Develop Green Machine Tools To Create International Brands

Develop green machine tools to create international brands

The haze has led to the tightening of industrial policies. The steel industry was the first to be affected. The machine tool industry, which is closely related to it, is also at a critical node in transformation. The "strictest new policy" promulgated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection at the end of 2025 directly restricted the development of six major polluting industries. Steel production was compressed, and traditional customer orders for machine tool companies were significantly reduced. This shows that machine tool companies that rely on high-pollution and high-energy-consuming production methods will lose their living space if they do not make changes.

At the same time, customers in Europe and the United States began to require suppliers to provide complete carbon emission data when purchasing large-scale parts processing equipment. International giants such as Germany's Siemens and Japan's Fanuc have launched green machine tool product lines that comply with EU standards, thereby occupying the high-end market. If domestic machine tool companies want to compete with international brands in the field of large parts processing, they must master the core technologies of green manufacturing as soon as possible, otherwise they will have to stay in the mid- to low-end market and fight price wars.

Steel production restrictions shock wave machine tool industry forced to turn around

The steel industry is one of the largest users of machine tools. Starting from January 2026, Hebei, Shandong and other major steel provinces have begun to strictly implement capacity replacement policies, and the blast furnaces of many small and medium-sized steel plants have been permanently shut down. These steel mills originally needed to purchase a large amount of machine tool equipment for processing large parts such as rolls and bearing seats every year, but now their procurement plans have been completely frozen. Sales data from a medium-sized domestic machine tool company show that orders from the steel industry fell by 45% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

There is a downward trend that will increase more sharply because the policy stipulates that carbon emissions in the steel industry will be reduced by 18% by 2027 compared with 2020. Various steel companies themselves are also carrying out green transformation work, and they are instead requiring upstream equipment suppliers to supply processing equipment with energy-saving and environmentally friendly characteristics. If machine tool companies do not develop green products, they will not only lose old customers in the steel industry, but also be doubted by customers in other industries about their technical capabilities.

What is a true green machine tool? EU standards give answers

In the "Next Generation Production System" research plan, the European Union has clearly defined four major characteristics of green machine tools. These indicators have become an important reference example for international buyers to judge product levels. For green manufacturing of large-scale parts processing , the main parts that can exist independently and perform specific functions must be made of materials that can be regenerated and recycled, such as steel obtained after recycling and lubricants that can naturally decompose. Secondly, the weight and volume occupied by the machine tools must be reduced by more than half, which means that a larger number of devices can be placed in the same room used to house production equipment, and the cost of logistics is also significantly reduced.

By reducing the mass of moving parts and optimizing the dry operation control program, power consumption will be reduced by 30 to 40%. A test report from a domestic university shows that the power consumption of a green-renovated gantry machining center for green manufacturing of large parts in standby mode dropped from 2.8 degrees per hour to 1.6 degrees. Fourth, waste such as chips and coolant generated during use must be reduced by 50 to 60%, and the material recovery rate of the complete machine after scrapping is close to 100%, with almost no industrial waste produced.

Domestic remanufacturing technology is mature and used machine tools are turned into treasure

A research institute located in Chongqing has been working on machine tool remanufacturing technology since 2023, and has now built a complete process system. This institute will first completely dismantle the recycled used machine tools, screen out large castings such as bed and columns that can still be used, and then carry out precision repair and surface treatment work again. Later, the aging transmission components and control system were replaced, and finally assembled and debugged into a new piece of equipment with performance exceeding that of the original machine. As of March 2026, they have completed the remanufacturing of more than 500 used machine tools.

The resource recycling rate of about 80% has been achieved by these remanufactured machine tools. The noise is more than 10% lower than the factory standard of new machine tools. It has achieved a reduction of 90% of pollutant emissions. What's more important is that they are only 60% to 70% cheaper than brand-new similar products, but they are not inferior in terms of processing accuracy and efficiency. An auto parts factory in Shandong purchased two remanufactured large-scale machining centers and has been using them for more than a year. However, their failure rate is lower than that of new equipment, which really highlights their advantages!

Green consumption has swept the world and foreign markets are enthusiastic about environmentally friendly machine tools.

The more European and North American manufacturing customers value the environmental attributes of their products, the more willing they are to pay higher prices for green machine tools. At the 2025 Hannover Machine Tool Show, there were long queues in front of booths with green certification labels, but there were almost no people at the traditional machine tool booths. A Swedish company has launched an all-electric injection molding machine. The reason is that it can save 70% energy compared to hydraulic models. Even if the price is 30% higher, orders have been scheduled until 2027.

Japanese machine tool companies responded faster, and South Korean machine tool companies also responded faster. They will mainly promote green models in Southeast Asia and the Middle East markets starting from 2024. A large parts processing factory in Thailand finally chose a Japanese green model after comparing Chinese machine tools with Japanese machine tools. The reason was that the energy consumption data of Chinese products was not transparent enough. This shows that green machine tools are not only a technical issue, but also a problem of brand image and market trust. There is a big gap among domestic enterprises in this regard.

How do domestic companies act during the window period for building international brands?

A few private enterprises that already exist in the country have sensed this opportunity and chosen to take the initiative to meet international green standards. A machine tool factory in Zhejiang invested more than 20 million yuan in the renovation of its coating workshop, changing all coating properties to water-based, reducing its volatile organic compound emissions by 85%. The factory has also followed and re-edited the initiative to develop green machine tools in accordance with EU format product instructions and energy consumption parameters to build an international brand, so as to achieve the effect of easy comparison by customers. The result of this approach was to allow them to obtain a trial order from an existing German auto parts company.

There are more companies that need to speed up and start from three aspects. First, cooperate with universities to apply mature remanufacturing technology and energy-saving technology to new products. Second, actively participate in the formulation of domestic green machine tool standards and strive to connect Chinese standards with international standards. Its three large-scale parts are processed in green manufacturing , and a dedicated green product display area is set up in overseas exhibitions to prove the energy-saving effect to customers based on actual measured data. The green transformation in the field of large parts processing has just started. Whoever completes the transformation first will be able to take the initiative in the next round of international competition.

After reading this article, do you think that if domestic machine tool manufacturing companies want to build internationally renowned brands, what are the most urgent issues they need to solve are technical research and development issues, cost control issues, or market certification issues? You are welcome to share your personal opinions in the comment area of ​​the article, and don’t forget to like and forward this series of operations, so that more friends involved in the manufacturing field can see this relevant content containing transformation opportunities.