After four difficult years, 2005 marked a point of inflection for the Spanish Machine tool sector. 2006, although while not being homogeneous for all businesses involved, consolidated this tendency and can be regarded as positive.

The orders have increased by more than 15% with respect to the previous year and the provisional data on closing the years reflects this increase. Turnover has increased by 9.6% with regard to 2005 and exports are 14% more than the previous year, representing 57.5% of the total turnover.

By markets, the stable behaviour of the main European markets is notable, with significant growth in exports to the USA, China and India.

2007 is a year that can be seen as continuing in this positive vein, although factors such as narrow profit margins, the €/$ exchange rate, the cost of certain raw materials and the inflexibilities of the supply chain are causes for concern within the sector.