Low-voltage electrical products enhance high-end competitiveness

To explore the development trend of the industry, it can be said that with the globalization of the market, the mutual penetration of multinational companies and the domestic enterprise market has become an inevitable trend in the development of the low-voltage electrical industry. This penetration includes the penetration of high-end products from domestic companies into foreign markets, and also the penetration of products from multinational companies into domestic and low-end markets. Therefore, summarizing the years that low-voltage electrical appliances have passed in 2013 will naturally be inseparable from the overall situation of the import and export of the industry. It is true that whether it is import data or export data, to some extent, the industry can feel trembling. Today's inventory, we may wish to start with the import and export situation.

In the first half of the year, the trade deficit was 1.024 billion US dollars. The high-end market has yet to conquer. According to customs statistics, in the first half of 2013, the export of low-voltage electrical products was not affected by the sluggish growth in the second half of 2012. The export volume was 5.664 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of only 3.15 percent year-on-year. %; while imports reached $6.688 billion, a year-on-year increase of 5.49%. It can be said that the demand for high-end low-voltage electrical appliances in the domestic market still depends on imports. Although domestic low-end low-voltage electrical appliances basically accounted for most of the domestic market, but in the high-end market, the market share is generally low. However, the customs data also showed that the unit price of China’s exports increased by 6.28% on average, and the number of exports decreased by 2.87% year-on-year. It can be seen that the upgrade and optimization process of low-voltage electrical products in China has been rapid, and high-end competitiveness has gradually increased.

On the import side, China's low-voltage electrical appliances mainly come from the Asian market, accounting for about 80%, and the European market accounts for 14.94%. On the export side, exports from Asia, Europe and North America account for 64.24%, 14.56% and 13.34% respectively. The year-on-year growth of low-voltage electrical products in South Korea and Singapore increased by 2.9%, 6.44%, and 2.76%. They increased by 25.62% and 11.36% year-on-year, respectively. It is worth mentioning that in the first half of 2013, China's low-voltage electrical appliances were used in Africa. Exports showed a relatively significant increase, a year-on-year increase of 15.39%. This shows that China's low-voltage electrical companies have achieved some success in opening up the emerging international market.

In the first half of 2013, the most important products imported by low-voltage electrical appliances in China were other connected electrical appliances, with an import value of US$3.9 billion, accounting for 58% of the total import volume. In addition, the import price of optical fiber connectors was US$300.82, while China’s exports were The price of the product is only US$47.85, which again shows that China’s exports are still dominated by low-price, middle- and low-end products, and the international competitiveness of high-end products still needs to be improved.

However, it should not be overlooked that the technical shortcomings of the low-voltage electrical appliance industry have become the biggest bottleneck for the industry's forward development. According to statistics, foreign outstanding enterprises can achieve about 7% of total sales in the research and R&D investment of low-voltage electrical products. The average low-voltage electrical appliance industry in China is 1% to 2% of total sales, but only about 3% of excellent companies. This topic has also become the focus of this year's General Electric Low Voltage Appliances Subcommittee of the China Electrical Equipment Industry Association. It can be seen that this issue has attracted the attention of the entire industry.

Needless to say, in China's low-voltage electrical industry, low-end products are still mass-produced. This batch of products is bulky and consumes a lot of precious metal silver and copper, ferrous metals, plastics and other materials. Many materials are subject to international market prices. Therefore, the situation that the price of main raw materials for low-voltage electrical appliances remains high (or even continues to rise) will hardly change.

However, even facing these difficulties, but the low-voltage electrical industry still faces many advantages, such as: smart grid construction for China's low-voltage electrical industry has brought new opportunities, the market share of high-end low-voltage electrical appliances will therefore further expand; in the industrial restructuring, Under the background of reducing the energy consumption of GDP and developing a low-carbon economy, a new generation of low-voltage electrical appliances with energy saving, material saving, and high performance will be further developed; the development of new energy industry will provide opportunities for industry extension, and low-voltage electrical products It can be expanded to photovoltaic power inverters, new energy control and protection systems, distributed power, energy storage equipment, and DC switch electrical equipment.

At the same time, people must clearly understand that although domestic companies, especially private enterprises, have flexible business ideas and strong sales channels, they are not always in a good balance of company scale and product quality, and their R&D capabilities still need to be strengthened. Therefore, the national and local governments should actively encourage enterprises and industrial clusters to extend the industrial value chain, support low-voltage electrical companies to develop in a specialized, refined, and special direction, and form a number of distinctive and focused industrial chains, thereby stimulating industrial upgrading.