Looking back at the fastener industry in the past and looking forward to the future of the fastener industry

Undoubtedly, the global economic turmoil triggered by the financial crisis in 2008 caused the entire fastener industry's production and operation status to be affected. In particular, those export-oriented production enterprises have experienced a sharp decline in their business volume. Some manufacturers' daily production is only 30% to 40% of their daily averages. Some manufacturers with insufficient ability to resist risks have even closed their doors to avoid danger. With the impact of the financial turmoil, the production strength of the national fastener industry has generally recovered since the end of 2009. Since this year, the production situation of many fastener companies has been quite gratifying, basically reaching the level of the same period of 2008, and some companies even have new growth in output value.

In the past 30 years, with the strong development of China's manufacturing industry, the fastener industry has also made considerable progress as an indispensable part of the manufacturing chain. According to statistics, there are nearly 20,000 fastener manufacturers in the country, and their contribution to economic development is obvious to all.

During the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period, no substantive progress was made in transforming the mode of economic development. Faced with the new industrialization process under the structural background of the modern industrial system formulated in the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the development of the fastener industry has actually been bottleneck. At present, the production scale of many manufacturers is basically stable, and few new fastener factories are put into operation. Is the development of the industry reaching the saturation stage? It's not always true.

After all, the main reason is that at present, China's fastener companies produce mostly low-end products. Production tends to be saturated, but there is still much room for growth in the production of higher-end products. For example, many engine bolts and chassis tire bolts for mid-to-high end passenger cars must be imported at 60%-65%. The key is the technical level of the industry, and the technical equipment and industrial capabilities have not yet reached the corresponding requirements.

There are only a few 70-80 manufacturers in the manufacturing of automobile standard parts. Over the years, in addition to more than 40 companies that have passed ISO/TS16949:2002 “Quality Management System for Auto Parts Suppliers” certification and obtained a few varieties of foreign brands of automotive fastener manufacturing, most of the companies are still unable to In the area of ​​production of automotive fasteners, some can only rely on "OEM" production. The reason is that the production of automotive fasteners has the irreplaceability of core technology, production capacity, and product quality. Automotive fasteners are technology-intensive high-value-added products, and some industrial platforms do not reach this height. .

Today, the advantages of “changing market by speed” and “changing capital by using capital” of the fastener industry have been weakened. In the past development process, the main advantage of cost and lack of core competitiveness was low cost and low. The extensional mode of technology; only the ability to create price differences, but lack the ability to create product differentiation. This situation determines the "manufacturing" properties of the fastener industry, rather than "creating" attributes. “Big but not strong” production methods lacking core competitiveness In the increasingly fierce market competition and response to the economic development transition, many companies are struggling, fastener companies have entered the bottleneck of development, facing new challenges .

A benign development of a fastener company must establish the company's core competitiveness and cultivate the internal driving force of the industry. However, at present, most fastener companies in China lack of innovation ability, lack of advanced technology lacking intellectual property rights, and lack of technical talent. The production team is not stable. The front-line employees are not sufficiently trained and have large liquidity. The daily production of enterprises is poor at coping with complicated low-end or lower-end products, passive production modes and unstable market environment. It is undeniable that the existence of endogenous defects, such as scarcity of human resources, lack of core technologies, and lack of market expansion, will certainly have a negative impact on the development of the industry.

The research work in the field of fastener technology has not only failed to achieve corresponding development over the years, but has been constantly “marginalized”. The original industry’s scientific research results have been seriously lacking, and a considerable number of fastener companies’ products have not only tensile tests but also hardness. In addition to testing, there are no necessary means such as metallographic examination and impact performance test. The inspection personnel in the company have not received the “Quality Inspector” qualification certificate approved by the relevant national or provincial authorities, and thus are related to materials, heat treatment or mechanical processing. Joint product quality problems often result from economic disputes that cannot be clarified in a timely manner. This has become a common phenomenon. Many companies often fail to comply due to the fact that the materials on the steel market are mixed. Helplessness has seriously affected the establishment of brands in enterprises; some products “according to pounds” have generally only 0.5%-1.0% of profits in the commodity value chain, and the actual value of fastener products has been seriously distorted. Lack of necessary industry norms, and the phenomenon of mutual killing between companies with "price reduction" .

Nowadays, rather than the bottleneck period in the development of the fastener industry, it is better to say that we are faced with the opportunity to promote transformation and promote development. During the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan” period, we must work hard to promote the transformation and upgrading of the fastener industry, which was originally a traditional industry, and transform the product from the low end of the value chain to the mid-to-high end, effectively promoting the cost of the fastener industry, etc. Factor-driven change to innovation driven. Only by solving the “short board effect” of the development of the fastener industry can we have the opportunity to enhance the industrial competitiveness of the entire industry and gain new market space. How to solve the challenges and problems faced by the fastener industry really requires us to conduct in-depth research and exploration.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology recently issued the Implementation Plan for the Revitalization of the Mechanical Fundamental Components Industry, and plans to increase the supporting capacity of China's major equipment basic components to more than 70% through three years of efforts. Encourage enterprises to cross-industry, cross-ownership mergers and reorganizations, and strive to form a number of enterprise groups with international competitiveness and annual sales of over 5 billion yuan. The implementation period of the program is 2010-2012.

The "plan" proposes to adopt a three-year effort to break through the bottleneck in the development of a number of key components and components in areas such as energy development, transportation, new rural construction, new material preparation, energy conservation, environmental protection, and comprehensive utilization of resources.

An exciting news has given us confidence. We must keep up with the times and actively face various challenges to jointly promote the continued development of China's fastener industry.