The rising prices of raw materials, the rise in labor prices, and the appreciation of the renminbi... The “low-cost advantage” that China’s manufacturing industry has long relied on for survival is disappearing, the scale of manufacturing continues to expand, and the benefits have declined significantly. Experts believe that with the disappearance of the "low-cost advantage", the road of "extensive growth" in China's manufacturing industry is about to come to an end, and the transformation from low-end to high-end as soon as possible is an inevitable choice for China's manufacturing industry in the future.

Scale expansion benefits decline

At the just-concluded China Big Enterprise Summit, Li Jin, chief researcher of the China Enterprise Research Institute, said that in 2012, the overall size of China's manufacturing industry 500 has expanded significantly, with total operating income of 21.7 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.86%; total assets of 19.7. One trillion yuan, an increase of 17.27% year-on-year; the number of employees reached 12.61 million, an increase of 10%.

At the meeting, the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Entrepreneur Association released the “Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises” list to the public. Qi Rong, deputy director of the Research Department of the China Enterprise Confederation, said that from the perspective of scale distribution, it still continues the "snap-type" mode of narrow and middle width.

In terms of operating income, only one company with a trillion yuan in the top 500 is Sinopec, and 86 companies with less than 10 billion yuan, a decrease of 39 from the previous year. “The main forces are concentrated in the middle level. The number of 100 billion, 50 billion, and tens of billions of enterprises has increased to varying degrees, especially 315 billion-dollar enterprises, accounting for 63% of all the top 500 enterprises.” Say.

In terms of asset scale, there are only 39 enterprises with over 100 billion yuan and 162 enterprises with less than 10 billion yuan. The main strengths are still concentrated in medium-sized enterprises.

The overall efficiency of the company has declined significantly. The total profit of the top 500 enterprises in manufacturing industry was 630.45 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.66%, and 14 loss-making enterprises, 8 more than the previous year; the income profit rate was 2.90%, down 1.24% year-on-year; the average asset profit rate was 3.18%, down 1.22% year-on-year. .

The main body of benefits moves down, and the proportion of enterprises with medium efficiency levels is increasing. Li Jin said that there are 7 enterprises with profits exceeding 10 billion yuan, accounting for 23.74% of total profits; 337 enterprises with less than 1 billion yuan, profits accounting for 21.22%, and the main benefit enterprises are medium enterprises between 1 billion yuan and 10 billion yuan. “The 14 companies lost a total of 9.46 billion yuan, and three companies did not report the profit.”

Low cost advantage disappears

"The large total labor force and low cost have been the outstanding advantages of China's manufacturing industry. With the change of population structure, this advantage is continuously lost." Rong said that in recent years, the large-scale "labor shortage" in the eastern coastal areas, wages and salaries A quick rise is an example.

For a long time, China's manufacturing industry has relied on idle land, labor-intensive, low-cost or even free natural resources to win the global low-end products market. As the economy continues to grow rapidly, the demand for energy resources continues to rise, and the rising price trend of resource products is irreversible, directly driving the rising production costs of manufacturing.

The technological innovation capability is still weak. A large number of manufacturing enterprises are at the bottom of the industrial chain and are engaged in the production of high-consumption and low-value-added products. Li Jin said that taking clothing, electromechanical, chemical and other enterprises as an example, the main way is to deal with brand processing. The characteristics are labor intensive, simple production and management, but energy consumption is large and pollution is more serious. "Manufacturing enterprises have always had the problems of heavy hardware, light software, heavy introduction, light digestion, heavy imitation, and light innovation in technology introduction."

On the one hand, developing countries are accelerating catching up. On the other hand, developed countries have begun to reflect on the shortcomings of the excessive virtual economy and regard manufacturing as an important orientation of future economic policies. Therefore, in fact, China's manufacturing industry is facing double pressure.

Speed up the pace of transformation and upgrading

With the disappearance of low-cost advantages, the “extensive” growth of China's manufacturing enterprises is about to come to an end. Experts believe that in response to global competition under the new situation, China's manufacturing industry should accelerate the pace of transformation and upgrading, enhance independent innovation capabilities, promote the deep integration of informationization and industrialization, transform and upgrade traditional industries, foster and expand strategic emerging industries, and bid farewell to "extensive growth." The model continues to enhance the core competitiveness of China's industry.

Li Jin said that 80% of the global market has been monopolized by 20% of famous brands, and less than 20% of China's export manufacturing enterprises have their own brands. Therefore, it is recommended that enterprises shift the focus of competition from product competition to brand competition in the future, and accelerate the cultivation of large enterprises with internationally renowned brands and international competitiveness.

Experts suggest that manufacturing enterprises should “practice internal strength”, cultivate local market competitiveness, and adopt a gradual international business strategy. Zhai Rong believes that the internationalization of manufacturing enterprises should first be the internationalization of technology research and development, followed by the internationalization of market sales, and finally the production. By relying on foreign capital and technology, and pursuing high-speed growth, it can only become a "factory factory."

Starting from low-end products and accumulating and innovating high-end products is an inevitable choice for the development of China's manufacturing industry. Li Jin believes that in the long run, it should promote the transformation of manufacturing to service, promote the deep integration of informationization and industrialization, and propose to plan new industrial bases and parks as an important carrier for transformation and upgrading, and promote the efficient and coordinated layout of manufacturing. Optimize the transformation. (Author Wang Xiaoming)