In addition to China, the world's major bearing producing countries include Japan (five major companies), Germany (Schaeffler FAG and INA), Sweden (SKF) and the United States (TIMKEN).
More than 70% of the world bearing market share is shared by eight major multinational bearing group companies, including SKF in Sweden, INA and FAG under the Schaeffler Group in Germany, NSK in Japan, and NTN ( NTN), KOYO, Minebea, Nachi, and Timken in the United States. At the same time, the high-end market of the world bearing industry is monopolized by the above-mentioned enterprises, while the low-end market is mainly concentrated in China.
If divided by region, the global bearing market can be divided into five major markets: Asia and Oceania, Europe, North America, Latin America, and Africa, which occupy 40%, 31%, 25%, 3%, and 1% of the market.
Bearings are widely used. At present, global bearings are mainly used in the automotive industry. The annual sales of automotive bearings are 1.02 billion sets, accounting for 29.95% of the total bearing sales. In the future, as the world's automobile manufacturing industry moves to China, the proportion will further increase. In addition to the automotive industry, the bearing industry is also widely used in motors, home appliances, motorcycles, agricultural machinery, engineering machinery, heavy machinery, electricity, railways, machine tools and other industries. The demand for the motor industry accounts for 14.92% of the industry; the home appliance industry accounts for 13.5% ; In addition, motorcycles, construction machinery and agricultural machinery also accounted for a large proportion, 9.51%, 4.63% and 1.82% respectively.
Development Status of China's Bearing Industry
In 2017, the main business income of enterprises above the designated size in the bearing industry in China was 187.8 billion yuan, and the production of bearings was 21 billion sets. It can produce bearings with diameters as small as 0.6 mm and diameters as large as 11 meters. Although China is already a major bearing manufacturing country in the world, it is not yet a strong bearing manufacturing country in the world. The industrial structure, research and development capabilities, technical level, product quality, and efficiency of the bearing industry in China are far from the international advanced level.
3. Future market development trends and prospects
As China has vigorously developed the machinery manufacturing industry in recent years, the downstream industry of the bearing industry has developed rapidly, and the demand for bearing products has continued to increase, which has led to a continuous increase in the sales income and total profit of the bearing industry. It is estimated that by 2023, the market size of China's bearing industry is expected to reach 306.3 billion yuan.
At present, the international situation continues to undergo profound and complex changes. The uncertainty brought about by the Sino-US trade friction has accelerated the adjustment and evolution of the international structure and international order. Sino-US trade friction will have a negative impact of 8% on China ’s bearing industry due to the total US exports and indirect exports.
After the 19th CPC National Congress, the revitalization of the manufacturing industry has become a national strategy, the implementation of Made in China 2025, the implementation of industrial strong foundation projects, the development of new models and new formats, and the realization of new and old kinetic energy conversion are important tasks facing the bearing industry. This is both an opportunity and a challenge for the bearing industry.
The market will have higher and higher requirements for the quality of bearing products. Users will pay more attention to the process control of products and the quality and service of the entire product life cycle.
With the continuous change and adjustment of the bearing market, the polarization of the enterprise will further intensify.
China is a big producer of bearing steel, but it is not a strong country. If you want to develop high-parameter, high-precision and high-reliability bearings, you must give priority to the development of bearing steel smelting technology and improve the quality of bearing steel.
Improving the quality and brand awareness of China's bearing products and increasing the market share of bearing exports are huge markets for future development.
Domestic bearing steel manufacturers should seize the opportunity and actively develop new bearing steel varieties. High quality, high performance and multiple varieties are the development direction of bearing steel.
