Metal Cutting Tools Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Advanced Technology - The requirement for factory automation is getting high and thus, the implementation of smart manufacturing practices into manufacturing processes and products. This is due to advantages that come with the use of the system such as productivity, quality of the goods produced, and any issue with a labor shortage. The manufacturing and machinery industry will transform from the daily starch known method to smart, connected, and integrated machines.
  
  Open technologies can be of benefit to manufacturers in streamlining operations and improving the utilization of energy resources, gaining automatic virtual metrology systems, and attaining better human system interface. The stats reveal how the discrete industries which consist of automotive, manufacturing, and electronics would be expecting for 50% market share for Human Machine Interface globally in the years to come.
• Industry 4.0 adaptation - The analyses of the advanced level of Industry 4.0 also affected the metal cutting industry in a major way. Thus, for the metal cutting tools, industry 4.0 has brought smart cutting tools which are able to share information with machines, gather information and correct operations accordingly. These tools can look at the cutting process as it occurs and change speed, feed, and other things for the cutting process. The investments in upcoming firms making technology associated with the industry 4.0 were observed to the tune of USD 2 billion in the year 2021. Collectively, the range of activities referred to as cross-border M&As involved 2.513 deals made during the 11-year period.
• Metal evolution - Essential needs manufacturing processes are key driver for the development of new and improved cutting tools because many parts and components are made from high strength alloys, composites, ceramic etc., and often require machining under difficult conditions. Since there are calls from industries to use light and reinforcing materials in their products, there is also the increased need for such materials. For instance, the tensile strength of weld joints that were produced from Al-Si wires is close to 280MPa, which is still lower than the strength of AA2024 that is typically used in the aerospace industry which is over 400MPa.

Challenges

• Fierce rivalry and saturation of the market- This is because of many big players and entry of new players with new technologies that have entered the market. In this way, the metal cutting tools market share and the clients’ preferences remain under serious pressure from manufacturers. The market saturation aspect is derived from the fact that metal cutting tools are extensively used across automotive industries, aerospace industries, construction industries and machinery industries among others.
• Price fluctuations for raw materials- The cost of raw materials varies over time and with it many producers of metal cutting tools are affected. This in turn pushes up the prices of the manufactured metal cutting tools as a result of the high costs of raw materials. This results in low demand for the metal-cutting tools hence slowing down of the market. This also complicates production scheduling and control over the manufacturing stocks and long delivery time.