Hardware industry export orders retaliatory growth companies do not like to worry

“This year’s 'retaliation' growth in the export volume of the hardware industry has made the company not happy, and the “labor shortage” not only tests the business strategy of the company, but also makes the whole industry have to further think about the deeper structural adjustment and further enhance Technical equipment and product quality will be an inevitable trend in the future."

When you mention the hardware industry, people may feel strange, but as soon as you walk into the kitchen and bathroom, you will immediately enter the world of hardware products, as large as the whole cabinet, steam shower room, small to faucet, shower, knife and scissors, hardware Products play an indispensable role in our daily lives. In the industrial field, various types of Ma steel pipe fittings and hardware tools are also silently playing a role in the normal operation of large industrial systems. At an industry promotion conference recently held by the China Hardware Products Association, Zhang Dongli, the chairman of the association, told the author that as a part of the manufacturing industry, the era of the hardware industry relying on cheap labor to obtain benefits has ended and is now undergoing structural adjustment. Towards a period of deep development, upgrading technical equipment and improving product quality will be an inevitable trend in the future development of the hardware industry.

Faced with labor shortage, it is not easy to transfer
Zhang Dongli told the author that exports have always occupied a considerable proportion in the hardware industry. Last year, the export of the whole industry has shrunk considerably. Since the first quarter of this year, the equipment hardware, construction hardware and other industries have experienced “retaliation” growth in orders, and many products have increased by more than 50%. “The association convened relevant industry experts. After the analysis, we judged that this is because the trade dealers in Europe and the United States underestimated the recovery of the economy and the market this year, and changed the 'replacement' type of procurement during the peak of the financial crisis, and had to replenish the stock in large quantities."

It is reasonable to say that market orders should be overwhelmed, and it should be a happy event for the industry. However, many companies have "stunned their heads". At the promotion meeting, the author talked with a person in charge of a hardware company in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province. He told the author: “After the Spring Festival, overseas orders suddenly increased sharply. Even if the company is fully loaded, it is difficult to meet the order quantity. We go to recruit workers. It seems that all of a sudden disappeared. It’s not a question of how much wages are added.” According to the author’s understanding, the problem of “labor shortage”, which mainly appeared in the southeastern coastal areas, has not only been further aggravated, but has begun to shift to inland areas. The industry is spreading.

In fact, as early as the end of last year, many hardware companies began to use their brains to retain workers, especially skilled workers. During the Spring Festival every year, many workers who work in the southeast coastal cities began to return home, and they re-selected their workplaces and jobs after the following year. According to the author's understanding, in the Yongkang of Zhejiang, which is known as the "hometown of Chinese hardware", in order to enable workers to go to work on time, some eye-catching hardware companies have adopted the method of playing "warm card" and "friendship card" before the Spring Festival. Sending the year-end awards and benefits to the workers, I hope they can have a sense of belonging to the factories that have been working for several years, and will come back voluntarily in the coming year. Others have adopted the opposite strategy. In order to avoid the loss of workers, it is stipulated that bonuses will be issued after the Spring Festival work, and the amount of bonuses will increase correspondingly to the industry average.

Even so, after the Spring Festival, there are fewer and fewer workers flowing to the three major hardware manufacturing bases in the Pearl River Delta, the Yangtze River Delta and the Shandong Peninsula. With the improvement of the construction, living standards and wage structure of the inland second and third tier cities, the entire manufacturing industry The attractiveness of migrant workers is constantly decreasing. A deepening adjustment of the internal structure of the hardware industry has been inevitable. Many companies have come up with a relatively simple and straightforward approach: industrial transfer and corporate relocation. However, the hardware industry is relatively concentrated in Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shanghai and some cities in Shandong Province. It is the frontier of reform and opening up. After nearly 30 years of development, the industrial chain has been perfected. Some characteristic industrial regions and special products, such as Wenzhou Metal case lighters, razors, plastic lighters in Yuyao and Cixi, Fujian zippers, Leliu's slide hinges, etc., enjoy high popularity in the global market. These industrial advantages, which have been formed after decades of accumulation, must bear considerable risks once they are rushed.

Experts in the industry analyzed to the author that, first of all, the natural advantages of existing industrial clusters in transportation, transportation, and especially exports, will be lost once they are transferred to the mainland. Secondly, the industrial cluster has a complete supporting system from raw materials, processing, equipment and packaging. “Now some large-scale and high-standard leading enterprises have begun to concentrate on making big brands and marketing, and have the ability to hand over production links to the industrial chain. The partners, that is, those whose quality and capacity are guaranteed to OEM for themselves, it is still difficult to build or copy such a complete supporting chain in the Mainland." Moreover, the locations of various industrial clusters are all economically developed regions. "The government's economic strength is relatively strong, and the support and policy support for enterprises is greater than that of the inland areas, especially in the face of the international financial crisis." The support of the government to reduce taxes and fees, and even provide cash flow is very important." The expert also said, "And if it is only for the purpose of reducing labor, with the advancement of urbanization in the Mainland, the wage level and consumption level of workers will increase year by year. If it takes less than a few years after the relocation, it will The area is close, it is totally worth the loss."

Equipment technology upgrade, provincial manpower should be more quality
Since passive industrial transfer "this road is not feasible", upgrading equipment technology through technological transformation and increasing unit labor productivity by accelerating production automation has become the best choice for the industry. The person in charge of the above-mentioned company told the author, “For a company with thousands of employees, the monthly salary and welfare expenses per person increase by 100 yuan. The annual cost is millions or even ten million yuan. For any company. It is said that it is a huge investment. It is better to invest such high expenditures in technology and equipment upgrades. As long as one-time investment is made, the proceeds will continue to flow."

At the beginning of this year, Zhang Dongli, the head of the industry, proposed that the hardware industry should use the pressure of the labor shortage as the driving force to accelerate the transformation from labor-intensive to technology-intensive. He analyzed that some well-known enterprises in developed countries rely on advanced equipment and technology, and the labor efficiency is two to three times that of Chinese enterprises. Therefore, although their labor costs are much higher, their products are still competitive in the international market. . Industry companies have also said that the industry has developed to the present, and relying on the past low-cost labor, extensive expansion of production to obtain profits has been gone forever, the industry must move toward intensification, technology, and automation.

Zhang Dongli also told the author that the technological upgrading of the industry should not only be based on “replacement of labor by machines” to improve labor productivity, but also increase profits by improving product quality and added value, thereby enhancing the overall competitiveness of the industry. “Taking the shower room industry as an example, this industry is an emerging industry in the field of building hardware that has been integrated and innovated by faucets, showers and related electrical equipment in recent years. I went to Europe to inspect it, a set of top German production. The steam shower room equipment, the price is equivalent to RMB 200,000, which is several times or even tens of times the price of similar products in China.” He went on to say, “With such a huge gap, our company is not just losing in the brand. And marketing, although the brand and marketing channels that generate high value-added are in the hands of foreign dealers, there is no doubt, but I think the most important thing is the stability and durability of product quality. There is no problem in the year, our products may be repaired in half a year. Of course, we have a vertical comparison, the quality improvement over the years is obvious to all.” Zhang Dongli finally said that China Hardware Products Association will give full play to the development and certification of industry standards. And the management and technical advantages of product quality testing promote the further optimization and upgrading of the whole industry.