After several years of continued reduced domestic demand and reliance on export orders that have posed a challenge for growth, the EU is finally seeing some regional recovery. Home to many of the world’s machine tool manufacturing businesses, the EU accounts for over a third of the world’s machine tool production capacity.

According to CECIMO, machine tool production in the EU has increased from 22.7 billion euros (US$26.1 billion) in 2013 to 22.9 billion euros (US$26.4 billion) in 2014, and the association expects a further three percent growth for 2015.

In 2014, machine tool exports from the EU totalled an estimated US$21 billion. This figure was down from that of 2013, but understandable as there had been a slower economic growth in the emerging markets. This year, these markets are consuming more and the growth outlook in developed markets has improved. Despite the weak euro, with a solid demand from these countries, these still mean a growth for EU exports.

Driving this growth is the positive mid-year reports of the two largest machine-tool trade associations in the EU: the Italian machine tool and automation industry Sistemi per produrre (UCIMU) and the German Machine Tool Builders Association (VDW).

UCIMU reported a 30 percent year-over-year increase in new orders for machine tools, of which domestic orders increased 46.7 percent and foreign orders increased 26.1 percent in quarter two alone, as compared to the same period last year.

VDW on the other hand, reported that orders rose 10 percent in quarter two compared to that of 2014, and as reported previously, have since balanced out the decline in orders they experienced for the first quarter of this year.

Rather than a liability, the weak Euro is one factor supporting industrial demand in the EU and helping regional manufacturers of machine tools to offset the reduced demand from emerging markets, said CECIMO.