Policy supports China's hydro-pneumatic seals to usher in a period of rapid investment growth

As the chairman of the China Hydraulic and Pneumatic Sealing Industry Association, Sha Baosen recently appeared frequently at the construction machinery industry exchange meeting.

All this is related to the “Special Implementation Plan for Basic Components”.

In late October, Sha Po-Sen said that hydraulic components in China have long been under the control of foreign manufacturers during the founding meeting of preparatory organizations for high-end hydraulic components working platforms for construction machinery. However, in the past, China has paid insufficient attention to this. The revitalization plan issued by the government mentioned that it is necessary to realize the development of the host computer and its supporting equipment over the same period, giving the industry great confidence. He believes that "the new opportunities for development in the industry are in sight."

Throat pain: "We exported blood and sweat, and imported tears!"

"It's very hard to be a vigorous player, and it's more about staying in loneliness."

Saposon once said these two words, and the reporter is still feeling quite interesting afterwards. Indeed, in recent years, we have reported on the overall state of the machinery sub-sector. We have found that many people are accustomed to using “big but not strong” to describe the status of the industry.

The reason for this situation has now reached a consensus in the industry: it is due to our lack of independent innovation capabilities and the weak foundation of the equipment manufacturing industry.

It should be said that since the reform and opening up, China's equipment manufacturing industry has developed rapidly. Foreign media also praised China as a miracle in the world of equipment manufacturing. But now industry professionals are also reconsidering how much benefit we have gained in the process of growth and progress.

Taking the construction machinery industry as an example, there were institutions that had done research in the past few years, saying that 70% of the profit of the construction machinery industry was for imported parts and components.

Regardless of whether this data is completely accurate, but at least shows that the proportion of imported components occupies the cost of the entire construction machinery can not be ignored. What's more, the timely supply of these key components has seriously affected the normal production and sales of the company. In other words, the development of a business or industry is to some extent subject to people.

Sha Baosen said that in the three core components of construction machinery hydraulic parts, engines, and electronic control systems, the hydraulic parts are the most sharp fishbone stuck in the throat of China's construction machinery industry. Nearly half of the tens of thousands of excavators manufactured in China rely on imports, while domestic equipment, due to weak key component technologies, is obviously at a disadvantage when competing with world-famous brands. Therefore, in the field of construction machinery, there is a saying that “they must obtain hydraulic pressure for the founder and get hydraulic pressure for the world”.

In fact, in addition to the construction machinery industry, our entire machinery industry has a sense of frustration with more or less critical components. For example, the majority of bearings for high-speed rail equipment still rely on imports; high-end gear transmissions for automobiles, construction machinery, coal mining machinery, and large-scale agricultural machinery are also heavily imported, and the import and export deficit is increasing year by year; in the field of molds, the manufacturing industry is in dire need of precision, Complex stamping dies and plastic molds, car cover molds, electronic connectors and other electronic product molds, etc., are still heavily dependent on imports.

As we all know, bearings, gears, molds, hydraulic components, pneumatic components, seals, fasteners, etc. are all mechanical basic components and are an indispensable part of the equipment manufacturing industry. The quality and performance of key basic components are Reliability and other factors also determine the performance, level, quality, and reliability of major equipment and host products, which is the key to achieving China's equipment manufacturing industry from large to strong. To some extent, the current level of development of China's machinery and components has obviously become a major bottleneck restricting the development of China's machinery industry.

In the reporter’s view, the key components rely on imports to reflect the backwardness of our country’s basic technologies, and this has become one of the fundamental reasons why China’s machinery manufacturing companies cannot develop high-end markets and build well-known brands in international competition.

Sha Baosen said that in the past, the idea of ​​supporting the use of computers was keeping up with the development of the host. However, in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, strengthening the basic strategy has become one of the important development strategies of the machinery industry. And supporting the simultaneous development.

“It should be said that the new development opportunities in the liquid airtight industry are in sight. The launch of the “Special Implementation Plan for Basic Components” has given the industry full of expectations. It is not just policies, funds, projects, but also more practical “names”. 'Changes in ideas and real actions.'

Sha Baosen told reporters that the current investment in the liquid gas-tight area has surged by at least 30 billion yuan, and that the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have also invested more than 10 billion yuan in projects. He believes that the accumulation of hydraulic components in the development of the past is not enough, but believe that in the future in all sectors of the concern and enthusiastic participation, high-end hydraulic parts of construction machinery will inevitably accelerate the quantitative change to the qualitative process.

However, because the enterprises in the liquid airtight industry are mostly small and medium-sized enterprises, the family-owned enterprises are more important than the family, and the funds and technical power are limited. The management is relatively backward. Companies are busy stifling products in the middle and low-end market. Products are homogenized and difficult to open, so they often fall into such a vicious circle: The more companies engage in price warfare, the cheaper the product, the lower the profit, the lower the profit. The fewer the more you lack the ability to enter the high-end market.

"How to get out of this strange circle, only through the joint reorganization." Sha Po-sen's point of view is that regardless of the combination of Ye Hao, mergers and acquisitions worth mentioning, in short, to achieve reorganization. Because the fluid transmission products are hydraulic, pneumatic or sealed, they all belong to the basic components. They have the characteristics of large quantity, wide coverage, wide variety, and complete sets. It is definitely not feasible to rely on a single company. There is no such precedent in the world.

For example, Bosch Rexroth, Parker, and Eaton, all of whom are familiar to us, are giants in the industry. They have many factories under their control, and each factory specializes in production. As a capital-intensive and technology-intensive industry such as the fluid transmission industry, there are scales to be effective. Therefore, taking the road to joint reorganization is inevitable and is in line with the needs of the development of the industry.

However, the real implementation of cross-regional, cross-sectoral or even cross-industry restructuring is not easy. Because the liquid airtight industry has been open to the outside world for a long time, the traditional “prince economy” and “local separatism” have already taken shape. On the contrary, multinational corporations can gain the right to market control and technology development through the implementation of mergers and acquisitions strategy in China, especially the acquisition of industry leading companies.

In this situation, how can the product achieve the high end? It now appears that the government has not only given policy support, but if the "basic component special implementation plan" is formally implemented, the project funds have also been guaranteed. Therefore, the focus will be on both the host plant and the basic parts manufacturer.

In Sabauson's view, the OEMs have to treat the problems of the basic parts as their own problems. At present, host companies are subject to many restrictions on foreign basic parts companies in production. Cooperation with domestic basic parts companies is both a support for China's basic parts industry and is also beneficial to its own development.

For the current mainframe plant conceived as a hydraulic component project or a "coverage" hydraulic component manufacturing enterprise, Saposon said that this solution is not recommended. He believes that, first of all, this will result in duplication of investment and waste of resources. Secondly, hydraulic components are capital-intensive, technology-intensive, and package-intensive products. Scale production can be effective, and it is impossible to build well in the short term. Therefore, the two should form a strategic alliance, rather than attachment and affiliation.

For the basic parts companies, the basic parts are for the host, based on the host platform, the skin does not exist, Mao will be attached? Therefore, the basic part companies must participate in the host product development process and fully understand the host's technical development requirements and process requirements.

If the host company actively supports domestically-produced base parts, it provides time, machine, and site for the life test of the new product. In this way, the relationship between strategic alliances can be formed so that both sides can benefit from each other and advance hand in hand.

Sa Po-Sen said: "For various reasons, the existing common technical resources in the industry have almost disappeared. And foreign manufacturers are trying to maintain the original market order and pattern in various ways. In this environment, there is no The sense of mission, responsibility, determination and innovation are hard to achieve."

He told reporters that in order for China's fluid transmission industry to achieve a transition from big to strong, it will undoubtedly face many difficulties and difficulties. But he has a conviction: There is nothing to follow in the world, and it is not necessarily difficult to do it.