Carbide cutting tools in developed countries have dominated the cutting tools

       In developed countries, cemented carbide cutting tools have taken the leading role in cutting tools, accounting for 70%. And high-speed steel tools are shrinking at an annual rate of 1% to 2%, and the current proportion has dropped to less than 30%. The proportion of superhard tools such as diamond and cubic boron nitride is about 3%. Among the knives consumed by China's domestic hardware manufacturing industry, the proportion of carbide knives has reached more than 50%, and the problem of the disjointed supply and demand structure has been very serious. The consequence is that a large number of surplus high-speed steel tools are exported or sold domestically at low prices, while high-efficiency carbide tools have to rely on a large number of imports.



China's current annual sales of cutting tools are 14.5 billion yuan, of which carbide cutting tools account for less than 25%, which is not only far from the tool product structure in the international market, but also cannot meet the growing demand for carbide cutting tools in the domestic manufacturing industry. China currently produces about 80,000 tons of high-speed steel annually, accounting for about 40% of the world's total output, consuming a large amount of precious tungsten, molybdenum and other rare resources. This blind expansion and low-level repetition have resulted in a large surplus of high-speed steel tools produced, which have to be sold at low prices, resulting in low efficiency for a large number of tool manufacturers. The imbalance of the tool structure means that the tools produced are not in the right way with the demand. For example, there is a large gap in the cemented carbide tools required by users, but the high-speed steel tools are overproduced; the high-efficiency tools urgently needed by the modern manufacturing industry have a large gap, but the low-grade standard tools are overproduced.



China's current annual output of cemented carbide is 16,000 tons, which also accounts for about 40% of the world's total output. However, the output of cutting inserts with the highest added value in cemented carbide products is only more than 3,000 tons, accounting for only 20%. This situation, on the one hand, results in insufficient supply of cemented carbide tools that are urgently needed in China, and on the other hand, makes the precious cemented carbide resources not fully utilized.



In terms of economic benefits, the annual sales revenue of China's cemented carbide is about 560 million US dollars; Japan is only 40% of China's output, but the sales revenue is as high as 2.633 billion US dollars, of which the proportion of blades (tools) is as high as 72%, which makes the resources available. Make full use of it, and the enterprise has also obtained good benefits. China's tool industry should get some useful inspiration from it.