During its General Assembly in Rüschlikon, CECIMO — the European Association of the Machine Tool Industries (and related manufacturing technologies) — announced a 2018 turnover of 27.5 billion euros, which is 9% higher than 2017 and represents a 35% market share of global machine tool production.

However, it also said that slowing global trade and weakening ‘business sentiment’ are “heavy down-side risks” for European machine tool manufacturers.

“Industrial growth slowed down in 2018, driven by global trade stagnation, geopolitical uncertainties and weaker business sentiment. We expect industrial activity to slow down in 2019 and recover some momentum in 2020.

"This year, the European machine tool market is likely to expand more slowly than those of the USA and Asia.

Global output grew at a flat rate of 1% and reached a volume of 79.7 billion euros in 2018. The growth in global production of the machine tool purchasing industries was about 5% in 2018 and is expected to slow down to 2.3% in 2019.

“Last year, CECIMO manufacturers exported machine tools worth 21.7 billion euros, with the main export destinations outside CECIMO membership being China (25.7%), the USA (18.3%), Poland (8.1%), Mexico (4.7%) and Russia (4.6%).

Marcus Burton, the chairman of CECIMO’s Economic Committee (www.cecimo.eu), said: “A strong global trade is absolutely necessary to support the industrial activity in Europe and the entire world.

“That is why we need to make our best efforts to build a robust trade relationship with the USA. A bilateral trade deal on industrial goods would be a great place to start.”

CECIMO brings together 15 national associations of machine tool builders, which represent about 1,500 ‘industrial enterprises’ in Europe (EU, EFTA and Turkey), over 80% of which are SMEs.

CECIMO covers 98% of the total machine tool production in Europe and accounts for more than 150,000 employees.