China's cutting tool manufacturing industry faces both opportunities and challenges, but overall, favorable factors have dominated its development. The Chinese cutting tool market has maintained steady growth in recent years, reaching a market size of 53.8 billion yuan in 2023. In 2025, the revenue of cutting tool companies (industry) reached 108.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.4%. Among them, cemented carbide tools dominate, with a market share of 52.1%.
Currently, competition in the domestic cutting tool consumer market can be divided into three tiers: the first tier consists of European and American companies, which dominate the high-end customized tool market; the second tier mainly consists of Japanese and Korean companies; and the third tier mainly consists of domestic cutting tool companies. Some domestic companies have made progress in key indicators such as fracture toughness and film-substrate adhesion, accelerating the localization process. Recently, affected by the continuous and significant rise in the price of cemented carbide raw materials, some companies in the industry have adjusted the prices of CNC cutting tool products. For example, in March 2026, the domestic precision cutting tool manufacturer, World, announced that due to fluctuations in the global tungsten raw material market and rising costs of superhard material synthesis, it would implement a new pricing system for its cutting tool products from May 1, 2026. Industry organizations such as the China Machinery Industry Metal Cutting Tools Technology Association promote technological exchange and collaborative innovation through regular industry conferences, technical salons, skills competitions, and the development of group standards.
Driven by technological advancements and market demand, the cutting tool industry is exhibiting new development trends. Policy support for manufacturing upgrades and self-reliance is propelling the industry towards high performance and intelligent manufacturing. For example, leading companies are transforming from product manufacturers to processing capability providers, using AI industrial software to build machining physical models, enabling intelligent optimization of cutting parameters and predictable machining processes. Coating technology, as a core component, continues to innovate, with diversified alloying of film materials, diversified process combinations, and nanostructured coatings improving the wear resistance, thermal stability, and overall performance of cutting tools. Superhard tool materials, due to their excellent hardness and stability, are seeing continued expansion in high-speed, dry cutting, and difficult-to-machine materials applications. The deepening of the green manufacturing concept is driving the development of green cutting technologies such as dry cutting and high-speed cutting, and placing "green" requirements on tool materials, geometric parameter design, and full life-cycle management. In July 2026, Xiamen Jinlu Special Alloy Co., Ltd. broke ground on its Southwest Headquarters and R&D Manufacturing Base for high-end cutting tools in Wenjiang High-tech Zone, Chengdu, with a total investment of 1.05 billion yuan. The project will construct a new digital intelligent production workshop and an R&D and engineering solutions center. Upon completion, it will have a large-scale intelligent manufacturing capacity of 30 million indexable cutting tools, 4 million solid cutting tools, and 2 million superhard cutting tools per year. This project aims to create a strategic headquarters radiating across western China and, through an integrated layout of "R&D + intelligent manufacturing + technical services," precisely empower the region's high-end industrial clusters. Its establishment also signifies that domestic high-end equipment industrial parks are improving their industrial chain ecosystem by introducing major projects, such as forming a "tool + equipment" synergy with high-end CNC machine tool projects, connecting the entire industrial mother machine industry chain.
