Machine tool industry is a "master machine" industry, covering eight small industries and more than 20 branches, including metal cutting machine tools, metal forming machine tools, casting machinery, woodworking machinery, measuring tools and measuring instruments, abrasive abrasives, machine tool accessories, machine tool electrical appliances (including numerical control systems), and is one of the most important strategic industries, which has been highly valued in industrial developed countries. After the founding of the People's Republic of China, under the strategic planning and overall layout of the Party and the government, China has gradually established a complete machine tool industry system through the efforts of the "First Five-Year Plan" and "Second Five-Year Plan". During the "Cultural Revolution", China's machine tool and tool industry struggled to maintain in the face of serious interference. Although it made some progress, it missed the golden development period of ten years, further widening the gap with the international advanced level. After the "Cultural Revolution", China's machine tool and tool industry has overcome many difficulties and adhered to the path of independent development. The overall level has been rapidly improved, and is moving towards the goal of becoming a powerful country in the machine tool and tool industry.

1、 Reform and opening up and the transformation of machine tool industry (1978-2000)

After the reform and opening up, with the transition from planned economy to market economy, China's machine tool industry has also begun a corresponding transformation, and thus ushered in a new stage of development.

1. Restorative rectification (1978-1980)

Since the summer of 1977, according to the unified deployment of the Ministry of Machinery Industry, the enterprise management rectification work focusing on improving product quality has been carried out, laying a good foundation for reform and opening up. By 1979, most of the key backbone enterprises had met the relevant acceptance standards and carried out total quality management on this basis. At this time, there are more than 1400 machine tool enterprises above designated size in China. By 1980, 41 machine tool factories had built thermostatic workshops with a total area of 53000 square meters. At the same time, the planned distribution system of the state purchase and marketing system that has been used for many years has been loosened, and China's machine tool industry has ushered in reform and opening up.

2. Marketization during the "Sixth Five-Year Plan" period (1981-1985)

Affected by macroeconomic and other factors, the order volume of the machine tool industry declined year after year in 1979-1980. For this reason, the First Machinery Industry Department (hereinafter referred to as the First Machinery Department), which was in charge of the machine tool industry at that time, proposed the policy of expanding the service direction. On February 10, 1983, the Ministry of Machinery Industry issued the "Trial Measures for the Implementation of the Principle of Planned Economy First and Market Regulation Second in the Machinery Industry", which changed the single mandatory plan into three plans. By the middle of the 1990s, all machine tool products were open to the market. Meanwhile, cooperation between domestic machine tool factories and overseas machine tool enterprises has also been initiated. By 1985, 25 enterprises in the machine tool industry had signed 32 cooperative production agreements with 28 companies in 5 countries.

After the reform and opening up, the level of machine tool industry products has gradually improved, and the export of products has increased rapidly. In 1979, the export of machine tools earned US $38 million. By 1997, the export earned US $280 million, seven times the amount in 1979.

During this period, 48 national key technical transformation projects and 27 ministerial key projects were arranged, with an investment of 311.7 million yuan, and remarkable results were achieved. Since the "Sixth Five-Year Plan" period, the country has begun to carry out technological transformation of key enterprises, key products and key processes in a planned way, thus promoting the improvement of product quality and the development of new products.

3. Reform ushered in the transformation and development of the industry (1986-2000)

Since the 1980s, the state has invested more and more in the technological transformation of machine tool enterprises. Through technological transformation, the industry's product development and manufacturing capabilities have been strengthened, the management level has been gradually improved, and the ability to adapt to the market economy has been gradually enhanced.

In addition to enterprises, there are 8 comprehensive research institutes, 37 professional research institutes and enterprise design departments in the whole industry, forming a scientific research and development system for the machine tool industry. In addition to the introduction of technology, it also began to introduce foreign scientific and technological talents, make full use of international technical forces, and accelerate the development of China's machine tool industry.

In 1988, the establishment of China Machine Tool Industry Association (CMTBA) was a major event of reform and opening up. The establishment of the Association of Machine Tools and Tools conformed to the background of the international environment at that time, met the needs of the reform of the national economic system and the transformation of the industry's own development model, and established an efficient communication platform between the machine tool enterprises and the government. After the establishment of the Association, it adhered to the characteristics of "folk, industrial, service, fairness and international correspondence" and created a good market environment for the whole industry. At the beginning of the establishment of the Association, the China International Machine Tool Exhibition (CIMT) was founded, and an important platform for the exchange of global machine tool industry was built. Zou Jiahua, then Vice Premier of the State Council, wrote the inscription "exchange technology, strengthen cooperation, expand trade, and achieve common prosperity" for CIMT. Since then, China CNC Machine Tool Exhibition (CCMT) was founded in 2000, which has contributed to the development and progress of China's CNC machine tool industry.