Sewing Machinery Industry: In Trouble But Great Potential

"After eight years of rapid development, China's sewing machinery industry began to slow down from the second half of 2007, revealing the clue of the industry adjustment.

When the enterprises in the industry are still judging from past experience, a series of unfavorable factors will cause the industry to encounter "winter" which has not seen for many years for the upcoming market peak season around 2008.

He Ye, vice chairman of China Sewing Machinery Association, said in an interview with our reporter.

According to the statistics of China's Sewing Machinery Association for the main production enterprises in the industry, as of the first half of 2008, the sales volume of enterprises decreased significantly from 30% to 50% in the same period last year, and the profit dropped by a larger margin. Nearly 1/3 of the enterprises suffered losses.

Meanwhile, according to the data of the General Administration of customs, the export volume of sewing machines in China decreased by about 9% in the 1-4 months of 2008, and the export volume dropped by about 2% compared with the same period last year, and the negative growth for the first time in seven years.

At present, enterprises are generally faced with problems such as shortage of funds, underemployment, overstock of products and sluggish market.

　　陷入困境

According to the analysis, there are many factors leading to the current sluggish machinery industry's recession, which is the result of various adverse factors.

Because of the world economic recession caused by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States, the decline in consumption and demand, the continuous rise in the RMB against the US dollar, the soaring price of raw materials, the 4 percentage point reduction in export tax rebates and the rising cost of labor have led to a sharp increase in the cost of enterprises. The tight monetary policy and macro control measures adopted by our country to control overheated investment and inflation have made the enterprises' rapid development of low-cost advantages face severe challenges. The financial costs, human costs and environmental costs of the enterprises have risen sharply, and the extensive growth mode of scale pulling has come to an end.

Guangdong, the first big province, exported $6 billion 650 million in clothing and accessories in 1-4 this year, down 15.1% from the same period last year.

Shandong, another big clothing Province, managed less than 30% of textile enterprises in the first quarter of this year, and more than 20% of the enterprises suffered losses or even stopped production or converted production.

The situation of garment industry in other regions is also the same.

Over the past year, a large number of small and medium-sized clothing enterprises have been forced to close.

The closure of a large number of small and medium-sized garment enterprises has directly led to the sharp shrinkage of the domestic sewing machinery market, and the industry that has been developing rapidly for many years has proposed periodic adjustment requirements for itself.

Sewing machinery industry has maintained a rapid growth of nearly 30% per year since its entry into the new century. However, a series of problems, such as blind expansion, unbalanced structure and weak core competitiveness, require the industry to put down the growth rate, adjust the structure and pform the low cost and extensive mode of growth. Because the industry is relatively young and the foundation is relatively weak, enterprises and entrepreneurs are not mature enough, especially the leading enterprises in recent industries have appeared some problems, which has also aroused some doubts and worries about the development of the industry, and the confidence in the development of the industry needs to be strengthened.

　　前景美好

To analyze the development prospect of China's sewing machinery industry, we must look at the two aspects of supply and demand.

From the perspective of supply, China is currently the largest and most important sewing machine producer in the world, accounting for more than 70% of the world's total output.

At present, China has concentrated the best sewing machinery manufacturers in the world. The products are geared to more than 170 countries and regions in the world. The comprehensive strength of the manufacturing foundation, matching advantages, product cost performance, market expansion capabilities and labor quality of the sewing machinery industry in China will not be replaced in the next ten years or even longer.

Especially after this round of industry adjustment, the survival of the fittest, the enterprises left behind are more excellent, the market competition environment is more benign, and the prospect of Chinese sewing machinery industry is very broad.

From the perspective of demand: at present, the global population has exceeded 6 billion 500 million. According to the UN forecast, the global population will exceed 9 billion in 2050.

The rapid growth of the global population and the upgrading of consumption mean that the development of downstream industries such as textile, clothing, clothing and so on is huge, which means that the potential of sewing machine market is huge.

In the short term, there are also a series of good news about downstream industries such as textiles and clothing.

It is reported that recently the Ministry of commerce is working with other departments to work out relevant plans to prevent the export of labor intensive industries such as light industry and textile industry suddenly dropping sharply.

Earlier, the Ministry of Commerce expressed the need to maintain steady growth in textile and clothing trade, leaving enterprises with time for industrial upgrading.

For export enterprises with market, orders and efficiency, the state should give necessary credit support.

From the international perspective, the current global clothing production is mainly concentrated in Southeast Asia, South America, Eastern Europe and other developing countries and regions, such as Vietnam, India, Brazil, Mexico, Pakistan and other countries are all the world's garment producing countries. Their clothing industry is in the ascendant. The government has a series of support and encouragement measures for the development of the textile and garment industry.

The sewing equipment for garment production in these countries is mainly from China.

　　共度難關

He Ye said, first of all, as an enterprise, we must correctly understand the situation we are in, and regard the current adjustment as a good time to practice hard work and strengthen our health. We can not wait passively for the adjustment.

Enterprises should first strengthen management, reduce costs, improve the overall operation quality and efficiency of enterprises; secondly, we must pay close attention to product quality, vigorously implement the "quality strategy", strive to improve the quality of products to a new level; secondly, we must enhance our capability of independent innovation, develop products with independent intellectual property rights and core technologies; finally, we must improve the ability of market regulation and operation, and base ourselves on the two international and domestic markets, rational competition and efficiency, so that the industry can have a good competitive environment and market order.

Secondly, as a trade association, we should conduct correct analysis and guidance, and establish confidence in the whole industry.

We should strengthen publicity so that all sectors of society can correctly understand and understand the industry and create favorable public opinion environment for the development of the industry.

At the same time, we should do more work in promoting the integrity of the market and improving the scientific and technological innovation ability of the industry according to the characteristics of trade associations' self-discipline.

In addition to the work done in early this year to reinventer the industry market order, the association will also focus on improving the technological innovation capability of the industry, and plans to produce 5 million yuan special funds for science and technology to support the implementation of the 11th Five-Year "science and technology development planning goals and guidance projects".

Secondly, China's manufacturing industry is facing different degrees of difficulty. The government is currently conducting intensive research, hoping that there will be a series of policies and measures to support enterprise development.

Sewing machinery is a high value-added electromechanical product that the State encourages export. Last year, the export tax rebate rate dropped from 13% to 9%, which is obviously unreasonable.