Machine Tool Scoreboard - Discussion

History of this Study

This Scoreboard survey of the financial performance of companies worldwide that produce machine tools was first published on the Internet Web site of the newsletter, Metalworking Insiders' Report in 2004. It is compiled largely by newsletter editor and publisher, Joe Jablonowski (jjablonowski@GardnerWeb.com), with assistance from Gardner Publications Inc.'s Internet-publishing staff and the company's research department. It is copyrighted by Gardner Publications, Inc. (Cincinnati, Ohio, USA).

The former "Blue Bulletin"

From 1965 until 2001, metalworking-magazine editor Anderson Ashburn (1919-2003) conducted a predecessor survey (initially of U.S. firms), first for American Machinist magazine under its "Blue Bulletin" private-letter label and later, starting in 1995, for the American machine-tool trade association, AMT - The Association for Manufacturing Technology (McLean, Virginia, USA). Andy Ashburn held the copyright for that series of annual studies. Newsletter editor Jablonowski worked for Ashburn starting in 1973, succeeded him as chief editor of American Machinist in 1987, and worked with him in compiling and publishing those Blue Bulletin reports on many occasions.

Methodology

Similar to the old Blue Bulletin, this Scoreboard separates "machine-tool revenue" from "total revenue." Unlike the Blue Bulletin's attempt to cover time periods approximating calendar years, however, this Scoreboard simply reports the most recent complete fiscal year. For a discussion of average rates and end-of-period rates used for currency conversion, please click on Currency Tables at the bottom of each Scoreboard Page.

Not a "Market Share" study

The scope of machinery types that are characterized as machine tools--and thus included here--range from enormous presses capable of stamping out a truck body to lathes that fit on a tabletop. To use these tables to infer market share is comparing apples to oranges; the companies simply do not necessarily compete in the same market. Moreover, as stated at the bottom of each Scoreboard table, not all companies are listed. Many that are privately held or that operate in countries without accounting comparability standards are not included in these listings.

Other information sources about the global machine-tool industry

Over the years, similar studies of company performance have been compiled by such publications as Iron Age (Philadelphia), L'Expansion (Paris), Tecnologie Meccaniche (Milan), and more recently by Produktion (Munich) and by builders such as Gildemeister. In addition, many countries' own machine-tool trade associations compile financial data on their member companies, but this information is seldom published. Metalworking Insiders' Report is in contact with, and gratefully acknowledges the counsel of, most of the major national machine-tool-trade groups. Information in this Machine Tool Scoreboard comes directly from the companies surveyed, except where noted on a company's Details page.

For more information about machine tools on a country-by-country basis, see the Country Reports section of our World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey, http://www.GardnerWeb.com/consump/survey.html. Also, an excellent source of statistical information about the industry is The Economic Handbook of the Machine Tool Industry, $300, published on CD-ROM by AMT, http://www.AMTonline.org. Also check publications by UNIDO.

Company contact info

While no single compilation of the entire world machine-tool industry exists, good sources of contact information are the show catalogs covering the International Manufacturing Technology Show (IMTS, Chicago in even-numbered years, sponsored by AMT; www.imts.org) and the EMO, the European World Machine Tool Show (www.emo-hannover.de) held in Hanover or Milan in odd-numbered years and sponsored by CECIMO, the Brussels-based consortium of European machine-tool trade associations, www.cecimo.be).

Historical perspective

The world's top 15 machine-tool builders in 1981, according to a study by Planning Research + Systems Limited (London, U.K.), published 1983 by John Martin Publishing Ltd.: Cincinnati Milacron, worldwide machine tool sales of US $646-million. Bendix, $581. Litton Industries, $453. Cross & Trecker, $413. Ex-Cell-O, $383. Textron, $353. Yamazaki, $313. F.Jos. Lamb, $276. Acme Cleveland, $254. Okuma, $238. White Consolidated, $232. Ingersoll Milling Machine, $202. Gleason Works, $178. Toshiba, $175. Hitachi Seiki, $173.

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