How Low-voltage Electrical Appliances Conquer High-end Markets

Low-voltage electrical appliances, a traditional and flexible industry, have withstood a new round of tests in the current round of economic waves, and more and more clearly exposed their own defects. At the same time, people have also seen that the industry is actively self-healing.

To explore the development trend of the industry, it can be said that as the market becomes globalized, the penetration of multinational and domestic corporate markets becomes an inevitable trend for the development of the low-voltage electrical industry. This penetration includes both the penetration of high-end products from domestic companies into foreign markets and the Transnational companies’ products penetrate into the domestic market at the low and mid-end levels. Therefore, summing up the low-voltage electrical appliances that have passed in 2013 is naturally inseparable from the overall situation of the import and export of the industry. It is true that either import data or export data, from some To be honest, the industry can feel trembling.

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 slowdown 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 current demand for high-end low-voltage electrical appliances in the domestic market still depends on imports. Although domestic low-end low-voltage electrical appliances have basically occupied most of the domestic market, In the high-end market, the market share is generally low.

However, the customs data also showed that the unit price of China’s export products 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 fast, and the 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%, indicating that China's low-voltage electrical companies have achieved some success in opening up the emerging international market.

It is understood that in the first half of 2013, the main products of China's low-voltage appliance imports were other connected electrical devices, 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, and China’s The price for exporting such products 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.

Research input needs to be improved. Technical shortcomings have become a bottleneck. “The macroeconomic situation and the overall situation of the industry are positive for the low-voltage electrical industry. It is expected that the low-voltage electrical industry will maintain high growth in the next five to ten years. The future compound annual growth rate will be 10% to 15%. %.” Yin Tianwen, dean of the Shanghai Electric Apparatus Research Institute, predicted in an interview with a reporter from the “Mechatronic Business”.

However, it should not be overlooked that the technical shortcomings of the low-voltage electrical appliance industry have become the biggest bottleneck for the development of the industry. According to statistics, outstanding foreign companies can achieve about 7% of total sales in the research and R&D investment of new products for low-voltage electrical appliances. While China's average investment in the low-voltage electrical industry in the 1% to 2% of total sales, but only about 3% of excellent companies. And this topic has become the focus of this year's China General Electric Appliance Association general low-voltage electrical branch, showing that the problem 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. The situation of high raw material prices (or even rising) will hardly change.

In addition, with the shortage of funds, rising financial costs, and rising labor costs caused by the rapid increase in wages of employees is irreversible, which will inevitably lead to continuous decline in the profit of low-voltage electrical appliances. Many companies are currently in a state of low profit and loss, which gives companies increase Research, new product R & D and investment in technical reforms have brought difficulties.

However, even facing these difficulties, the low-voltage electrical appliance industry still faces many advantages, such as: smart grid construction has brought new opportunities for the low-voltage electrical appliance industry in China, and the market share of middle-to-high-end low-voltage electrical appliances will therefore further expand; in 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, DC switch electrical equipment and other fields.

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