortage of semiconductors, rising raw material costs, unstable exchange rates, the Ukraine crisis, and other factors are causing a slight slowdown in demand for machine tools, but there are strong expectations that the “JIMTOF effect” will boost orders going forward.