Steel Structures can be used in many industries such as foundation reinforce, electric power transmission structures and tubular scaffolding, etc.
A flange can also be a plate or ring to form a rim at the end of a pipe when fastened to the pipe. A blind flange is a plate for covering or closing the end of a pipe. A flange joint is a connection of pipes, where the connecting pieces have flanges by which the parts are bolted together.
Although the word flange generally refers to the actual raised rim or lip of a fitting, many flanged plumbing fittings are themselves known as 'flanges':
There are many different flange standards to be found worldwide. To allow easy functionality and interchangeability, these are designed to have standardised dimensions. Common world standards include ASA/ASME (USA), PN/DIN (European), BS10 (British/Australian), and JIS/KS (Japanese/Korean). In the USA, ANSI stopped publishing B16.5 in 1996, and the standard is ASME B16.5
Steel Structures Carport,Substation Steel Structure Fabrication,Peb Steel Structure,Light Steel Structure Yixing Steel Pole International Trading Co., Ltd , https://www.yx-steelpole.com
Since 2012, after the rapid development of China's tool industry for ten consecutive years, the sales situation has turned sharply and entered the market downturn that has not been seen for many years. The general public has such a question: Is this downturn the established result of macroeconomic regulation and control? According to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, China's GDP growth rate in 2012 reached 7.8%. Although this growth rate is the low point since entering the new century, it still ranks first in terms of the global market. It should be said that the macro fundamentals are good, but the company is struggling. What is the reason? What puzzles us is that the GDP growth rate of many countries is far lower than that of China, but the days of enterprises are better than ours. Why is this?
Take the two major economies of the United States and Japan as an example. The global economic community recognizes that these two countries are recovering well this year. It is predicted that the economic growth rate in 2013 is expected to reach 2.5% or more. Although this growth rate is far below the level of 7.8% in China, it is surprising that the macroeconomic fundamentals of these countries have just begun to improve and will be quickly transmitted to every area of ​​the grassroots, with obvious effects.
The above-mentioned economic phenomena that are taking place at home and abroad are often dazzling and unpredictable, but they are the basic facts we must face. Only by carefully combing and analyzing these facts can we grasp the essence of the changes in the tool industry over the past year and the root causes of the market downturn, and take correct countermeasures.
The operation of China's tool enterprises since 2012
Since 2012, the Chinese government has taken the initiative to carry out macroeconomic regulation and control, and lowered the excessive economic growth index by 2-3 percentage points. The purpose of regulation and control is to guide all parties to put their efforts to accelerate the transformation of economic development mode and effectively improve the quality and efficiency of economic development, so as to facilitate the development of a longer period, a higher level and better quality. The practice over the past year has proved that the fundamentals of the macro economy continue to maintain a good momentum, but the real economy has been greatly affected. The operation of the vast number of enterprises is struggling, forming a huge contrast of “macro and micro-weaknessâ€. This is the biggest confusion currently encountered in assessing the economic development of the industry.
The operation of China's tool enterprises is a true reflection of the above-mentioned macro and micro-index differentiation phenomenon: the market situation faced by enterprises does not show the trend of slowing down and stable development expected by the state's macro-control, but a comprehensive reversal. A negative growth of up to two digits. China's tool market has shrunk from 40 billion yuan in 2011 to 34 billion yuan, a year-on-year drop of 15%. At the same time, tool imports fell from 13.5 billion yuan to 11.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year decline of nearly 15%. %; tool exports fell from 8.5 billion yuan to 7.6 billion yuan, a drop of 10.6%.
In 2012, under the overall background of the market, the performance of domestic tool companies is no longer similar to that of almost all enterprises in the period of rapid growth, but rather a greater dispersion. Specifically, a small number of tool companies have strong adaptability to market changes, and sales performance is basically the same as in 2011, even slightly better than the previous year, showing real effort in adversity. The sales of most companies have declined to varying degrees, but the decline has also shown a big difference, roughly between 10% and 30%.
In 2012, the sales of multinational tool companies in China also encountered a “cold winterâ€, and the average sales decline was also around 15%. However, there are two points worth noting: First, the sales performance of Japanese tool companies is better than that of European and American tool companies. For example, sales of Japan's OSG and Mitsubishi materials in China fell by about 6% last year, while sales of European and American companies fell by 10% to 30%. The reason is worth studying. The preliminary analysis may be that the cost of Japanese tools is higher. Second, the multinational tool group's sales performance in the world or in the country is better than the Chinese market. This is the first reversal after China's tool market has expanded rapidly and its growth rate has ranked first in the world for many years. For example, Sandvik’s tool segment saw double-digit sales in China last year, but global sales increased by 1%. Japan's OSG's global sales increased by 3.86% last year, but sales in Asia fell by 1.89%, mainly due to a 6.5% decline in sales in China. This change and reversal deserves our serious attention.
In 2012, China's tool exports fell by about 10%, which seems to be slightly better than the domestic market, but there are two points to be explained: First, last year's export new orders were down, and actual export delivery was better. There are factors for the delivery of orders received in 2011 in 2012; second, the export performance of different companies is quite different. In general, the export decline of large-scale low-end tools is generally more than double digits; the export of traditional tools with stable quality is basically the same as that of the previous year or slightly decreased, and the export of industrial tools (especially cemented carbide tools) is rising. trend.
After entering 2013, the overall situation of the domestic tool market has not seen a significant improvement. According to the statistics of the tool club, the sales revenue of member companies in the first quarter fell by 15.6% year-on-year. In April, the statistical report showed that the year-on-year decline narrowed to 11.14%. The year-on-year decline in May continued to narrow to 8%, showing signs of stabilizing, but the overall situation is still very serious.
Tool companies must seriously study the major changes in the country's macro-policy orientation and adjust their development strategies in a timely manner.
At the video conference on the transformation of the functions of the State Council on May 13th, Premier Li Keqiang said that the current economic development situation is complicated and that the expected goal of this year's development will be achieved. The space for stimulating policies and direct government investment is not large. If we rely too much on government-led and policy-driven to stimulate growth, it will not only be difficult to sustain, but will even create new contradictions and risks. These statements, on the one hand, highlight the current complicated economic situation and cannot be expected to rely on some simple policy measures to solve the problem: on the other hand, it can be seen that the economic policy orientation of the Chinese government has shifted from focusing on short-term effects to more emphasis on medium and long-term. Development, that is, pay more attention to laying a solid foundation for sustainable development. A key entry point for all walks of life in analyzing and studying the current situation and development strategies is: not to make quick success, but also to develop in the long run. The vast number of tool enterprises must seriously study the major changes in the country's macro-policy orientation, adjust their development strategies in time, and adapt to the new situation, get out of the current predicament, and enter a healthy track of sustainable development. The following major aspects should be paid attention to to the new changes in the country's macro policy orientation.
(1) The Chinese government has earnestly learned the lessons and lessons that many developing countries cannot overcome in the “middle income trap†after World War II, insisting on deepening reform, expanding openness, and making progress
The theme that everyone cares about is how the tool industry can get rid of the difficulties and regain its vitality. However, it should be recognized that the difficulties we are currently facing are not part of the problem of the tool industry, but the common problems faced by the country's overall development. To broaden our horizons, it can also be said that after the Second World War, a large number of developing countries in the world faced a common problem when they developed to a certain stage in economic and social development. The World Bank’s 2006 East Asian Economic Development Report put forward the concept of “middle income trapâ€, which refers to the fact that when a country’s per capita income reaches the middle level of the world (per capita income is about 4,000 to 12,000 US dollars), The successful transformation of the economic development mode has led to a lack of new growth drivers, and eventually a phenomenon of economic stagnation. From the post-war world economic development process, only a few countries and regions (such as Japan and Asia's four small dragons) successfully crossed the "middle income trap", and most countries (including many countries in Latin America and Asia) Long-term in the middle income stage, it has been delayed to enter the ranks of high-income countries. These experiences and lessons are worthy of our country's good absorption and reference. Since 2010, China has entered the ranks of middle-income countries, but there have also been many new contradictions and new problems that need to be carefully studied and resolved. Fortunately, over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China has accumulated many successful experiences in building a socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. Of course, there are also failures and lessons to be remembered. Together with a large amount of information that can be borrowed from the international community, I believe that one will be found. A road to success that spans the “middle income trap†for national conditions. How to go this road is obviously a big problem that requires decision-making at the national level. Here are just some of the policies and ideas that the Chinese government and the economic community have introduced and are preparing for “transforming the development mode, adjusting the economic structure†and maintaining sustainable economic development. The purpose is to help tool enterprises better understand and analyze China in recent years. Changes in the economic and social fields.
(2) China's economic development is unlikely to return to the old road of extensive and rapid growth in the past
Faced with today's sluggish market and difficult business environment, many companies will unexpectedly miss the good times of high-speed growth in previous years. However, it must be emphasized that the vast number of enterprises must clearly understand the situation and resolutely reject the illusion of returning to the extensive business model. The Central Committee proposed guidelines for transforming the mode of economic growth at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Fourteenth Central Committee 18 years ago. Unfortunately, because the governments at all levels are too short-term interests, this correct policy has not been well implemented. At the same time of rapid economic growth, it has paid a heavy price for a large amount of overdraft of resources and energy, and the environment continues to deteriorate. This kind of development is absolutely unsustainable and unsustainable. Now to correct the best opportunity that has been missed, serious consequences have already been made. Environmental experts pointed out that China's water resources and air pollution are serious. The PM2.5 in major cities is seriously exceeding the standard, and the haze weather is constantly occurring. Even if we start to manage it, it will take several decades to see the results.
In addition to the constraints of resources, energy and environmental factors, the tremendous changes in the international economic environment after the financial crisis have also made China's export-oriented development strategy unsustainable. First, the world economic recovery is slow and fragile, and the global economy and industrial structure are deeply adjusted. China's "world factory" is too big for today's global market, and overcapacity is inevitable. Second, international trade and investment protectionism is strengthening, and regional free trade is taking shape. The anti-dumping investigations on China's export commodities by European and American countries have become increasingly frequent and constantly escalating. Third, the United States has implemented “re-industrialization†and export multiplication plans, and Sino-US economic and trade complementarity has declined. Strong growth in US manufacturing has reduced demand for imported Chinese products and will increase exports to China. The industrial overlap between China and the United States has increased and trade competitiveness has increased. Looking at the profound changes in the current domestic and international economic environment, it is imperative for China to "transform the development mode and adjust the economic structure." What should we do in response to the current situation? An economist made a vivid metaphor: If China's economic growth momentum is seen as a fruit-filled tree, there are not many low-lying fruits in the past. In the future, if we want to gain more growth, we can only make more efforts to extract the fruits of higher branches. This means that deep structural reforms will be the political fate that China has to face.
(3) The only way out for China's sustainable economic development is to deepen reform and improve the market system.
The remarkable development achievements that China has made in the past 30 years prove that reform is a powerful driving force for economic and social development. However, this kind of understanding often encounters challenges and even negation, and the road ahead is tortuous. Since the beginning of the new century, China's economy has developed rapidly, its national strength has grown significantly, and its achievements have been remarkable. However, some people have attributed these achievements excessively to the management and regulation of the government, while ignoring the enormous role of reforms in liberating productive forces. As a result, there have been regressive phenomena such as the stagnation of reforms, the retreat of the country, the disparity between the rich and the poor, and the accumulation of various contradictions, which have affected social stability. As economic achievements temporarily cover up a large number of social contradictions, it is not easy to be exposed in the short term. Until the outbreak of the international financial crisis in 2008, the government still believed that its ability to control the economy was excessive, and the stimulus plan was quickly introduced. Although it played an immediate role in boosting the economy, it also caused a series of adverse consequences: overcapacity and low investment efficiency. Local government debts were high, liquidity was rampant, asset bubbles were rapidly expanding, and eventually serious inflation occurred. The people had to pay for the consequences of this economic expansion, and the consequences have not been alleviated. By the end of May this year, China's broad money M2 balance was 104.21 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 15.8%, ranking first in the world. At the same time, the central bank announced the first five months of social financing scale of 9.11 trillion yuan, an increase of 3.12 trillion yuan, an all-time high, liquidity can be described as extremely loose. However, in mid-to-late June, China’s commercial banks have experienced a rare “money shortage†phenomenon. The micro-level liquidity exhaustion in the context of the macro-level liquidity is really difficult to understand. The economics pointed out that the reason is that speculative assets have deposited a lot of money and liquidity. Over the past year, the scale of social financing and the contribution of money supply to economic growth have become smaller and smaller, confirming that most of the new financing is used in the financial sector, especially investment in real estate and trust products with high expected returns. Concerns in the field of financial planning. Social financing is increasingly being used to pursue short-term investment returns rather than to promote sustained economic development. According to Fitch Ratings, the ratio of China's total credit to GDP has increased from 75% to 200% in five years, a high rate that is a precursor to the crisis. The central government has seen this danger and is taking effective measures to correct it. Therefore, it is impossible to expect a loose monetary policy to stimulate the economy. In addition, the deeper reason is that the reform debts have been too many for many years. Under the condition that the structural contradictions in the economic field are not resolved, the role of monetary expansion in promoting the economy has been greatly reduced. It has been pointed out that in the late 1990s, when China responded to the Asian financial crisis, it also adopted a stimulus policy with remarkable results. There were not so many sequelae, which enabled the economy that had sustained rapid expansion for many years to achieve a soft landing and guaranteed the first decade of the new century. Rapid development. Why did the stimulus policy in 1998 have a significant effect, and the “four trillion plan†launched in 2008 has been sequelae? The most obvious reason is that in the late 1990s, China adopted many powerful market-oriented reform measures for joining the World Trade Organization (WTO). When the stimulus plan was implemented in 2008, it completely adopted administrative measures and did not take any perfect market. The reform measures of the resource allocation function have led to a series of adverse consequences. The sharp contrast between the different consequences of the two stimulus measures shows that reform is the real driving force for economic and social development. From this we can see that the decision of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China to speed up the improvement of the socialist market economic system is of great significance and hard-won. The decision of the central government has made an authoritative conclusion on the debate on the line of sustainable economic development of our country: stimulus is not a solution, and reform is the way out. If you rely too much on stimuli, even if you win the rebound for a short time, you will plant the seeds of a long-term depression. Not only will the ruling party’s hands have fewer and fewer cards, but the time for reform will be less and less, and ultimately, China’s economic and social development will suffer. huge loss.
The best way for tool companies to get out of trouble is to speed up product structure adjustment and industrial upgrading, and march into the high-end market of manufacturing.
The strategic orientations mentioned above regarding China's economic and social development are all macro-level decisions at the national level. Under the current political system, the vast majority of manufacturing companies have not yet directly involved in or influenced these major decision-making channels. However, these directional decisions have a decisive influence on the medium and long-term development of China's economy and society. The majority of enterprises must seriously study and combine their own developments with the country's major policies to achieve full vitality. The road to sustainable development.
As far as the majority of tool companies are concerned, at least the state should pay close attention to the policy orientation in the following aspects, and take appropriate measures in actual work.
First, the important focus of transforming the economic development mode is to adhere to the construction of a resource-saving and environment-friendly society. The extensive quantitative expansion model will withdraw from the historical stage. For a long time, China's tool industry has produced a large number of low-grade knives and relied on the national export tax rebate to maintain its operation. This excess capacity of wasted resources will be eliminated.
According to HIS Global Insight, in 2011, China's manufacturing industry accounted for 19.9% ​​of the global total, but the tool industry serving the manufacturing industry, its main raw material high-speed steel consumption accounted for 50% of the world. Above %, the global share of cemented carbide consumption is over 40%. This asymmetrical consumption ratio reflects the huge waste of resources and cannot be continued.
Therefore, to transform the economic development mode of the tool industry means eliminating the excess capacity of high-consumption and inefficient tools, vigorously developing modern and efficient tools that are urgently needed by the manufacturing industry, and providing the society with maximum productivity with the least resource consumption. Needless to say, this process will re-shuffle the corporate structure of the tool industry in accordance with the principle of “survival of the fittestâ€.
Second, in the next ten years, China's manufacturing industry will accelerate the pace of transformation from large to strong. Its connotation is very clear: China's manufacturing industry is overcapacity, the scale will not expand, but the level should be greatly improved. Therefore, the tool industry must meet the new demands of the manufacturing industry, not to increase the supply quantity, but to improve the service level.
Looking forward to the development of manufacturing technology and equipment in the next decade, first of all, green environmental protection is a necessary condition. Second, there are five major trends in function: high productivity, high performance, high flexibility, adaptive control and modularity. The requirements for the tool are: high performance and stability, life and efficiency, and reduced cutting energy consumption. To meet these new requirements, tool companies have new breakthroughs in tooling system design, materials and coating technology. If you are technically self-sufficient and do not think ahead, you will be eliminated in the rapid development of manufacturing.
Third, in order for tool companies to enter the modern and efficient tooling sector, a major shift in roles must be accomplished: from a simple tool supplier to a provider of integrated solutions for manufacturing process technology.
When we discussed the industry development strategy, we repeatedly mentioned that in recent years, China's tool enterprises have greatly improved the manufacturing capacity of high-efficiency tools by introducing advanced foreign technology and equipment, and imported substitution has been realized in many fields. However, many companies lack the comprehensive ability to provide extended services to users after providing tool products. Therefore, in the field of high-end tools, there are often one-to-one import substitutions, and the scale of the whole market is very slow. This is China. The major gap between tool companies and foreign advanced levels must be resolved.
What needs to be emphasized here is that China is in the period of strategic transformation of economic development, the accelerated development of the service industry, and the expansion and upgrading of service demand between upstream and downstream affiliates will be a global development trend. When tool companies consider future developments, they must not only calculate the growth of product production, but also consider the increase in soft technology and service levels that may bring greater growth and benefits to enterprises.
Difficulties encountered in China's current economic development, in addition to the changes in the international economic situation, resulting in blocked export growth, insufficient aggregate demand, and a large surplus of manufacturing capacity, the serious lag in the development of the service industry is also a particularly prominent problem. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, in 2011, China's service industry accommodated only 35.7% of the total labor force, much lower than Malaysia's 60% and the United States' 81%. At the current level of economic development in China, the ratio of service industry to total labor force should be around 50%. In the future, the main driving force for China's economic growth will shift from exports and investment to domestic demand, which needs to be played by the service industry. In addition, in a broad sense, the development of the service industry is not limited to the tertiary industry. In the first and second industries, the demand for mutual services is growing due to the deepening of specialized division of labor among enterprises. Tool companies must see the development trend and not let go of this new growth opportunity by promoting service capabilities to promote development.
In summary, in the face of the current sluggish market, the majority of tool companies must clearly understand the situation, do not wait for the state to introduce any policies to save the market, but to make up their minds to accelerate the pace of product structure adjustment and industrial upgrading, to the high-end market of manufacturing. Entering the army, through unremitting efforts, it will surely usher in a new world.
Analysis of the medium-term development situation of China's machine tool industry
Author: China Machine Tool Industry Association, honorary chairman Shen tool branch bolstering departure