Mao Yufeng, executive vice chairman of the China Machine Tool Industry Association, believes that machine tools are one of the core industries of equipment manufacturing and play an important role in the allocation of global manufacturing resources. In 2017, China's machine tool sales showed a significant recovery, indicating that under the structural upgrading, the Chinese machine tool industry is entering a new period of moderate growth, creating new opportunities for domestic and foreign machine tool manufacturers.

According to statistics from the China Machine Tool Industry Association, in 2017, China exported 3.29 billion U.S. dollars worth of metal processing machine tools, and imported 8.74 billion U.S. dollars, up 11.4% and 16.3% year-on-year respectively; the trade deficit reached 5.45 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year increase of 33.5%. This shows that with the acceleration of structural upgrading of China's relevant manufacturing industries, the demand for foreign advanced machine tools has grown strongly.