Hardware industry is increasingly fierce competition

At the 2013 National Machinery Industry Economic Situation Report held in mid-November, Cai Weici, executive vice president of the China Federation of Machinery Industry, pointed out that since the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the operational difficulties of the machinery industry have increased significantly, and the pressure to change the growth mode has been imminent. This year, there are many difficulties for industry and enterprises; however, under the influence of the market's reversal mechanism, industry restructuring and transformation and upgrading are accelerating.

Mid-range competition He pointed out that from the first three quarters of the industry's main business income and profit growth compared to the same period last year, it can be clearly seen that the development of consumption, information, automation and close to the industry faster than the typical investment product industry. It can be seen from this that the automotive industry with the largest proportion of total volume grows faster this year, which is the main industry that boosts the growth rate of the machinery industry; the growth rates of sub-sectors such as agricultural machinery, instruments, and basic components are also higher than the average growth of the machinery industry. speed.

Correspondingly, the typical investment products industry (such as construction machinery, hardware, heavy machinery, power generation equipment, etc.) is generally in a poor situation; in some of these industries, output does not necessarily fall, but the main business revenue declines, and profits decline. It is even more obvious that "there is no shortage of living, and the efficiency has fallen sharply."

The reason for this is that the expansion of production capacity in these industries has been severely excessive. Once the market has cooled, competition has become increasingly fierce, and product prices have plummeted, leading to a substantial decline in efficiency.

Through interviews with several hardware manufacturing companies, the reporter also learned that the decline in corporate profits is more important than the decline in the amount of hardware orders and sales revenue.

Analysis from the hardware industry, low-end hardware market profits are indisputable facts, while the high-end hardware imports are still high.

Therefore, under the circumstances that the overall market demand of the industry is low, hardware companies are undergoing transformation and upgrading under the pressure of the market, while the mid-range market is the hot spot of competition.

Not only is the domestic scale company putting the market's focus on here, but some newly-entry industry upstarts have also targeted the breakthrough here. After all, mid-range hardware is easier to form in volume and scale. At the same time, foreign brands have also accelerated the layout of the Chinese market.

It is not difficult to understand that the above reasons are actually difficult to implement. However, it is critical to how to gain a firm foothold in this market competition and continue to obtain appropriate profits.

Not long ago, the enlarged meeting of the Council of the Chinese Automobile Manufacturing Equipment Innovation Association (CIAME) was held in Shanghai. Representatives of some auto companies also attended the meeting.

As we all know, cars are big users of the hardware industry. There is a saying that at least 50% of Jinche Hardware's customers are from the automotive industry.

But sadly, domestic hardware companies rarely enter key areas such as engine production lines. In China's auto factories, most of the equipment required for the four major processes needs to be imported.

Of course, what needs to be stated is that the reporter here does not mean the lack of a single high-end hardware, but the lack of a large number of high-end hardware industrialization, market-oriented and competitive products. In fact, through the display of major transformation achievements in recent years, we have indeed seen the emergence of a large number of outstanding results, and their single technical indicators are also worth noting. The only thing that is regrettable is the lack of marketization and industrialization. In other words, it is not enough.

If the mid-range market cannot form a certain amount, it will be difficult for the market to convince. This is the only way for the mid-range products to go upwards.

However, there is still a big gap between what can be done and what can be done. Can only show that there is the ability to make products, but do a good job is to recognize the ability of the company from the perspective of the customer, and are willing to pay for the purchase of the corresponding product.

Therefore, the reporter believes that it is the key to whether China's hardware manufacturers can gain a foothold in the mid-range market.

It is reported that the factory has been using two stamping production lines made in Germany. This time, Ford Motor Company chose to make in China.

In fact, in the face of the competition of international hardware counterparts, China's domestic CNC hardware is clearly "insufficient confidence", which greatly weakened the company's price advantage in the high-end hardware market.

Here, the connotation of performance not only refers to technology alone, but actually has a breakthrough in all fields of high-end CNC hardware. Technical difficulties such as five-axis linkage that were difficult to match in the past have been grasped by many companies nowadays. Hardware market, the problem will not be too big.

But what is important is craft, just as reporters feel when they look at documentaries. The spirit of excellence or the formation of customary professional practices is the most valuable.

Therefore, as long as the manufacturing process is still short, even the best technology will be discounted. In this way, major illnesses will not be committed and minor illnesses will inevitably continue. The direct result is that the reliability of hardware products has become unreliable. When the user is only a cheap figure to buy Taiwan-made high-end CNC hardware, then look forward to high-end but not high-quality domestic CNC hardware to completely replace imports, can only become a luxury.

Therefore, it is not easy to do well. However, the domestic hardware must stand firm in the mid-end hardware market, and win the victory in the entire industry transformation and upgrading, not only to get rapid performance improvement in the forced time, but also to ring the alarm of product reliability.