Spain's big splash - Scanning the Horizon - Spanish machine tool industry and BIEMH 2002 - Industry Overview

In the worldwide arena of manufacturing, Spain isn't widely known as a top contender. But the numbers from Gardner Publications' 2002 World Machine Tool Output & Consumption Survey tell a different story. Spain's population is less than one-seventh that of the United States, but Spanish machine tool builders annually produce a number of machine tools equal to nearly one-third the total volume produced by American builders. Furthermore, at the same time that production has declined in the United States, the Spanish machine tool industry has experienced gradual but continuous growth since 1995. For example, in 2001, Spain's machine tool production increased more than 6 percent from the previous year.
The heartland of this dynamic industry is the beautiful and rugged Basque section of northern Spain near the Atlantic coast and the French border. As the commercial center of the industrious Bizkaia region, Bilbao is the host city for one of Europe's largest machine tool shows, the biennial BIEMH. In the past, Bilbao was known primarily as a gritty center of heavy industry. But after undergoing an impressive renaissance, this city of 400,000 residents has emerged as a place of alluring charm.
When the 22nd BIEMH exhibition opened at Bilbao's International Trade Fair on March 11, the Spanish machine tool industry had some important accomplishments to celebrate. For example, Spanish builders currently manufacture more than 2,000 different machine models. Many of these products feature innovative technology that was developed in Spain.
The rapid improvement of Spanish technology in recent years is primarily the result of strong investment in research and development. On the average, Spanish machine tool builders allocate 5 percent of their annual turnover to R&D. For the country's largest builders, this investment may represent 10 percent or more. The success of this industry has been greatly facilitated by inter-company alliances in the areas of process development, marketing, distribution and supply chain management. Many of these cooperative efforts have been coordinated through the Machine Tool Manufacturers' Association of Spain (AFM) and its sister organization, the Export Trade Association of Spanish Manufacturers of Accessories, Component Parts and Tools for Machine Tools (AMT).
Strong investment and effective cooperation enable Spanish machine tool manufacturers to compete aggressively in global markets. Spain's principal machine tool builders offer products for high speed milling, turning, grinding and EDM that incorporate advanced capabilities. As a reflection of the growing reputation of Spanish technology, Germany was the largest customer in 2001 for Spanish machine tools, purchasing more than 18 percent of all the country's exports.
The defining characteristic of the most prominent Spanish machine tools is flexibility in meeting specific user requirements. Thus, many of the large machining centers exhibited at BIEMH 2002 are designed to suit the production systems of important automotive and aerospace clients. At the same time, however, Spanish builders offer a wide range of conventional and CNC machine tools that are suitable for typical job shop applications.
Spanish-American Market
While Spain's largest machine tool builders have established solid marketing networks in the United States, economic conditions during the past 12 months have created a slump in the market for Spanish exports. Because the United States currently accounts for less than 8 percent of Spain's total export trade, however, this doesn't represent a serious problem by itself. Because the appetites of American consumers continue to drive manufacturing activity around the globe, however, many Spanish builders are experiencing the impact of a softer American economy on their customers in Europe and Asia. As a result, AFM predicts that the steady growth its members have enjoyed since 1995 may be interrupted when the final figures for 2002 are recorded.
In this vein, AMT president Ramon Cenar-ruzabeitia recently discussed some of the difficulties that his member companies face in penetrating the American market. AMT recently attempted to put together a consortium of firms to market products in the United States. The combination of a weak machine tool industry, firmly entrenched competitors and unresolved inventory/delivery issues, however, have frustrated this effort. Unlike Spain's larger machine tool builders, the relatively small firms of AMT are still searching for an effective strategy to tap the American market.
Show Highlights
BIEMH 2002 featured the sixth edition of Spain's National Machine Tool Design competition. This year, the award was shared by Kondia Urbano Conde S.A. (Elgoibar, Spain)--in recognition of its P60-V2 high speed precision machining center-and ONA Electroerosion S.A. (Durango, Spain and Dayton, Ohio)--for overall product design strategy. Kondia manufactures a complete line of conventional, CNC-operated and high speed milling machines. ONA is the world's oldest manufacturer of EDM equipment and also the leading EDM builder in the European Union. ONA ram- and wire-EDM machines feature advanced spark-control and automatic programming technologies.