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The current demand trend in the pipe bending machine market has long since moved beyond the rudimentary stage of "as long as it can bend, that's enough," and is now making great strides towards becoming more intelligent, greener, and better suited to specific scenarios.
High-end CNC machine tools are becoming increasingly sought-after in the market, with equipment featuring five or more axes of linkage gradually pushing traditional three-axis models out of the mainstream. Interestingly, customers now consider not only precision when selecting equipment but also "smart" features—AI-powered automatic compensation for pipe springback, digital twin simulation of processing effects, and remote troubleshooting. These features significantly increase the probability of first-pass yield, naturally becoming key selling points for suppliers.
Green and low-consumption technologies have become unavoidable key performance indicators. Driven by dual carbon targets, all-electric servo pipe bending machines have quickly gained a foothold in the new energy field due to their advantages of low energy consumption and traceable carbon footprint. After all, equipment that can reduce material waste and lower production energy consumption is the preferred choice for downstream enterprises, both from a cost and policy perspective.
The divergence in downstream demand has further segmented the market into different "cakes." The three-electric system of new energy vehicles has spurred a large demand for cooling pipe processing, directly driving up the demand for a batch of high-end pipe bending equipment. Although the aerospace sector does not have a large procurement volume, the high precision requirements for processing titanium alloy pipes have made the corresponding equipment much more valuable. The energy industry has both new and old demands. The traditional oil and gas sector requires large-diameter pipe bending equipment, while the hydrogen energy sector has created new demand for high-precision pipe bending machines.
The wave of domestic substitution continues to rise, and domestic pipe bending machine brands have already gained a foothold in the mid-range market and are now making inroads into the high-end sector. At the same time, their overseas expansion is widening, with orders from Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and other regions continuing to grow. Chinese-made pipe bending machines are gaining a larger share of the international market thanks to their high cost-performance ratio and customization capabilities.
The demand varies across different regions. The Yangtze River Delta, with its well-developed supporting system, has become the core area for demand for high-end pipe bending machines. The Pearl River Delta follows the pace of end-user manufacturers and prefers equipment with fast response times. The Bohai Rim region focuses on special fields such as military and nuclear power, and has a strong demand for specialized pipe bending equipment. Meanwhile, the central and western regions have also released a lot of incremental demand for basic pipe bending equipment during the process of undertaking the transfer of production capacity.