Abstract: With some analysis on the fundamental and important position that manufacturing industry (especially the equipment manufacturing industry) holds in the whole of the nation’s industrial and economic lives, the present compelling impor-tance is pointed out for the development of (AMTs). The trends in the market of modern manufacturing enterprises are then described, together with some challenges to manufacturing enterprises themselves as well as changes in the whole machine-building industry. Following these, efforts are put on the addressing of the new trends and characteristics in the development of AMTs, which asserts in the following 8 aspects that for the development of AMTs, digitalization is the core, precision holds the key, extremes in functions become the focus, automatization keeps the precondition, integration provides the technique, networking paves the pathway, intelligence forms the prospects, and sustainability stems a necessity. It is finally emphasized that all the 8 factors above overlap and support each other to form the whole, and they take roots on the basis of ‘machine’ and ‘manufacturing’ so as for serving the development of manufacturing industry.

Key words: Advanced manufacturing technology, Digitalization, Equipment, Informationization, Machine, Manufacturing