Analysis on current situation and development prospect of bearing ring industry in 2022

Bearing production is a practical science. A large number of patented technologies have been obtained in production practice. Usually, enterprises that have accumulated production experience in the industry can master the corresponding proprietary technology. At present, the production and processing technology of high-performance sliding bearing materials are mainly in the hands of a few large enterprises. New enterprises lack sufficient R & D capacity and can only buy high-performance bearing materials from advanced enterprises or use some low-grade materials to produce low-end bearing products.
China's bearing output ranks third in the world, but it is mainly concentrated in the middle and low-end market, with huge production capacity and medium technical level. A few core areas have broken through the Western blockade. A large number of high-end products, including aviation bearings, high-speed railway bearings and robot bearings, mainly rely on imports. For high-speed bearings, the bearing brands used in EMUs produced by domestic main engine manufacturers are all from Europe and Japan. The vacuum degassed bearing steel produced in China has a certain gap with foreign high-quality products in terms of quality stability and fatigue life.
As a big country of bearing production, China has formed an independent and complete industrial system, and is now in a critical period of industrial structure upgrading. The main task of China's bearing industry is to implement the project of strengthening the industrial base, develop new modes and formats of industrial production, and realize the transformation of old and new kinetic energy.
According to the data of China Bearing Industry Association, the overall operating revenue of China's bearing industry basically maintained a stable growth trend from 2015 to 2020. In 2019, the operating revenue of China's bearing industry reached 177 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 4.22%. In 2020, with a growth rate of 9.04%, it achieved a rapid rebound from decline to rise, and the operating revenue of the bearing industry reached 193 billion yuan that year.
From the import and export of rolling bearings, the total import and export volume of rolling bearings in China showed a fluctuating trend from 2017 to 2020. The export market showed a fluctuating track of first growth and then decline. After reaching a peak of US $5.584 billion in 2018, it fell to US $4.645 billion year after year. The import market basically showed an increasing trend in fluctuations. Therefore, after the trade surplus reached a peak of US $1.865 billion in 2018, it fell back to US $1.515 billion in 2019. Affected by the epidemic, the trade surplus was directly reduced to US $312 million in 2020.
The production and manufacturing of modern automobile bearing industry is mainly based on small variety and large quantities of orders, especially the orders undertaken by small and medium-sized bearing manufacturers. The production line of large quantities of bearings generally has a high degree of automation and the operation efficiency of production equipment is also high, but the production line can only produce several similar products. Nowadays, the speed of product upgrading is gradually accelerated, the product performance is improved, and the demand for customization and refinement of customers is also increasing. There are more and more small batch and customized orders in the market. Large scale flexible production has become an important development trend of the bearing manufacturing industry in the future. In addition, while meeting the diversified needs of customers, bearing manufacturing enterprises should strictly control product production and ensure product quality, which will help enterprises expand their brand advantages and improve market competitiveness.
The product structure of China's bearing industry is dominated by medium and low-end bearing products. The market has achieved full competition, but high-end bearing products with high precision, high-tech content and high added value still mainly rely on imports. It is expected that in the future, with the strong support of national policies, China's bearing industry will develop rapidly. Bearing manufacturers will increase R & D investment, introduce foreign advanced equipment, continuously improve R & D and design capacity and manufacturing level, improve the accuracy, performance, service life and other key technical indicators of bearing products, narrow the gap with the technical level of foreign advanced automobile bearing manufacturers, and gradually realize the import substitution of high-end products.
In China's self-lubricating bearing segment market, there are more small and medium-sized enterprises in the middle and low-end market, and the production level of most small and medium-sized enterprises is not high. In the medium and high-end market, a small number of enterprises with large market share in the industry, such as the issuer, Zhejiang Changsheng Sliding Bearing Co., Ltd. and Zhejiang Zhongda precision parts Co., Ltd., occupy most of the market and have a high degree of concentration. Although the product quality of medium and high-end self-lubricating bearing manufacturers, including the issuer, has reached the domestic leading level and exported abroad, and has the ability to compete with international counterparts, the high-end market of self-lubricating bearings still depends on imported products.