A Panoramic View of the Development of Domestic CNC Machine Tools: From Being the largest in Scale to Breaking Through at the high-end

As the "mother machine of industry", CNC machine tools are the core equipment supporting modern manufacturing. From precision parts in consumer electronics to large structural components in aerospace, almost all high-end manufacturing scenarios cannot do without their support. After more than six decades of technological accumulation, China has grown into the world's largest producer and exporter of CNC machine tools, embarking on a path of domestic breakthrough from following to keeping pace with and then sprinting towards the lead.

The industrial scale has risen to the top globally, and the feature of structural growth has become more prominent

The volume of China's CNC machine tool industry has already taken the top position globally. In 2025, China's machine tool export value reached 12.91 billion US dollars, surpassing Germany for the first time to become the world's largest machine tool exporter, accounting for 21.6% of the global market share. In the first half of 2026, the total revenue of the entire industry reached 530.9 billion yuan, increasing by 7.6% year-on-year. The industry's profits doubled, demonstrating extremely strong development resilience.

The current industry growth shows a distinct structural differentiation feature: on the one hand, the demand in the traditional general hardware processing track is sluggish. The average operating rate of ordinary three-axis CNC equipment is only 58.3%, and the low-end market is severely homogenized and fiercely competitive. Many small and medium-sized manufacturers have fallen into the predicament of low-price competition. On the other hand, orders in emerging precision sectors such as new energy, energy storage, automated equipment, and low-altitude economy are rapidly returning. The equipment operating rate of related processing plants has exceeded 85%, and the demand for high-end precision machine tools continues to be released, becoming the core driving force for industry growth.

From the perspective of the market landscape, the current domestic CNC machine tool market is dominated by foreign, state-owned and private enterprises: foreign brands still hold a dominant position in the high-end market, state-owned enterprises have a prominent advantage in large and heavy machine tools, while private enterprises are rapidly breaking through in niche markets. Many private manufacturers specializing in precision models have achieved technological leadership in their respective niche fields.

Technological breakthroughs continue to accelerate, and domestic substitution is advancing in depth

After years of technological research and development, the technical level of domestic CNC machine tools has achieved a leapfrog improvement. Mid-to-low-end models have basically achieved full domestic production and can meet over 90% of the regular market demands in China. With their outstanding cost-performance advantages, they have occupied a stable share in the global mid-to-low-end market.

The breakthroughs in the high-end field are even more remarkable. As a benchmark for high-end machine tools, the domestic production rate of five-axis linkage machine tools has risen from less than 20% in 2020 to 59.5% in 2025. The installed proportion in the aerospace field has exceeded 60%, completely breaking the technological blockade from overseas. In April 2025, Huazhong Numerical Control released the world's first "Huazhong 10" intelligent numerical control system integrating AI chips and large models, marking that domestic numerical control systems have entered the first echelon of the global intelligent race. The high-end upgrade direction of fully direct drive CNC machine tools has also witnessed rapid development. The domestic market size is expected to grow from 5.449 billion yuan in 2024 to 13.283 billion yuan in 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of nearly 20%. The products of domestic manufacturers have successfully entered high-end application scenarios such as precision molds, aerospace, AI servers, and semiconductors.

At present, the downstream application pattern of domestic CNC machine tools is already very clear: the automotive field is the largest application market, accounting for 34.12%, and is widely used in the precision processing of engines, battery casings, and body structural parts. Mechanical processing and mold manufacturing followed closely, accounting for 21.96% and 11.99% respectively. The demand proportion in high-end fields such as aerospace, medical devices, and 3C electronics is also continuously increasing. Driven by emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, low-altitude economy, and humanoid robots, the market growth rate of five-axis CNC machine tools has far exceeded the industry average. By 2025, the market size had reached 12.9 billion yuan, becoming the core engine driving the industry's upgrade to high-end.