Since the beginning of this year, the macroeconomic policy effect of stabilizing growth has continued to be released, and the gross domestic product in the first quarter, calculated at constant prices, increased by 5.3% year-on-year, higher than market expectations. The general machinery industry has benefited from the favorable development environment of the country, with a good start to the industry's economic operation in the first quarter. Production, sales, and profits have steadily increased, in line with development expectations, laying the foundation for the comprehensive completion of the annual target tasks.
Production, revenue, and profit are steadily increasing
In the first quarter, the machinery industry above designated size achieved a revenue of 6.5 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%,; The total profit reached 288.01 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.5%.
The economic operation of the general machinery industry in the first quarter continued the stable trend at the end of last year, with better growth in product output than at the end of last year, and better revenue and profit indicators than the machinery industry.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to March, 8422 general machinery industry enterprises above designated size achieved a revenue of 222.974 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.05%, with a growth rate 2.35 percentage points higher than that of the machinery industry; The total profit reached 13.181 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.52%, with a growth rate 11.02 percentage points higher than that of the machinery industry. The value of completed goods reached 37.789 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.49%. The inventory of finished products was 80.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 11.45%.
According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to March 2024, the production of six products in the general machinery industry, including pumps, fans, compressors, valves, gas separation and liquefaction equipment, and reducers, achieved year-on-year growth, with growth rates higher than the end of last year. Among them, the production of pumps, gas compressors, gas separation and liquefaction equipment achieved double-digit year-on-year growth.
Main indicators completed year-on-year growth rate chart
Main indicators completed year-on-year growth rate chart
According to statistics from 250 key member enterprises of Zhongtong Association, the total industrial output value from January to March reached 30.279 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.61%; The industrial sales output value reached 28.836 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 2.36%; Completed operating revenue of 28.332 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.55%; Achieve a total profit of 2.272 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 9.09%; The cumulative order quantity is 53.472 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4.07%; Accounts receivable amounted to 45.745 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.73%; The completion status of the main product output is as follows:
66 wind turbine manufacturing enterprises completed 2.3196 million units of wind turbines, a year-on-year increase of 26.94%;
50 pump manufacturing companies completed 3.3269 million pumps, a year-on-year increase of 29.77%;
46 compressor manufacturing companies completed 183100 compressors, a year-on-year increase of 38.48%;
35 valve manufacturing enterprises completed 78100 tons (sets) of valves, a year-on-year decrease of 0.41%;
14 vacuum equipment manufacturing enterprises completed 3588.06 sets (units) of vacuum equipment, a year-on-year increase of 0.53%;
10 gearbox manufacturing companies completed 680700 gearboxes, a year-on-year increase of 8.94%.
The year-on-year growth rate of major economic indicators of key enterprises in the general machinery industry from 2021 to March 2024
02 Product import and export growth rate rebounded compared to the same period last year
According to customs data, the cumulative import and export total of 47 key products of general machinery in the first quarter was 11.251 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 1.49%, which rebounded from the same period last year and the end of last year respectively. Among them, imports were 3.308 billion US dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 5.63%,; Exports amounted to 7.943 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 4.78%. The import and export surplus was 4.634 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 13.74%.
The import and export of the general machinery industry remained stable in the first quarter, and the year-on-year growth rate of import and export rebounded compared to the same period last year.
Comparison of year-on-year growth rate of imports and exports from January to March 2024 with the previous year
Comparison of year-on-year growth rate of imports and exports from January to March 2024 with the previous year
In the first quarter, exports to 10 ASEAN countries increased by 19.25% year-on-year, while exports to 27 EU countries increased by 4.37% year-on-year. The growth rates of exports to the United States, Russia, and Indonesia compared to the same period last year were -4.39%, 12.48%, and 8.58%, respectively.
The import amounts to Germany, Japan, and the United States in the first quarter increased by -10.07%, -13.24%, and -2.34% respectively compared to the same period last year.
Import and export amount and growth rate from March 2021 to 2024
03 Difficulties Faced by Industry Development
With the transformation and upgrading of the industry, the innovation ability and production capacity of advantageous enterprises have increased. In the context of insufficient domestic demand, increased export pressure, and difficult to change product homogenization, market competition has intensified, and price competition has become increasingly severe, resulting in a decline in profit margins, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises facing a more severe market environment. From the 250 key contact enterprises of the association, half of them have seen a year-on-year decrease in production, revenue, and order quantity, with over 20% of them experiencing a year-on-year decrease in production, revenue, and cumulative order quantity. According to a questionnaire survey of 134 key contacted enterprises, over 70% of them have serious orders shortages.
Accounts receivable and finished goods inventory have grown rapidly. According to national statistical data, accounts receivable in the general machinery industry increased by 11.03% year-on-year from January to March, and finished goods inventory increased by 11.45% year-on-year, which were 7.98 and 8.4 percentage points higher than operating revenue, respectively. The high growth of accounts receivable and finished goods inventory has increased the operational risks and costs of enterprises, and has added to the burden of enterprises in the current market demand shortage, compressing profit margins.
04 Industry development unleashes new momentum
In recent years, the general machinery industry has continuously addressed weak links, improved quality and efficiency, broken through bottlenecks, achieved significant results in technological innovation investment, and continuously released new development momentum, providing strong support for creating new quality productivity and promoting the development of high-tech manufacturing industry.
Develop supporting pumps, valves, compressors, and other general mechanical products for the development of new energy industries such as hydrogen, lithium, and nuclear power, as well as the application of new energy storage technologies.
The first batch of nearly a hundred liquid hydrogen valves produced by Neway Valve have been successfully delivered in bulk. The products meet various performance indicators of liquid hydrogen valves and have passed third-party inspections designated by customers, laying the foundation for the global promotion and application of this type of product. Neway Valve's -253 ℃ liquid hydrogen vacuum jacketed angle globe valve, vacuum jacketed check valve, and emergency shut-off valve have passed type tests using liquid hydrogen internal cooling method and obtained special equipment type test certificates issued by the National Special Pump and Valve Engineering Technology Research Center.
Shengu Group has won the bid for the Jiangsu Guoxin Su Yan (Huai'an) 2 × 250MW/2 × 1125MWh compressed air energy storage project, which includes a total of 12 compressor units.
Shaangu Power has won the bid for the purchase contract of a large compressor unit supporting the 350MW compressed air energy storage innovation demonstration project of China Energy Engineering Group in Tai'an, Shandong.
Hang Yang Group has signed a contract with middling coal Shaanxi Energy and Chemical Group Co., Ltd. for three sets of 85000 grade energy storage air separation units. The implementation of this project will open up new application fields for China's large-scale electric energy storage, and has valuable reference significance for the development of energy storage air separation.
Develop key core equipment for major technological breakthroughs and national key engineering projects.
Shengu Group has signed contracts for compressor unit orders for projects such as the Hulin Changchun natural gas pipeline project and the Sichuan Chongqing Hubei section of the Sichuan East Gas Pipeline Project under the National Pipeline Network Group. Since entering the pipeline market in 2006, Shengu has provided more than 170 long-distance pipeline compressor units for the national pipeline network, with an average of 4000 hours of fault free operation, contributing to the safe operation of the pipeline network.
Shengu Group's reciprocating machine company has successfully developed the largest capacity circulating gas labyrinth compressor in China for the 500000 tons/year polypropylene plant of Zhenhai Refining and Chemical.
The key technologies and equipment technology achievements for natural gas liquefaction and efficient utilization of helium resources independently developed by Sichuan Air Separation Equipment (Group) Co., Ltd. have passed expert appraisal. The purity and extraction rate of helium products have reached the international leading level, which is of great significance for the development of large-scale natural gas liquefaction technology in China and to ensure the supply of helium strategic resources.
The first domestic 5-ton/day large-scale hydrogen liquefaction unit with independent intellectual property rights, jointly developed, designed and integrated by the Institute of Physics and Chemistry Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the industrialization company Zhongke Fuhai, passed the test and acceptance.
Annual Development Expectations for 05
In the first quarter, the market demand in the general machinery industry continued its characteristics since last year, with rapid growth in new energy markets such as wind power, photovoltaics, and nuclear power, as well as the construction of various energy storage projects; The market demand for urban pipeline networks, water conservancy irrigation, and sewage treatment is relatively good; The demand in the petrochemical market is basically stable; The demand for building materials and steel markets is weak. According to a survey conducted by the association on 134 key contact enterprises, over 60% believe that the second quarter will remain stable compared to the same period last year, and remain cautiously optimistic for the whole year.
Since the beginning of this year, China's national economy has shown rapid growth, structural optimization, and improved quality and efficiency. The trend of recovery and improvement has been continuously consolidated and strengthened. However, the complexity, severity, and uncertainty of the external environment have increased, and the foundation for economic stability and improvement is still not solid. Relevant government departments launched policies and measures to stimulate domestic demand, issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade in, relaxed the real estate purchase restriction policy, issued trillions of extra long term special treasury bond, etc. With the gradual implementation of the policy, market demand will be released gradually, and the general machinery industry is expected to achieve an annual growth of about 5%.
