In 1883, Friedrich Fischer, founder of FAG (now the Schaeffler brand), proposed the use of suitable production machines to grind steel balls of the same size and accurate roundness. This laid the foundation for creating an independent bearing industry. In 1895, Henry Timken designed the first tapered roller bearing, patented three years later and established the Timken Company. In 1907, Sven Winquist at the SKF Bearing Factory designed the earliest modern self-aligning ball bearings.
The two world wars stimulated the development of the military industry. The bearing military industry has become increasingly prominent. Bearings are widely used in automobiles, aircraft, tank armored vehicles, machine tools, instruments, meters, bicycles, sewing machines and many other fields. During the Second World War, a large number of bearing factories appeared in various countries. The development of modern technology has promoted the innovative development of bearing technology. After 130 years of accumulation, the foreign bearing industry has become very mature, with increasing performance and accuracy.
China's bearing industry has only forty years from scratch, and it started much later than advanced western countries. With the development of the domestic bearing manufacturing technology, its types and specifications have gradually come into line with international standards, and the production line is relatively comprehensive. However, due to the late start, China's bearing industry is obviously lagging behind the international advanced level. Although the export volume is large, it is mainly low-end products, and high-end bearings are imported in large quantities.
According to the statistics of import and export of rolling bearings by customs, it can be seen that the export of bearings is higher than that of imports. At the same time, both imports and exports have increased, and exports have exceeded RMB 34 billion. The increase in China's bearing imports and exports also shows the stable demand and development of the bearing industry. Most of the exports made in China belong to low-end products, and high-end products are highly dependent on imports. Observing the relationship between China's bearing sales and imports, it can be found that there is a clear positive correlation between the two, indicating that China's bearing market has a large dependence on imports.
Since the 1980s, the world's large bearing companies have begun to invest in China to expand their sales. Domestic enterprises have also received orders for primary products from major bearing companies, and there is dependence on foreign business.
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domestic bearings
Over 70% of the world bearing market share is shared by the top ten multinational bearing group companies. Among them, the United States, which accounts for 23% of the global market, 21% of the European Union, and 19% of Japan, are basically dominated by five companies such as Japan's NSK, Sweden's SKF, Germany's FAG, and the United States Timken. 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.
From the income scale and growth rate of the domestic bearing industry, it can be seen that since the domestic bearing industry has been expanding its income scale for 15 years, the growth rate of operating income has continued to increase, maintaining a good growth momentum. The improvement of gross profit margin and net profit margin comes from the improvement of corporate management efficiency, and it also comes from domestic bearing companies developing high-end markets and striving for higher returns, not just low-profit processors in low-end and mid-end industries.
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policy promotion
During the "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, China's policy orientation will continue to guide capital investment in key areas of the bearing industry, driving the bearing industry to lean towards high-precision, high-tech content and high value-added products, and accelerating the upgrading of the bearing industry. Driven by the development of various fields such as rail transit, medical equipment, new energy, aerospace, and automotive lightweighting, the level of China's high-end bearing casting industry will be significantly improved. As the focus of global manufacturing shifts to China, the development of China's high-end bearing industry has a strong impetus, and the requirements for domestic high-end bearing manufacturers have become higher and higher. At present, China's bearing casting industry must focus on improving product grades and reducing manufacturing costs to achieve a strategic transition from "big" to "strong".
