There has been increasing attention to compacted graphite iron (CGI) for its good mechanical properties, physical, casting performance and thermal conductivity in the automotive industry. However, tool life has been significantly reduced and it requires frequent replacement of tools which leads to processing economy decrease, as compared with gray cast iron; or conservative cutting parameters have been used which lead to low productivity. All of these have hindered its application to a larger extent in large scale production. Recent research was introduced from a few respects including material properties, CGI cutting mechanism, tools, processing technology and so on. The existent key issues of CGI machining and applied technology were pointed out, as well as trends of future research in CGI machining technology.