The worst affected industry in this pandemic driven crisis is manufacturing with its complex supply chains, labor intensive processes, and interdependencies. Division of labor, modular manufacturing strategies, outsourcing to reduce costs and increase the efficiency, consistency, and quality of each operations, have made the manufacturing sector most vulnerable amid the lockdown restrictions. An indication of the grim state of affairs is the fact that global manufacturing PMI is already declining and will fall to an estimated all-time low in 2020 as compared to the 53. 8 in 2019. With roots in China, the world's supply chains are facing unprecedented disruption and shutdown. Interwoven with a demand crisis, the supply chain shocks are exerting a compounded blow to manufacturing companies worldwide. A combination of all the aforementioned macro-economic issues alongside more specific factors such as suspension of the transportation and changes in demand patterns have dealt a debilitating blow to the manufacturing industry. On a monthly basis, global manufacturing PMI continuously degraded from 52.2 points in January2020 to 39.6 points in April 2020 and 42.4 points in May 2020. This indicates severe contraction of manufacturing activity including new orders, production, employment, supplier deliveries, inventories, customers' inventories, commodity prices, order backlog, new export orders, and imports. Business investment confidence is tumbling amidst poor demand, falling profits, liquidity crunch and a reeling global economy. The "great lockdown" of 2020 has crushed the global economy and with it the manufacturing sector. The COVID-19 pandemic will have lasting long-term economic, social and political impact.

As upstream, midstream and downstream sectors of manufacturing feel the ripple effect of disruption, Milling Machines also a key part of the value chain is expected to feel the heat. Saddled with numerous short-term challenges, the global market is expected to decline by -14% in the year 2020. As shuttered factories and weak demand erode revenues and cash flows of manufacturing companies, budgets marked for plant equipment upgrades are being slashed and purchase plans postponed. Liquidity issues and concerns are exerting pressure on capital funds. Virtually every company has experienced the immediate impact of falling consumer and business confidence on its bottom-line. The milling machines market, offers an array of systems and solutions for milling in industrial and manufacturing environments. Automotive, power and energy, construction equipment, and aerospace & defense, the primary end-use sectors for milling machines, have exhibited a significant fall in terms of production as well as repair & maintenance volumes, across key markets including China, the US, Western Europe, South Korea, India, Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and ASEAN countries, thereby curtailing the overall demand for machine tool solutions. The continued weakness in industrial activity and lack of new orders is expected impact growth in the immediate term. Although countries are now cautiously emerging out of lockdowns, manufacturing companies are still confronted with disruptions in supplier networks, worker shortages due to labor migrations and restrictions placed on worker density in the plant floor, and challenges involved in adapting to new operational processes as the new normal.

A revised outlook pegs the global milling machines market at a projected US$8.9 billion for the year 2027. Horizontal Milling Machines, one of the segments analyzed in the report, is projected to grow at a 5.3% CAGR to reach US$6.3 billion by the end of the analysis period. COVID-19 has highlighted the importance of automation and remote operation. Industry 4.0 will therefore have a significant impact even on specific areas of manufacturing such as machining. Machining operations will head toward a more streamlined, connected and intelligent network of machines, devices and systems. Connected processes will replace conventional machines or will be synched with legacy systems to aid in free flow of data streams to enable easy Ingestion, processing and analysis to improve existing operations. Milling machines will be developed with more innovative features to support integration with IoT technologies such as better human-machine interfaces; enhanced or automatic virtual metrology; embedded sensors that enable energy and operational savings; smarter controls; remote functionality features and networking support; among others. As machine shops, job shops and other metalworking plants prepare for Industry 4.0, demand for equipment upgrade and modernization will grow since milling machines should be capable of seamless communications to report their status and should include automation solutions that will help machines carry out self-directed working allowing human laborers to take a more hands-off approach. Upgrades to intelligent machines will result not only in highly streamlined, predictable and profitable manufacturing processes but will also help reduce worker density and maintain social distancing norms which will be the new normal going forwards in the post-pandemic world.