China is moving from a large machinery country to a strong machinery country

Whether from the perspective of total industry output and sales, technological level, or corporate competitiveness, the status and influence of China's machinery industry has rapidly increased since the 21st century. It has already occupied an important position in the world and is gradually building the foundation to become a machinery power.

1. The proportion of total production and sales in the world has reached a relatively high level

In 1949, China's machinery industry accounted for a negligible proportion of the world's total machinery industry, equivalent to only about 1/50 of that of the United States; in 1989, it increased to about 1/10, equivalent to 1/5 of Japan and 1/2 of Germany; in 2009, in terms of production and sales volume, it was higher than the levels of Japan, the United States and Germany, equivalent to 1.25 times, 1.47 times and 2.15 times of those of Japan, the United States and Germany respectively.

Many important products have been developed from scratch, and many of them are now among the best in the world, making important contributions to the development of global mechanical products. Take automobiles and machine tools as examples:

Cars. China started producing cars in 1956. In 1978, it produced 149,000 cars, accounting for 0.35% of the world's 42.3 million cars, ranking 18th. In 2008, it produced 9.3 million cars, accounting for 13.22% of the world's 70.3 million cars, ranking second. In 2009, it produced more than 13.7 million cars, accounting for 21.89% of the world's 63 million cars, ranking first. In the past 53 years, China has gone from nothing to the world's first place, going through more than a hundred years of advanced industrial countries.

Machine tools (metal cutting machines and forming machines). In 1949, China produced 1,600 low-end ordinary metal cutting machine tools, with very little sales; in 1987, machine tool sales were US$461 million, accounting for 1.7% of the world's US$27.077 billion, ranking 12th; in 2009, China produced 580,000 metal cutting machine tools, with machine tool sales of US$15.3 billion, accounting for 27.57% of the world's US$55.490 billion, ranking first.

2. The gap in the technical level of Chinese and Western mechanical industrial products has narrowed

In 1949, the technological levels of the Chinese and Western mechanical industries were not at the same level. The gap narrowed by the mid-1960s. However, due to the turmoil of the "Cultural Revolution", the gap widened to about 20 years by the end of the 1970s. Since the 21st century, the gap has narrowed rapidly, and the gap in some important industries and products has narrowed to about 10 years. Some of China's products have reached the world's leading level.

(III) Large machinery industry companies began to enter the “Fortune Global 500”

In 2004, the Fortune magazine published a list of the world's top 500 companies, and China's FAW Group was prominently listed. This was the first large Chinese machinery industry company to enter the world's top 500, which was an important progress. In 2005, SAIC Motor entered the world's top 500 again. In 2009, Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC) and China South Industries Group Corporation also entered the top 500. Through this new list, people can get a new message. In the 20th century, no Chinese machinery industry company was on the list, but in the 21st century, four companies have entered the list, indicating that the competitiveness of Chinese machinery industry companies has been continuously enhanced. People expect that more Chinese machinery industry companies will enter the top 500.