According to data statistics, China's total output value of wires and cables has surpassed that of the United States, becoming the world's largest producer of wires and cables. With the rapid development of China's wire and cable industry, the number of newly added enterprises is constantly increasing, and the overall technical level of the industry has been significantly improved. Although the wire and cable industry is a basic industry, it currently accounts for one fourth of the output value of China's electrical industry and is known as the "artery" and "nerve" of the national economy.
However, in the eyes of industry insiders, under the halo of being "world number one", the domestic wire and cable industry faces multiple problems such as a large number of enterprises, fierce competition, low industry concentration, and insufficient independent innovation ability. To this end, domestic wire and cable enterprises have started layout transformation, seeking new opportunities, or cross-border entry into new energy and other fields, or being merged and restructured, or catering to the "Internet+" development trend, in order to find a new blue ocean belonging to the wire and cable industry.
Excessive competition leads to overcapacity
It is reported that as the second largest industry in the mechanical industry after automobiles, the product variety satisfaction rate and domestic market share of China's wire and cable industry both exceed 90%. But in general, compared with countries such as Europe, America and Japan, China's wire and cable industry is still on the road of extensive development, and the problem of "large but not strong" is prominent, especially in the fields of Brand management and new technology research and development, application and so on.
According to relevant data, as of May 2014, there were about 5000 enterprises above designated size in China's wire and cable industry. Among them, there were 3775 enterprises with an output value of over 5 million yuan in the wire and cable industry, and their market share was only 1% to 2%. The top ten cable manufacturers accounted for a total of 13% of the market share, indicating a low industry concentration. In addition, the research investment in the wire and cable industry is insufficient, high-quality talents are scarce, and independent innovation capabilities are insufficient. At present, over 90% of the production capacity of the wire and cable industry is concentrated in low-end products, with an average R&D investment of less than 1% of sales. High end products such as aerospace mainly rely on imports.
Industry insiders have stated that the large number of domestic wire and cable industry enterprises, fierce competition, low industrial concentration, and insufficient independent innovation capabilities have directly led to serious overcapacity. The overall growth rate of the wire and cable industry will further slow down, and with the increasingly prominent issues of "financing difficulties" and "payment difficulties", the original competitive landscape within the industry will further intensify. Except for a small number of large enterprises, they generally face the awkward situation of insufficient production, with a typical operating rate of only 30-40%. Many small and medium-sized enterprises even directly face the phenomenon of waiting for production, stopping production, and going bankrupt.
Core materials become the key to victory
At present, there are thousands of cable production enterprises in China, but there is no manufacturer capable of producing core materials. This has led to imports, greatly limiting the technological progress of China's wire and cable industry. Core materials have become the key to achieving breakthrough development in China's wire and cable industry, followed by production processes and processing manufacturing levels.
Therefore, some domestic wire and cable production enterprises have actively taken action. It is understood that with the continuous expansion of China's foreign technological cooperation and exchange scope in recent years, economic and technological cooperation with some developed countries has gradually deepened. Cooperation with research institutes of CIS countries and the introduction of their own scientific research technology have been particularly valued by Chinese enterprises and research institutions.
Analysts believe that the research and development and innovation of new materials are related to the fundamental upgrading of products. Currently, the existing polymer material preparation technology in China has seriously constrained the development of the national economy and national defense construction. Especially in the rapidly developing high-end equipment manufacturing fields such as high-speed trains, transportation vehicles, and ships, which are closely related to the national economy and safety in recent years, China cannot meet the development needs for materials such as high-strength and impact-resistant high-performance engineering plastics under extreme conditions. However, due to the technical blockade imposed by foreign production enterprises on China, these rely entirely on foreign imports. Therefore, it is imperative to improve the low-temperature toughness, tensile strength and other technical indicators of engineering plastic materials such as nylon in China, and break the technological blockade imposed by foreign countries on China.