The machine tools market - France

Machine tools are mechanical equipment mainly intended for machining or repetitive tasks requiring precision and variable power. This is the Cecimo (the European association of the machine tool industry) which has the largest market share in the world (about one third) (about one third) with major players in Germany and Italy (e.g. Trumpf, Comau, Schuler and SCM). Asian countries also have a strong presence in the global market, particularly Japan and China. Whilethe global market has been declining in recent years (down 6% in 2019), the French market is experiencing slight growth in sales, driven by the sale of metalworking machine tools. The French market is characterized by a strong the French market is characterized by a strong trade balance deficit, which has tended to increase over the past decade. Althoughthe final customers in the sector are industrialists, machine tool manufacturers often use intermediaries for distribution. Finally, the emergence of Industry 4.0 will change the offer of machine tool manufacturers, who will have to enrich their offers and propose innovative products with high technological added value, such as connected machine tools.