Conventional and manual/CNC lathes thrive in the Global Downturn
600 Group, the manufacturer and distributor of precision engineering products to international markets, says that high quality conventional and manual/CNC lathes have been the most resilient during the world’s unprecedented economic turmoil.
600 Group sells its machine tools, spares and accessories into over 180 countries worldwide, through leading brands such as Colchester-Harrison, Pratt Burnerd and Gamet Bearings. The Group says the demand for these machines has been threefold; significantly increased investment in education, a trend towards small batch production as demand reduced, together with a lack of availability of finance for more high tech sophisticated CNC machines.
Mike Berry, Managing Director of 600 Europe, said: “As unemployment has risen, governments in many parts of Europe have increased investment in the education sector, which is a traditionally strong market for us.”
In South Africa, 600’s subsidiary has felt the benefit of the improved supply chain as they too see market demands for more quality conventional machines. Johnny Pierdica, General Manager of 600SA Machine Tools, said: “We have seen more investment in training, and finding that training centres are moving towards investment in quality conventional machines. The improvements made at 600 Group have greatly benefited our market both for machine tools as well as increasing our competitiveness in spares and accessories.”
In North America, 600’s main brand is Clausing, which has a well established reputation in that market for price and quality. Don Haselton, Managing Director for North America, said: “While the American market is still off around 65%, we have begun to see a slight improvement in overall consumption.”
Like other parts of the World the US has seen the recent preference for conventional and manual/CNC machines. Don said: “Many companies have been forced to reduce inventories to deliver cash flows. This has led the end user to order smaller batch purchases rather than large stocking orders. Our customers have had to adjust from running one large job for several days to small lot runs with several equipment changes per day to run different parts. Conventional equipment is well suited to small runs and quick change over time.”
Cliff Purser, Managing Director of 600 Australia, agreed that the requirement for small batch production was a driver of this current trend but there were still requirements for sophisticated parts with leading machines such as the Colchester-Harrison Alpha lathe leading the way. He was also keen to point out that despite these trends there was always a market for higher tech products: He said: “While the main CNC market is down as the larger production runners move offshore, there are some manufacturers with innovative and sophisticated designs. These companies are expanding and, indeed, taking on the world market place and therefore still require CNC machines for their manufacturing process.”
David Norman, Chief Executive of 600 Group PLC, believes that much of the CNC machine tool stockpiling that took place at the height of the boom is at long last coming to an end, adding “I have no doubt that the market for CNC machinery will return. Even during this economic downturn we have continued to develop and enhance our CNC machine capability, so when customer demand switches, we are more than ready.”
For further information, contact:
Philip Cullen (Group Marketing Manager)
Tel: +44 (0) 1924 415000
Keeley Clarke, (Rawlings Financial)
Tel: +44 (0) 1653 618018
