DALIAN: For years machine tool manufacturers in this port city of Northeast China's Liaoning Province have struggled to keep pace with the world's computer-numerical controlled (CNC) machine tool industry.

But now, at Dalian Guangyang Science & Technology Engineering Co Ltd, research and development engineers are testing their homegrown computer-controlled machine tools, Yu Dehai, general manager of the company, told China Daily.

Yu said they are testing their inventions with experts from the China Machine Tool & Tool Builders Association.

"When we put our results into production, we will end our country's reliance on imported high-grade machine tools," Yu said.

Guangyang started producing the CNC system five years ago and became a machine tool provider for partners in United Kingdom, Germany and Japan.

Yu set up an R&D centre with 110 engineers focusing on the CNC system and hardware manufacturing technologies.

Guangyang's first-generation products narrowed the gap between it and foreign producers of CNC machine tool technology, Yu said.

Meanwhile, a multi-tasking machine tool has been put into operation at the Dalian Machine Tool Group (DMTG), the country's top machine tool manufacturer.

"The machine tool has aroused great interest in the world's machine tool industry," said DMTG Vice-President Jiang Huaisheng.

With products in more than 100 countries and regions, DMTG is the world's ninth-largest machine tool manufacturer with sales of US$935 million, according to the US-based Metalworking Insiders' Report.

"Eight years ago, DMTG was a small factory struggling in a limited domestic market," Jiang said. "Now, we are one of the world's top machine tool providers. Sales this year will reach 9.5 billion yuan (US$1.2 billion)."

In recent years, DMTG quickened its step to co-operate with foreign partners by establishing eight Sino-foreign joint ventures.

In 2003, DMTG annexed two branch companies of the US-based Ingersoll, a leading company in special machine tool manufacturing.

Later, DMTG bought 70 per cent of the shares of German-based Zimmermann, which specializes in multi-tasking machine tools.

Once armed with Ingersoll and Zimmermann technology, DMTG became a competitor in first-class auto and aviation manufacturing. Its additions added US$90 million to DMTG's sales this year, Jiang said.