The economic rebound from the Covid-19 lockdowns enabled Worcester-based Yamazaki Mazak to record a strong year for machine sales in 2021, which included a record month in late autumn. The company recorded its highest order intake across Europe in its history in October, driven by a resurgent sub-contract market and business generated at the EMO trade show in Milan.

Alan Mucklow, managing director UK sales, Eire and national distributors at Yamazaki Mazak, said: “October was an outstanding month across Europe that was mirrored in UK machine sales. The combination of a rebound in general sub-contracting, strong sales in food and packaging, resilient yellow goods and agriculture sectors, and continued strong levels of investment from the energy-related machine users, have all delivered outstanding sales growth. We also took great confidence from our return to EMO and the strong interest from machine users in the new technologies launched at the show.”

New machine sales have been driven by the company’s entry-level range of machines, such as the CV5-500 five-axis machining centre and the QTE series of turning centres, alongside high-performance machines such as the VARIAXIS C-600.

“Our ever-growing list of entry-level machines are opening up a whole new machine user demographic to the benefits of Mazak technology. We have also benefited from having a UK manufacturing facility that has received further investment during 2021, at a time when many industries have suffered from severe supply chain challenges.”

He continued: “We have also seen strong growth in automation, facilitated in large part by new developments in our Mazatrol CNC that enables the seamless incorporation of the machine and automation solution into a single turnkey package.”

Looking forward to 2022, Mr Mucklow is cautiously optimistic. “The economic situation is not without challenges, but we are expecting a rebound in aerospace and further growth in turnkey automation solutions to help machine users navigate the skills challenge.

“Most importantly, 2022 is a MACH year and we are looking forward to introducing a number of new technologies into the UK market for the first time, including two new vertical machining centres, the VCE-600, an entry-level machine, along with the VCN-700, a high-performance version.”