Development status and current problems of China Machinery Industry

Tucked away in the northeastern section of Beijing just outside the Fourth Ring Road stands what was once the pinnacle of Chinese industry. The scale of China's manufacturing capacity and its domestic market for machinery are remaking the industry's international landscape. China's dynamism presents opportunities for foreign machinery makers as an export and investment destination, as well as an up-and-coming source of capital. Mining machinery is the machines directly used for the mineral mining and beneficiation, including mining machinery and mineral processing machinery. Broadly speaking, exploration machinery also belongs to mining machinery category. In addition, many other equipment like cranes, conveyors, fans and drainage machinery are also applied in mining operations.

Mining machines are the equipment used for the exploitation of valuable minerals including digging machinery for the mining of metal ores and non-metallic minerals, coal mining machinery for the mining of coal, oil drilling machinery for the exploitation of oil, etc. The first wind moving wafer shearer was designed by a British engineer named Walker, and was successfully manufactured in about 1868. Beneficiation is the process of choosing valuable minerals from the collected raw materials according to their differences in the physical properties, physicochemical properties and chemical properties. The machinery that implemented this choosing process is called beneficiation machinery. Beneficiation machinery can be divided into crushing, grinding, screening, sorting and dehydration machines. The commonly used crushing machines are jaw crushers, gyratory crushers, cone crushers, roll crushers and impact crushers and so on. Drum mill is one of the commonly used grinding machines including rod mill, ball mill, pebble mill, etc. Hydraulic and mechanical grading machines are widely used in wet classification work.

China's main cost advantage is, of course, inexpensive labour. As a corollary of having the world's largest population, China also has the world's largest labour force. The machinery industry alone currently employs around 20 million people, and they are paid wages far lower that those paid in any other major machinery producing country. Much of the resulting cost savings are then transferred to international consumers via lower product prices for exports. Although wages in China have increased substantially in recent years, the average rate of USD 0.40 per hour in 2008 was well below the rates of the US, Japan and Germany, all with hourly wages above USD 20.

Currently there are two problems existed in China's mining machinery industry. First, the comprehensive strength of the mining machinery enterprises is not strong. The majority of enterprises are at a standstill of energy and capital investment in scientific research, new product development, technological innovation and enterprise management. Variety of domestic mining machinery products can not meet the various requirements, especially the critical needed key equipment for the national construction. And there are problems of low technology content, low additional value and unstable quality of products, low labour productivity and so on. Second, a series questions of product variety, technology, quality, service, etc. have led to the low actual contribution rate of the mining machinery industry to the domestic mining industry. Henan Hongxing Mining Machinery Co., Ltd. lays much emphasis on the quality and clients. We serve clients with the quality guideline of being responsible for every working procedure, every product and every client. What we have done is for the clients and we believe that quality is the best way to develop market. All of the products have passed the authentication of ISO9001. Hongxing Brand is the Chinese Famous Brand. Reliable and stable quality is the key to success. Our products are well known at home and abroad. Now we have tens of thousands of users throughout China and more than 30 world markets.

As China's machinery industry continues to progress, the question for the international manufacturer is how to react. A number of strategic options are available for international firms to integrate their businesses with China's machinery-making potential. Although China is the world's largest exporter of machinery, the opportunity still exists to export to and invest in certain products to China, particularly for innovative products using cutting-edge technology. It is often a matter of pride for Chinese manufacturers and a symbol of quality to have foreign-made capital equipment. When touring a Chinese factory the manager will often boast of possessing a German or American-made production line.