Bearings are a key basic component in the industrial sector, playing an important supporting role in the development of the national economy and national defense.
In recent years, China’s strategic emerging industries have achieved rapid development, driving strong demand for high-end bearings and corresponding stability in the high-end bearing market. However, the low-end market is facing overcapacity and increasingly fierce competition.
With the country’s economic transition, what is the future trend of the bearing industry?
Development of bearings these years
Since the reform and opening up, China’s bearing industry has continued to develop rapidly, forming an independent and complete industrial system. According to the “2021 Economic Analysis and 2022 Outlook of the Bearing Industry”, in 2021:
– The operating income of China’s bearing industry was 227.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.52%.
– The bearing production reached 23.3 billion sets, a year-on-year increase of 17.68%.
– The export of bearings earned 6.947 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 43.69% compared to the same period in 2020.
– The export volume of bearings was 7.804 billion sets, an increase of 32.7% compared to the same period in 2020.
– The foreign exchange used for bearing imports was 5.47 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 25.3% compared to the same period in 2020.
– The import volume of bearings was 2.964 billion sets, an increase of 17.7% compared to the same period in 2020. Both the import and export of bearings reached a historical high.
Overall, based on the overall stability of the national macroeconomic situation, industrial enterprises continued to recover production and business operations under the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and the bearing industry as a whole maintained a good level of development.
Market prospects for the bearing industry
In 2022, China’s macro economy will face challenges such as demand contraction, supply impact, high raw material prices, reduced employment, dual control of energy consumption, power rationing, key core components being subject to restrictions, weak industrial foundations, and unstable industrial and supply chains. The machinery industry may experience a low-to-high development trend in 2022.
The China Machinery Industry Federation predicts that the growth rate of China’s machinery industry operating income in 2022 will reach around 5.5%, and the profit level will remain the same as in 2021.
The main markets for bearing matching are the automobile industry, engineering machinery, and agricultural machinery.
According to trends in the machinery industry and the development of the bearing matching industry, especially the automotive industry for bearing matching, the rapid development of new energy vehicles will have a significant impact on the production of automotive bearings.
It is expected that the demand for bearings in fuel-powered automotive driving and transmission systems will show a downward trend, and the future market growth will mainly be in new energy vehicles.
At the same time, as China gradually achieves its “dual carbon” goals and transitions to high-quality development, the development of some new bearing markets will be driven by wind power generators, industrial robots, urban rail transit, industrial intelligence, and urban smartness.
Based on these factors, it is expected that the development pattern of China’s bearing industry will undergo significant changes in 2022 and the next few years, and the development speed will maintain a low-speed growth trend.
Development trends in the bearing industry
The support of national industrial policies and the adjustment of industrial structures are both opportunities for transformation and upgrading of the bearing industry, as well as challenges to the industry’s R&D capabilities, manufacturing capabilities, and sales capabilities. The main trends are:
(1) Further specialization and division of labor
In the past, under the background of economic globalization, the eight major international bearing companies focused on bearing design, sales, and grinding assembly production. They outsourced pre-grinding products (i.e. bearing ring manufacturing) to domestic suppliers with higher labor quality and stable production processes for specialized production. The trend of specialization and industrial chain transfer will continue in the future.
In recent years, bearing giants have continued to deepen cooperation with cost-advantaged component suppliers, gradually opening up the previously closed supply chain and outsourcing some mature core processes.
Therefore, both domestic and foreign bearing industry companies will adopt more specialized division of labor strategies and respond more flexibly to market demand. Most companies will focus on specialized production and operation of certain parts of the process, further clarifying product positioning.
For bearing component manufacturers, this trend will promote them to undertake more processing processes, further expand their business volume, and help them use their competitive advantages to enhance sectoral barriers, as well as improve product added value and profitability.
(2) Continuous improvement of product technology content
From the current product structure of China’s bearing industry, the production of ordinary bearings with low technical content can meet market demand, but high-quality and high-end bearing varieties with special characteristics that can meet special workingconditions still need to be imported.
Therefore, the development of high-end bearings with independent intellectual property rights and advanced technology content has become an urgent task for the domestic bearing industry.
At present, the development of new materials, new processes, and new technologies has provided a good basis for the development of high-end bearings.
The industry should accelerate the research and development of high-end bearing products, improve the level of bearing technology, and enhance the competitiveness of domestic bearing products.
(3) Green and sustainable development
With the continuous improvement of people’s living standards and the increasing attention to environmental protection, the development of the bearing industry should also focus on green and sustainable development.
In response to the national “dual carbon” goals, the bearing industry should actively develop low-carbon, energy-saving, and environmentally friendly products, and promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry towards green and sustainable development.
In summary, the development trend of China’s bearing industry in 2022 and the next few years will be characterized by low-speed growth, further specialization and division of labor, continuous improvement of product technology content, and green and sustainable development.