In 1950, China National Import Company, the predecessor of CMC, relocated from Tianjin to Beijing.

In 1952, China National Import Company was divided into machinery, technology, hardware, and other miscellaneous specialized companies. Hereby, China National Machinery Import Company was established.

In 1960, the company was named "China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation".

In 1997, according to the Company Law of PRC and "the State Council's One Hundred Modern Enterprises Pilot Program", CMC was reconstructed to a wholly state-owned company registered in the State Administration for Industry and Commerce as a limited liability company.

In 1998, CMC became one of the core founding members of China General Technology (Group) Holding Co., Ltd. (Genertec).

In 2019, CMC was included by the State Council Leading Group on SOE Reform in the fourth batch of pilot SOE mixed-ownership reform.

In 2019, CMC integrated their resources in Europe region, set up CMC Europe Business Center(CMC Europe). CMC Europe is the management unit of CMC specialized in the renewable energy business, which manages CMC Italy, CMC UK, China Machinery Europe, ACI and CMC Europe Kft(Hungary), and is fully responsible for the business of each region in Europe.