Modern and efficient tools are used in China as CNC tools. It is an integral part of modern digital manufacturing technology. In modern high-efficiency tools, from the perspective of foreign development, high-efficiency carbide tools are the main products. In recent years, superhard tools such as synthetic diamond tools and cubic boron nitride have progressed rapidly. In the past, they used between 2% and 3%, and now they have grown rapidly in recent years. In developed countries, cemented carbide tools account for more than 70% of all tool sales. This is the case in several major developed countries such as Europe, the United States, and Japan. As of the end of the last century, I said earlier that due to various subjective and objective reasons, our country has developed slowly in this field. However, since the beginning of the new century, with the pace of accelerating the modernization of China's manufacturing industry, China's digital manufacturing technology has also achieved rapid development. At the end of the last century, the annual output of China's gold cutting machine tools has reached 190,000 units, but only 14,000 CNC machine tools, the proportion is relatively small. At the same time, in terms of tools, modern high-efficiency tools represented by new types of hard alloy high-efficiency tools are less than 15% in sales of our entire tool, which is a relatively small proportion. Up to now, in 2007, last year, the output of CNC machine tools in China has reached 123,200 units, and the numerical control rate of output value has reached 43.7%. The proportion of high-efficiency carbide tools that match the development of this machine tool has also risen to 40.3% of our total tool sales. From these two figures, it has reached a level of more than 40%. It can be seen that since we entered the new century, China's CNC machine tools and high-efficiency tools have achieved rapid and synchronous development. At present, our localized (modern) high-efficiency tools have entered the automotive industry, the mold industry, aerospace, power generation equipment, general machinery and other fields. The performance of some of the products has reached or is close to the international advanced level. This progress has effectively broken the monopoly position of some imported tools in some fields and contributed to the standard competition of China's efficient tool market.
What we should point out is that the development of China's machine tool industry in the past decade has changed a lot compared with the 20 years before the reform and opening up. At that time, despite the high speed of development, the expansion of quantity was still the expansion of quantity, but now, after entering the new century, the development model has also undergone very positive changes. Driven by the market, a group of tool companies began to pay attention to the (urgent) demand for efficient tools in the development of modern manufacturing in China, and vigorously adjusted the product structure and promoted industrial upgrading. The development of our domestic high-efficiency cemented carbide tools has broken the long-term stagnation and achieved rapid development.
In recent years, according to our statistics, the annual growth rate of continuous cemented carbide tools in these years after entering the new century is more than 30%, much higher than the growth rate of traditional high-speed steel tools. This change in numbers clearly marks the beginning of our industry's structural adjustment and industrial upgrading. Because everyone knows that the development of traditional high-speed steel standard tools to modern high-efficiency carbide tools is not just a material change, because modern high-efficiency tools are such a tool that meets the needs of specific use, not closed eyes. Mass production. Therefore, it not only makes great changes in the structure of our tool companies, but also has a great development in the concept of development. So this change is a very positive and welcome change. Of course, our overall level of development is not high enough. Compared with our own past, at the end of the last century, we have only a dozen percent of our entire machine tool industry, whether it is CNC machine tools or modern high-efficiency tools. To forty percent, this should be said to be a big step forward. However, compared with developed countries, our gap is still very large. In developed countries, the numerical control rate of machine tools is more than 70%, and modern high-efficiency tools are hard alloy high-efficiency tools, accounting for more than 70%. And our figure is only 40%.
At the same time, our overall level is not as high as they are. For example, many of our CNC machine tools are simple CNC. Among our carbide tools, there are quite a few ordinary carbide tools. We have made progress and have made great progress, but the overall level of development still has a big gap compared with foreign countries. So while we are seeing our progress, this progress is gratifying, a positive and structural change, but at the same time we should be soberly aware that our gap is still relatively large. Therefore, our vast number of tool companies must correctly treat their achievements and progress under such a good development situation. It is necessary to further recognize the development trend and unswervingly accelerate the development of tool modernization.
There is still a gap between the development and demand of Chinese hardware tools
In general, since the beginning of the new century, China's hardware tools have also made significant progress. However, there is still a big gap from the overall development needs of modern manufacturing.