Broad market prospects for packaging machinery and strengthened polarization

“In the first 7 months of this year, although the export growth of China's food packaging machinery industry was greater than the increase in imports, the deficit in imports and exports was widening. This shows that our industry is still not able to catch up with the needs of the development of domestic downstream industries in terms of new product development, or that there are some We don't lack equipment in terms of variety, but we cannot meet the requirements of the rapidly developing downstream companies in terms of quality and performance. For the Chinese food packaging machinery industry, no innovation will always follow others." At the Award Ceremony for the Top Ten Selections of China Food Industry in 2009-2010, He Nanzhi, executive vice chairman of the China Food and Packaging Machinery Industry Association, issued a warning to the industry.

Industry-wide growth slows down

Food and beverage packaging is the largest segment of the packaging machinery industry. According to the industrial census data, there are currently nearly 6,000 food packaging machinery companies in China, but most of them are small and medium-sized enterprises. According to statistics from the China Food and Packaging Machinery Industry Association, in July, 1247 enterprises realized an industrial output value of 46.96 billion yuan, of which the output value of new products was 27.91 billion yuan, an increase of 33.06% over the same period of last year; the industrial sales value was 45.4 billion yuan, an increase over the same period of last year. 24.82%. However, the deficit in import and export trade was widening. In the first half of this year, it imported 1.332 billion U.S. dollars and exported 738 million U.S. dollars.

Since the beginning of the second half of 2008, the food packaging machinery industry in China has been affected by the international financial crisis. Although it has maintained a trend of rising in contrarian conditions, its growth rate has slowed down, and it is obviously worse than in previous years. According to the statistics of the China Machinery Industry Federation, in the first half of this year, China's machinery industry generally continued its upward trend since the fourth quarter of last year. Both the growth in production and sales exceeded 35%, and the growth rate hit a record high in recent years. However, in the food packaging machinery industry, “although the industry’s output value in the first half of this year increased by more than 30% compared with the same period of last year, this figure may be a bit watery,” said He Nanzhi.

China Federation of Machinery Industry statistics also illustrate this point. In terms of operating efficiency, the profits of the machinery industry increased by 86.13% year-on-year in the first half of this year, while the food packaging machinery industry was the lowest, only 25%.

“This is a dangerous sign. It shows that the pace of new product development is slowing, or that new products that have been developed do not sell well. Even if a few companies that did well in 2009 do not pay enough attention to the development of new products, the company’s development momentum is not enough. The development of the industry can not only rely on the increase in the sales volume of old products, there is no new product to provide technical support, and where does technological progress come from? It is hoped that the industry and enterprises will attach great importance to it." On many occasions, He Nanzhi expressed such anxieties.

The gap can not be ignored

China's packaging machinery industry started relatively late. After more than 20 years of development, it has become one of the top ten industries in the machinery industry, providing an effective guarantee for the rapid development of the packaging industry. Today, China's packaging machinery industry and packaging production have entered a new era of adjusting product structure and improving development capabilities. The upgrading of technology, upgrading of products, and improvement of business management capabilities are important issues in the development of the packaging machinery industry.

Industry experts pointed out that compared with foreign countries, the gap in the current level of China's packaging machinery manufacturing is mainly reflected in the technology. The technological power of the company itself is dependent on production, so the development of research is faced with the limitations of scientific research technology and laboratory equipment, and a new technology cannot be directly applied to production without the prior development of the institute. The development of cutting-edge technologies requires both intellectual input and equipment investment, companies are reluctant to invest, and scientific research institutions have no power. In the long run, the gap between China and the international advanced level will become increasingly wide. In order to adapt to the fierce competition in the market, the cycle of replacement of packaging products is getting shorter and shorter. The technological innovation capability is weak, the progress of process technology is slow, and the new product development has not fundamentally escaped the imitation situation, making it impossible for companies to cope with the changes in the situation and the competitiveness is not strong.

In this regard, industry experts believe that the excessive dependence of Chinese packaging machinery on foreign high-end technology has become a serious constraint to the development of China's packaging equipment industry.

The country is still at the stage of learning as a whole and lacks the experience of flexible application. Therefore, it is an inevitable trend for the domestic packaging equipment industry to take the road of independent innovation. The development trend of the packaging machinery industry in the future is that the equipment is smaller, more flexible, more versatile, and more efficient. Chinese companies must take a new starting point to examine and solve problems, change their development concepts, increase market awareness, further improve processing technology and precision, and rapidly catch up with advanced world standards with a more perfect appearance and a stable manufacturing level.
At the same time, the low level of repeated construction of packaging machinery has hindered the upgrading and innovation of industry products. He Nanzhi believes that about 30% of enterprises in China's packaging machinery industry have low-level redundant construction. This situation not only wastes important resources such as limited funds and manpower, but also causes chaos in the packaging machinery market and hinders the industry. The healthy development of China's small and medium-sized food companies has hampered the upgrading of packaging machinery and the innovation of packaging technology. However, industry experts pointed out that to solve this problem, the natural elimination can only be achieved through market regulation and strengthening the supervision of its downstream industry, the food industry.

Constant adjustment can improve

Since September, China's machinery manufacturing industry has also entered the production season of “Jin 9 Silver 10”, and many companies have fully started the production line to meet the surging year-end big bills. In an interview, the reporter found that some Chinese manufacturing companies that had not been recognized overseas had succeeded in “finding the sea” with the help of the financial crisis that had just passed. This year, overseas orders have grown rapidly.

“Now we have a lot of orders from abroad, basically have been in short supply.” Li Yong, general manager of Wenzhou Dingye Packaging Machinery Manufacturing Co., Ltd. disclosed to reporters. According to Li Yong’s conservative forecast, in the peak export season in September and October this year, the company’s overseas orders will increase by at least 20% compared with last year.

Established in 1991, Wenzhou Dingye is a large-scale backbone enterprise in the domestic packaging machinery industry. This year, a packaging machine independently developed by them has filled the gaps in the domestic market. After the products are on the market, they are in short supply. However, Wenzhou Dingye and other domestic food packaging machinery manufacturers were recognized by foreign customers, or started from the financial crisis.

According to Li Yong, due to the prejudice of European and American countries before the users of Chinese packaging machinery products, Chinese food packaging machinery company's products were exported to the United States, Germany and other European and American countries, and soon they were forwarded to the surrounding underdeveloped countries. Due to the global financial crisis, many European and American users have reduced their costs and started to try Chinese products, providing Chinese companies with a platform to show their strength.

“After one year of use, foreign users began to recognize the quality of our products. Orders from overseas also began to increase significantly.” Li Yong’s figures show that last year’s company sales increased by 20, driven by export growth. %, more than double the plan. As of the end of August this year, the company's sales increased by 20.5%. "The financial turmoil is a blow to many companies, but for us, it is an opportunity."

Experts in the industry pointed out that in the face of market demand and how to catch up with and even exceed the food packaging machinery of developed countries, and how to increase the pace of independent innovation, we strive to develop a group of products with independent intellectual property rights and international advanced level in a short period of time. The urgent task facing China's food packaging machinery companies. There are few professional research and development companies in the domestic packaging machinery manufacturers, which is also our shortcomings. However, under the continuous efforts of some packaging machinery manufacturers in China, the domestic packaging machinery has achieved good performance in measurement, manufacturing, and technical performance. In particular, beer, beverage filling equipment, high-speed, complete sets, high degree of automation, and good reliability. There is also the emergence of mechatronics, so that the demand for automated packaging machine equipment surged.