The textile industry and market are undergoing profound changes

China's textile machinery prices have been operating at low levels for a long time, which is not a good thing for the development of the industry. Experts believe that the current situation in the textile and textile machinery market is relatively good and is a good opportunity for the industry to change.

While the textile machinery industry maintains a stable development trend, the prosperity of the textile machinery market driven by sales has been unable to conceal the long-standing weakness of domestic textile machinery under the “bigger profits” production model. When more and more textile machinery enterprises feel powerless, a deep transformation around the textile machinery industry and the market is quietly sprouting.

China Textile Machinery and Equipment Industry Association statistics show that from January to March 2011, China's textile machinery industry achieved sales of 21.482 billion yuan, an increase of 38.54%, an increase of 61.90%; total profit of 1.275 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase 50.07%, an increase of 92.40% compared to the previous period; textile machinery exports reached US$301 million, an increase of 29.12% year-on-year.

Although the total sales and profits of the entire industry have increased significantly, and business orders are still full, the rising raw material prices and labor costs now squeeze the profit margins of textile machinery companies, and the “happiness” of textile machinery companies has shrunk significantly. On the one hand, the overall profitability of textile machinery products is relatively low, which makes most textile machinery companies, especially cotton spinning equipment manufacturers, “high-yield” in the face of rising costs, and also leads companies to have an interest in product R&D innovation and technology upgrading. Powerless.

While the textile machinery industry maintains a stable development trend, the prosperity of the textile machinery market driven by sales has been unable to conceal the long-standing weakness of domestic textile machinery under the “bigger profits” production model. When more and more textile machinery enterprises feel powerless, a deep transformation around the textile machinery industry and the market is quietly sprouting.

Rising production costs In the first quarter of this year, the prices of steel raw materials were always fluctuating at high levels, causing many textile machinery companies to suffer headaches. Since the production of textile machinery products has a certain period, this fluctuation cannot be reflected in the price of textile machinery products. Therefore, companies have to absorb the risks brought about by changes in raw material costs, which intangibly increases the difficulty for the company's operations.

Since entering the second quarter, although the domestic steel market is in consolidation, with the gradual reversion of weather in various regions and the arrival of the rainy season in the south, relevant parties expect that the steel market demand in June will not be optimistic. It is understood that many areas in China this year, "electricity shortage" ahead of schedule, high-power industries such as steel have received a "limited power" notice. The steel mills received notices of power cuts and reduced production plans one after another. This will give textile machinery manufacturers a certain amount of challenges in storing raw materials and rationally arranging production.

It is generally believed that the production cost element consists of raw materials, wages, and depreciation of fixed assets. On the basis of the continuation of last year's rise in raw materials, the "labor shortage" after the Spring Festival has given wages a full and necessary reason to rise. The rise in raw materials and wages further squeezed the already meager industry profits.

Li Chenghua, deputy general manager of Jiangsu Tonghe Textile Machinery Co., Ltd., said that the media’s extensive coverage of employment shortages has increased job-seekers’ confidence and bargaining. Since the beginning of this year, companies have been forced to increase their wages in order to retain workers.

Chairman Yang Chongming of Chongqing Golden Cat Textile Equipment Co., Ltd. also expressed a similar view: “Now the cost of labor increases too fast. The recent increase in wages for employees has reached 15% to 20%. Even so, the mobility of workers remains. Great, technical and skilled workers can't recruit salaries too much, new workers can't immediately take jobs, and workers' liquidity increases, which not only affects the stability of product quality, but also prevents many production tasks from being normal. get on."

The rapid increase of raw materials, wages, and other factors of production has caused textile machinery companies to fail, and at the same time, the downstream textile companies are also experiencing the severe test of rising raw materials and labor costs, which is bound to reduce the textile machinery products. The purchase volume, the marketing strategy of the puerile before the textile machinery industry encountered new challenges.

Difficult to increase product prices When the price of raw materials in the upper reaches rises, it is natural that the prices of downstream products will rise at the right time. However, why are textile products going to “rise” and become weak?

“In the oversupply environment, we have formed an inertial thinking that sells at a low price,” said Yan Yongqing, chairman of Shanxi Hongji Technology Co., Ltd., “The price of spinning machines has been very low, and the salesman is still habitual. To ask the company for price incentives, such as for a new customer that everyone is fighting for, or an old customer that hasn't been attacked for a long time, etc. In short, a variety of reasons require you to cut prices, sometimes prices are low to loss. To the point."

“We have also tried to raise a little price this year. Last year, spinning frames sold 200 yuan per spindle, this year it rose to 240 yuan, and one car also rose by 2,000 yuan. However, the price increase rate is not enough to fully transfer the increased costs. Going out.” Yong Cheng cleared an account: Rolla rose by 5 yuan, a car 210, a total increase of costs 1,050 yuan; some were up by 10 yuan, a car to increase the cost of 2100 yuan. Therefore, the rising price of the spinning frame merely passed on the rising costs of some of the equipment. The largest cast iron consumables for spinning supplies, the price per ton rose by 20%, a spinning frame requires about 5 tons of castings, this part of the increased cost has not been conducted out. This is the case with traditional cotton spinning equipment. Even domestic computerized flat knitting machines that have just been developed in recent years have entered the cycle of price reduction sales. In 2005, the price of a domestically-made computerized flat knitting machine was 170,000 yuan, and it had fallen to less than 100,000 yuan last year. At present, in the domestic market, the number of domestic computerized flat knitting machines accounts for 40%, and 60% are firmly occupied by imported equipment. The domestic computerized flat knitting machine is still in a bottleneck stage in terms of technology, and the reliability and efficiency of use of the equipment must be improved. Some computerized flat knitting machine manufacturers have said without hesitation: “With such a low price, where does the profit of the company come from? Where is the money invested in the research and development of new products and the improvement of technology?” The end result is the product’s Since then, the technical level has stalled, and it has surrendered its domestic market share to foreign competitors.

“The price war of textile machinery equipment, especially cotton spinning equipment, is a long-standing old problem. The most fundamental reason is the homogenous competition of products. When the price of raw materials is relatively stable, the price issue is not outstanding. 2010 Since the prices of raw materials, machine materials, and spare parts have risen sharply, and even doubled, textile machinery companies are still unable to maintain their original prices, and the 'bumpy harvest' has naturally become the focus of the industry. Without solving the problem of homogenization, the price war will be difficult to stop, and it will be difficult for textile machinery companies to change the status quo of low profits.” Gao Yong, vice chairman of China National Textile and Apparel Industry Association, made an in-depth analysis of the reasons why the price of textile products did not go up. analysis.

In China, there are at least twenty or thirty companies that produce the same type of textile machinery products, and the products produced by these companies are mostly identical and lack personality. Some companies believe that another reason for the low sales of textile machinery products is unfair competition in the industry. For example, in order to grab the market, many companies can pick up the goods without making a payment, or only pay 10% of the amount to take the equipment away. In this case, other companies want to increase prices is simply nonsense. Of course, in the final analysis, because the homogeneity of the products of these companies is serious, we can only make a fuss about the prices and payment methods.

Integral innovation or will reverse the predicament of low-cost sales not only engulfed the profits of textile machinery companies, more importantly, it will hinder the healthy and orderly development of the industry.

Holding the bottom line of price is only one aspect. Most companies are aware that in the long run, whether the real cost of textile products can raise prices is whether there are core technologies and whether there are new selling points.

Ding Chaoying, chairman of Wuxi Sepulair Air-jet Weaving Machine Manufacturing Co., Ltd., said that an air-jet weaving machine with a large jacquard machine developed by the company sold for 160,000 yuan each, which was 50,000 yuan more than domestically produced similar equipment. The main reason is that they mastered the core technology of the air-jet loom control system, and the profit of the control system was significantly higher than the mechanical part, which led to the increase in the price of the whole machine.

However, at present, the average profit margin of China's textile machinery industry is only about 5%, which is far below the average level of 10% for the machinery manufacturing industry. In this case, the cost of re-innovation and re-development for enterprises is forced to be reduced or even eliminated. When cost pressures and surviving pressures strike, companies can only be ineffective in product R&D, innovation and technology upgrading.

The price of textile machinery products has been operating at a low level for a long period of time and it is not a good thing for textile machinery companies or textile companies. Gao Yong believes that at present, the situation in the textile and textile machinery market is relatively good and is a good time to adjust prices. Now is the time to test the wisdom of the enterprise. If you do not seize this opportunity in the first half of the year, you may never have a chance.

Zhu Xianmin, vice chairman of the China Textile Machinery and Equipment Industry Association, believes that in the past, the domestic textile machinery companies relied more on imitative innovation, namely the introduction-digestion-absorption-improvement model. During the 12th Five-Year Plan period, textile machinery companies needed to innovate. Model, take the road of original innovation and integrated innovation. Integration and innovation not only includes the integration and integration of existing individual technologies within the company, but also includes the collection of their respective advantages among different companies, and together create new profit growth points.

This year, the bead ring technology innovation alliance formed by domestic companies producing wire rings and the State Key Laboratory of Tribology of Tsinghua University have been very successful in the development of the wire ring, and the technical content of the product has been greatly improved. According to the member of the alliance, Chongqing Chong Cat Textile Equipment Co., Ltd. Chairman Yang Chongming, using the original traveler, the equipment can only be opened to 14,000 rpm to 15,000 rpm, while the newly developed wire ring is used to open the equipment. There is no problem at 22,000 rpm. The price of the product can be increased from 100 yuan to 200 yuan. Users are happy to accept it.

How do we turn from the vicious circle of “low-cost sales lead to inability to innovate and then affect the new round of profit improvement” to the virtuous circle of “high-efficiency R&D to promote product value enhancement and high profits to invest more R&D”? In a certain range, the formation of an alliance of innovation among enterprises, the decentralization of R&D costs, and the sharing of R&D results may be innovative ways worth thinking in the industry.