Raw material price "roller coaster" forced manufacturing "metabolism"

Since June, more and more enterprises in Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places have complained about their difficulties and difficulties in doing business. Even the media have used the word “closed tide” in the titles of the financial tsunami during the financial tsunami. At the same time, there is a consensus that the current round of business plight stems primarily from the superposition of multiple cost increases. When the reporter visited the Pearl River Delta production company in recent days, he found that in the face of difficulties in financing and high financing costs, the most “big head” of the company was the fluctuation of raw material costs. Such fluctuations were dubbed “roller coasters” by entrepreneurs. The rise of style.

The largest impact of raw material price fluctuations on enterprises Guangdong Province Clothing and Apparel Industry Association made a survey on Guangdong's entire industry in mid-late July. Surprisingly, the service companies believe that the impact of “increased labor costs” and “raw material price fluctuations” on the production and operation of enterprises is far greater than “banks’ hardships” or “revaluation”.

“Roller coaster-style fluctuations have a great impact on the business.” Liu Yueping, chairman of the Guangdong Clothing Apparel Industry Association, told reporters that since the beginning of this year, the raw materials for clothing have risen by 20%, even worse, from May of last year to February of this year. The price of cotton rose from 17,000 yuan per ton to 35,000 yuan, and it fell back to 24,000 yuan in July, with great fluctuations.

“Businesses took orders at a loss, some companies simply did not dare to take orders. This year's garment factories started at 71%, and the operating rate of export companies was only 63%.” Liu Yueping told reporters that the apparel industry is in the critical period of survival of the fittest, and most companies are waiting to see Mentality.

Guangdong is the largest garment producing province in the country, and the garment industry is also one of the major industries in Guangdong. Affected by such factors as cost fluctuations, in the first half of this year, the growth rate of the garment industry in Guangdong has experienced a slowdown.

“The current toy industry does have some difficulties, but it is not as serious as the outside world.” Liang Zhongming, vice president of the China Toys Association and chairman of the Changping branch of the Dongguan Association of Foreign Investment Enterprises, told the Nanfang Daily that the toy industry is currently facing The difficulties are the common difficulties faced by numerous foreign-funded SMEs: rising raw materials, rising labor costs, tightened bank credit, and rising exchange rates.

Among all the difficulties, Liang Zhongming ranked first in rising raw materials. According to his statistics, the cost of raw materials for the toy industry rose by 25% in the first half of this year. The rise comes from two aspects. First, the rise in the price of domestic raw material supplies. Second, the improvement of toy production standards in Europe and the United States and other countries, which makes many companies have to replace the new equipment to improve the quality of production.

The Guangdong Province Economic and Information Technology Commission recently conducted a questionnaire survey of 1,000 key express train companies in Guangdong Province and found that 36% of the companies reported that the average purchase price of raw materials rose from the previous month, affecting labor-intensive enterprises, especially SMEs. Larger.

According to the survey, 80% of SMEs in our province said that the overall production costs increased year-on-year, and 19% of them reflected an increase of more than 20%.

The international price of production materials has risen upwardly. “Only one major raw material, from the second half of last year to the present, has been rising upwards, rising from a few thousand to more than 10,000!” a reporter asked, who has long been engaged in the production of paint coatings Sun Wenlei As soon as he uttered his tongue, his voice was obviously agitated.

Sun Wenlei's description of this raw material is a major raw material for water-based coatings, called "titanium dioxide."

80% of the white pigment is titanium dioxide, it is non-toxic, has the best whiteness and brightness, is considered to be the best white pigment in the world.

Although experts believe that due to the main cost of the coating in the channel, titanium dioxide accounts for only about 13% of the total cost of the coating. Even if the price of titanium dioxide doubles, the paint companies can digest as long as the price increases by 7%. However, The general practice is to use alternatives." Sun Wenlei frankly said that the paint industry did not take a price increase approach to digest the increased costs.

Can Chinese manufacturing really avoid titanium dioxide? “Almost few ordinary people in China know what kind of product titanium dioxide is, and it is even more unclear what titanium dioxide means for national economic indicators.” Deng Jie, deputy secretary-general of the Titanium Dioxide Industry Branch of the China Coatings Association, reminded reporters.

In fact, the well-known "DuPont Company" has always been using titanium dioxide as the main product, which shows its "identity status."

The reporter found this chemical term that was not known to the public through search. Originally, this chemical raw material can be widely used in coatings, plastics, papermaking, printing inks, chemical fiber, rubber, ceramics, cosmetics, food, and pharmaceutical industries. It is one of the world's three largest products of inorganic chemical products. Second only to ammonia and phosphoric acid.

However, since the beginning of last year, titanium dioxide has performed exceptionally strongly on venture capital. Goldman Sachs Australia's commodity team's forecast, titanium dioxide in the raw material of titanium concentrate spot prices will have 30% -70% increase during the year. DuPont, the world's largest manufacturer of titanium dioxide, has earlier announced in Vietnam that it will start raising the price of titanium dioxide in some of its international markets in September. Immediately, the major titanium dioxide manufacturers in Japan and North America have also announced that they will increase the price of the product from October 1st this year.

This is a true portrayal of the living conditions of many industries in China, such as chemical industry. After the international financial crisis, the inflection point in the growth of international raw material prices has caused many companies that have turned better days to be caught off guard.

The rise in raw material prices far exceeding the increase in product prices further proves the pressure from rising raw material purchase costs. “In the first half of the year, Guangdong's industrial producer purchase price index (IPI) increased by 7.5%, which was 3.7 percentage points higher than the price index (PPI) increase.” An official in Guangdong told reporters that the increase in raw material prices was far greater than the price of finished products. Corporate profits are shrinking dramatically.

“When the last financial crisis hit, the impact basically came from overseas orders, and the impact on us was not significant. This wave of rising costs has directly affected the production of enterprises, and domestic sales companies cannot exempt.” Lin Xiyuan, a well-known apparel company, bluntly stated. Many companies that produce middle- and low-end garments are being squeezed. The price sensitivity of middle and low-end products is high. “Over the past year, fabrics have risen by 10%, wages have risen by 20%, and transportation costs and taxes have increased. ”

“Unlike the financial crisis, in fact, the toy industry currently does not have the problem of taking orders.” Xiao Lin, chairman of Dongguan Toys Generation Co., Ltd., told reporters that the current problem facing the toy industry is actually the increase in production costs exceeds The rise in sales prices, so many companies are reluctant to take orders and are afraid to take orders. However, the large-scale weakness in the toy industry has not yet emerged.

This statement has also been confirmed by Liang Zhongming. Liang Zhongming said that the current situation is fundamentally different from the financial crisis. “At that time, no one came to buy goods. It was an external problem that we could not solve. Now the problem is the internal cost issue. It is an issue that we can work on.” According to the latest statistics from the Guangdong Toy Association, the first half of 2011 , Guangdong toy export growth trend.

For the current difficulties facing the toy industry, Liang Zhongming is not discouraged by the industry. In his opinion, the toy industry is always a sunrise industry. “Because there will always be children, there will always be demand for toys.” He believes that the solution to the dilemma of the toy industry is still a transformation and upgrading. "In fact, this time the situation is not so bad, just like the company has developed some "muscles". Liang Zhongming said that after the financial crisis of 2009, many enterprises underwent transformation and upgrades at the request of the Guangdong provincial government. Enterprises that have not undergone transformation and upgrading have at least such awareness. Therefore, in this time of difficulties, many companies have had certain The foundation and preparation will not suffer a severe setback.

In the second half of the year, corporate losses will inevitably expand the analysis of Guangdong Province's provincial economic and information technology committee. In the first half of the year, the production costs of enterprises are steadily rising. This trend is expected to continue in the second half of the year. The macro level needs to accelerate the transformation and upgrading while maintaining The steady growth of the economy is actually pushing the “metabolism” of manufacturing.

"In short, we cannot overestimate the favorable situation in the second half of the year. We must not underestimate the difficulties and problems."

It is worth noting that the pillar industries have been affected. According to the data released by the Guangdong Province in the first half of the year, the total profits of Guangdong's electronic information industry and automobile manufacturing industry fell by 17.4% and 14.2% respectively year-on-year. Such declines have lowered the province’s industrial profit growth by 2.9 and 1.9 percentage points respectively. In Guangdong, the most important economic region in Guangdong and Shenzhen, the total industrial profits also fell by 5.7% and 3.3% respectively year-on-year.

“We are highly concerned about the economic situation in the second half of the year and Guangdong has done a stress test. Since most of Guangdong’s industrial products are rigid demands related to clothing, food, housing and transportation, we believe that the situation in which the economy is out of control is unlikely.” Guangdong Economic and Information Commission An official told reporters.

Although the company's production and operation faced great difficulties and the loss faced an increase, most of the industry's profits continued to increase in the first half of the year. "From January to May, the province's industrial enterprises above designated size achieved a profit of 160.44 billion yuan, an increase of 7% year-on-year, an increase of 3.6 percentage points from January to April, and 28 industries in 37 industries across the province have realized an increase in profits."