Jakarta, Frankfurt am Main, 7 December 2015 – Indonesia ranks among the world’s Top 20 markets for the machine tool industry. Japanese vendors dominate the market here, while Germany ranks 5th among the vendor nations for machine tools. Thus for German manufacturers there is plenty of scope for upsizing their sales. The country has huge economic potential, which is why the German producers of machine tools intend in future to vigorously intensify their business operations in Indonesia. The kick-off came at the VDW’s Technology Symposium in Jakarta held on 25 November 2015.

Twelve manufacturers of machine tools took the opportunity to showcase their products, solutions and services on the spot. 113 high-ranking representatives of Indonesia’s industrial sector responded to the VDW’s invitation. They came primarily from the automotive industry and its component suppliers, the aviation sector, metalworking companies and the general mechanical engineering sector.

The German companies participating were Alzmetall, Chiron-Werke, DMG Mori, Emag, FFG-Werke, Grob-Werke, Heckert, Heller, Mikron, Siemens, Schwäbische Werkzeugmaschinen and United Grinding.

“With the VDW’s Symposium on ‘Machine Tools and Production Systems from Germany’ we’re here for the second time after 1992 in Indonesia, a country that offers high sales potential,” reports Klaus-Peter Kuhnmünch, the organiser of this VDW event.

The German participants take a similar view. Alexander Attenberger from Grob-Werk GmbH & Co. KG in Mindelheim emphasises: “In Indonesia, a sales market is currently emerging that should not be underestimated, particularly for top-quality machine tools ‘Made in Germany’. In view of the steeply rising population, and the concomitant industrialisation of the country, there will be attractive market potentials developing here in the future.”

In 2014, Indonesia ranked 19th in the world, with machine tool consumption of 742 million euros. The country is the third-largest market in the ASEAN region, behind Thailand and Vietnam. During the period from 2010 to 2013, the Indonesian market performed exceptionally well. Consumption doubled to more than 900 million euros. Last year, however, the market suffered a downturn of 17 per cent. The most important supplier of machine tools is Japan, which accounts for almost 60 per cent of machine tool imports. It is followed in 2nd, 3rd and 4th places by Taiwan, China and South Korea. In 2014, German manufacturers exported machine tools worth 24 million euros to Indonesia, which corresponds to a market share of 2 per cent. As is the case in other countries of South-East Asia, the Japanese machine tool companies benefit directly from the strong presence of their own automotive industry and other customer sectors. The task for German companies is to put an end to this Japanese dominance and in future to devote more vigorous attention to the Indonesian market.