The agricultural machinery market has entered a period of in-depth adjustment
All-feed rice combine harvester produced by Jiufu Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.
Photo by Economic Daily reporter Liu Hui
This year, the domestic agricultural machinery industry has shown a good operating trend. The agricultural machinery market presents new characteristics that the strong becomes stronger and the weak becomes weaker. Some large companies brave the wind and waves and keep making progress, while small companies delist frequently. The concentration of agricultural machinery industry continues to increase, and the brand influences. Strength continues to increase.
However, the security of the domestic agricultural machinery industry chain supply chain still faces more severe challenges. In the future, the agricultural machinery industry will need to find ways to strengthen the construction of the industrial chain supply chain and promote the real expansion and strengthening of the agricultural machinery industry.
Industry opportunities and risks coexist
A few days ago, the second phase of the Suzhou Jiufu Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd. plant was officially put into operation. The all-feed rice combine harvester has been off the assembly line and put on the market in small batches, which means that Jiufu has begun to march from the rice transplanter to the harvester.
The current domestic agricultural machinery industry has entered an era of stock competition.
Jiufu has achieved good results in the rice transplanter industry, and is testing the diversified development path of aquatic products, hoping to meet the diverse needs of consumers on a larger scale, and form an overall advantage of complementing each other, diversifying risks, and tapping potential.
As a newcomer in the harvester market, how does JOF win against strong competitors such as World, Lovol, and Kubota?
"We will use the established mature rice transplanter sales channels and brand reputation to open up a new world in the rice harvester market." said Xu Zhenghua, chairman of Suzhou Jiufu Agricultural Machinery Co., Ltd.
Jiufu is facing a good development opportunity in exploring the rice combine harvester market.
Driven by the large-scale land, investment demand and agricultural machinery subsidy policies, the agricultural machinery industry has generally performed well this year.
According to the statistics of the China Agricultural Machinery Industry Association, as of September, the business income of key agricultural machinery enterprises increased by 10.87% year-on-year, and the business income of enterprises above designated size increased better than last year. Among them, the output of large and medium-sized tractors increased by 9% year-on-year, and the wheel harvester increased by 36%. , Corn harvesters increased by 47%, rice transplanter products increased by 14% as a whole, and balers increased by 22%, and the industry showed a situation of more flowering.
Zhang Huaguang, director of the Secretariat of the China Agricultural Machinery Circulation Association, believes that my country's traditional agricultural machinery market is in a period of in-depth adjustment, and the niche market is still in its incubation period.
The "empty window period" formed by the transformation determines that the agricultural machinery market will experience a relatively long period of low-speed operation.
Although the sales of traditional agricultural machinery markets such as tractors, grain crop harvesters, and planters have increased, the profit model of agricultural machinery enterprises is rigid and lacks innovation, and the business philosophy is still in the incremental era.
Under the normal market conditions of low-speed operation, competition among enterprises will become more intense.
The rise in raw materials triggers the Matthew effect
The biggest variable encountered by the agricultural machinery industry this year is the sharp increase in raw material prices, which not only affects the trend of agricultural machinery market demand, but also intensifies market competition.
The substantial increase in raw material prices directly led to a substantial increase in product costs and diluted corporate profits.
Although most companies have increased their agricultural machinery sales prices accordingly, the price increase is far from being able to absorb the substantial increase in manufacturing costs brought about by the increase in raw material prices. Many companies have experienced a decline in sales growth and profits.
In the face of rising raw material prices, domestic agricultural machinery manufacturing companies have diverged.
Some small companies can't bear the tremendous pressure of rising raw material prices leading to rising costs. They are caught in the dilemma of increasing prices and losing their price competitiveness, and maintaining the original prices will lose a lot of profits or even losses. Small brands that survive on low prices have to abandon the market.
Well-known brand companies are less negatively affected by the increase in raw material prices. On the one hand, most large companies have prepared enough raw materials before the price increase. On the other hand, well-known brand companies have taken the opportunity to exert their strength in multiple market segments and seize the market.
In the first half of the year, large-brand agricultural machinery companies experienced substantial year-on-year growth, increased concentration, and small brands collapsed across the board.
"The price increase of raw materials triggers the Matthew effect, the strong the stronger, the weaker the weaker." Zhang Huaguang said.
In the final analysis, the competition in the agricultural machinery market is the competition of product quality.
The rise of Jiufu in the rice transplanter market, Wode dominates the crawler grain combine harvester, the British tiger dominates the corn harvester market, the Shunbang and Tianlang feed balers have made rapid progress, and Debon Dawei has developed rapidly in the seeder market, all relying on Product quality occupies the market high ground.
The reporter learned from interviews in various places that farmers now pay more attention to product quality and brand reputation when buying agricultural machinery.
A sample survey by the China Agricultural Machinery Circulation Association shows that among the various factors that users pay attention to in the purchase decision process, brand attention reaches 90.45%. This is also the main reason why the strong brands of the agricultural machinery manufacturing industry have become stronger in recent years.
Strengthen the security of the supply chain industry chain
Although the overall situation of the agricultural machinery industry is relatively good this year, due to the superimposed effects of various factors such as rising prices of raw materials, electricity curtailment, and the international trade environment, the agricultural machinery industry is facing a relatively severe industrial chain supply chain security.
For agricultural machinery manufacturing companies, they have a strong ability to make parts and components, to a certain extent, to ensure the safety of the industrial chain supply chain.
At present, the domestic companies that are doing well in the country basically have relatively strong self-control capabilities, and the depth of self-control is more than 50%.
For example, World, which occupies half of the harvester market, has almost all self-made parts except for parts such as engines, bearings, chains, belts, crawlers, and filters.
The industry believes that the key to self-made parts is to ensure the quality of parts and the quality of the whole machine.
However, my country's agricultural machinery industry is at the low end of the global industrial chain. The core components such as engines, traditional systems and hydraulic systems of well-known domestic brands rely on imports. This has become an important factor affecting the security of the domestic agricultural machinery industry industrial chain supply chain.
Experts believe that it is necessary to base itself on the supply chain of the agricultural machinery industry chain to be autonomous and controllable, focus on making up for shortcomings and forging longboards, building and cultivating ecologically dominant industrial chain "chain master" enterprises, promoting large enterprises to become bigger and stronger, and small and medium-sized enterprises to do Specialize in precision and concentrate on overcoming the shortcomings of important agricultural machinery and equipment.
Continue to increase investment in the research and development of agricultural machinery and equipment, encourage scientific research institutes, universities and manufacturing companies to form innovative consortia to promote complementary advantages and resource sharing.
Continue to strengthen the cultivation of agricultural machinery talents, and cultivate mechanized and intelligent compound talents.
(Economic Daily reporter Liu Hui)