In 2017, the structural adjustment of cycle tire industry further deepened; influenced and driven by new normal and innovation to seek for change, the industry layout and market pattern continued changing. With the joint efforts of the whole industry, the overall operation of the industry became steady, multiple main economic indexes had good performance and the structural adjustment as well as nnovation and upgrading also were steadily promoted.
I. Profile of Economic Operation of Cycle Tire Industry in 2017
According to the statistical data of China Rubber Industry Association (hereinafter referred to as CRIA) Cycle Tire Branch on 42 member enterprises, the production and marketing in the first three quarters of 2017 showed a sustained recovery trend, however, the pressure borne by the industry operation increased and the benefit situation became more severe.
1. The production and sales volume of the industry obviously picked up. From January to September, the accumulated achieved gross industrial output value was 10.77 Billion Yuan, with a year-on-year (same below) growth of 8.2%; and the sales income was 10.70 Billion Yuan, with a growth of 9.6%. In the output of main products, the accumulated output of cycle casing was 142.485 million units, with a growth of 11.5%; the output of electric bicycle casing was 90.555 million units, with a growth of 11.8%; the output of motorcycle casing was 83.336 million units, with a decrease of 8.0%; and the output of composite tube was 537.148 million units, with a growth of 5.3%.
2. The ratio of sales to production of the leading products was good. From January to September, the sales-output ratio of several leading products of the industry reached 98% or above, in which the sales-output ratio of the cycle casing was 98%, that of electric bicycle casing was 99%, that of motorcycle casing was 102% and that of composite tube was 98%. By the end of September, the stock capital of the finished products of the industry increased by 1.8%.
3. The product export kept a relatively quick recovery trend. According to the statistical data of the customs, from January to September, the total export volume of cycle tire products was 241,000 tons, with a growth of 4.0%; in which the export volume of the motorcycle casing and motorcycle tube increased by 16.9% and -0.2% respectively. The total export amount was USD 670 Million, with a growth of 3.8%; in which the export amount of the motorcycle casing and motorcycle tube increased by 21.5% and -6.1% respectively. The export delivery value of the member enterprises of Cycle Tire Branch from January to September was 2.90 Billion Yuan accumulatively, with a growth of 6.3%, which increased by 0.4%.
Although the production and marketing and export indexes of the industry had an active performance since 2017, and the foundation for becoming stable and better was consolidated, the quality of the overall operation was not obviously improved. According to the statistics of Cycle Tire Branch, from January to September, the realized profit of the key enterprises was 240 Million Yuan, with a decrease of 41.6%, in which the decrease in the second quarter was 58.7%, the severity is rare for years.
The reasons are preliminarily analyzed: firstly, since 2017, the process of “turning coal into gas” of the boiler of the enterprises has been sped up, and the fuel cost has almost doubled; secondly, the price of natural rubber experienced a wave of sudden and sharp rise and drop from the fourth quarter of 2016 to the first quarter of 2017, the product price adjustment measures of many enterprises are still not implemented while these enterprises also bear the pressure of call-back of the product prices; thirdly, the price of partial chemical materials such as carbon black, cord fabric and anti-aging agent sharply rise since 2017; fourthly, the structural severe excess layout of the industry capacity is not completely changed, the price competition is fierce and the “quantity increase and price fall” phenomenon of domestic sale and export is still prominent; and fifthly, a series of business strategies and measures such as internal capacity structure adjustment of the industry and adjustment of market layout are still not completely in place and the effect is still not fully embodied. The circumstances encountered by the industry at present is a necessity of rapid development and repeated construction of the industry for years, and the problems encountered by the transformation and upgrading of the industry at the present stage such as low industry concentration, large proportion of middleand low-end capacity, insufficient innovation input capacity and lack of high-quality professional talents also exist objectively, however, this will also accelerate adjustment process of the industry structure and bring about new opportunity and new space for the industry development.
II. Conditions and Achievements of Technical Innovation
Through large-scale transformation and renovation of production equipment during “12th five-year”, in recent two years, the focus of the technical work of the industry gradually turns to the aspects such as improvement and promotion of production automatic and intelligent level, energy conservation and emission reduction, independent research and development of new processes and new products.
In the aspect of automation and intelligentization, after some enterprises make a breakthrough in robot operation of vulcanization application of casing and tube, this technology is constantly being debugged and improved, it is believed that along with rapid development of Chinese robot manufacturing industry, the intelligent robot more applicable to the production requirements of cycle tires and having more reasonable cost surely can be developed and will be firstly popularized and applied to the vulcanization process. Some enterprises manufacturing special equipment have started research and development of full-automatic tube production line, with the front end possessing functions of automatic cutting of fixed length and automatic punching and nozzle covering, and the back end possessing multi-station automatic splicer, automatic air-lock door core machine, automatic suction fan, finished automatic folding and boxing machine. There are also enterprises developing automatic jointing and automatic takeup devices after cutting of casing rubber cord fabric. It can be predicted that after the above equipment technology is constantly improved and advanced or makes success in research and development and popularized and applied, the automatic and intelligent level of cycle tire industry can not only leap to a new height, but also realize corner overtaking and reach international leading level in some fields.
In the aspect of R&D of new products, in recent two years, quite a few distinctive cycle tire products with high added value successively come out, for example, Sichuan Yuanxing Rubber Co., Ltd. launched newly developed “full-function steel wire tire” for motorcycle and electric vehicles on the 36th (Autumn, 2016) China Motorcycle Parts Fair; ZC Rubber Group developed semi-hot melt motorcycle tire for experiencing topspeed dynamic, radial electric tire series applying passenger car radial tire technology in electric tires and electric tire of colorful line series with riding safety protection performance added; Tianjin Wanda Tyre Group Co., Ltd. adopted WDCT technology newly developed in 2016 and specially-made nanometer bi-compound technology to develop new generation of cycle tire products which can adopt to various road conditions and complex climatic conditions; Jiangsu General Science Technology Co., Ltd. successfully developed semisteel tricycle tire with two layers of steel belt in crown and structural features of radial tires; Shandong Xinlun Tyre Co., Ltd. self developed motorcycle tires and electric tires of strong body and anti-blast edge series. Timsun Rubber Tire (Weihai) Co., Ltd. and Harbin Institute of Technology,
Weihai jointly developed two projects “Research and Development of Key Technology of High-performance Motorcycle Tire” and “Application of Nanofiller StronWiNTC in inner liner of tire, which successfully passed the acceptance of Weihai significant special scientific and technological plan projects.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the non-pneumatic cycle tire used by shared bicycles has walked from conceptual product to actual market. Although this product still has many limitations compared with traditional pneumatic tire in functional performance at present, its advantages are obvious, and it is believed that along with intensification of subsequent research and development as well as constant development and application of new materials and new processes, the equipping and use of non-pneumatic tire in the fields of commuter bicycles or low-speed electric vehicles will be popularized with a big probability.
(by Chen Zhihai)
