Low-voltage electrical industry needs industrial upgrading

“The macro situation and the overall situation of the industry are positive for the low-voltage electrical industry. It is expected that the low-voltage electrical industry will maintain a relatively high growth rate in the next five to ten years. The future compound annual growth rate will be 10% to 15%.” Dean of Shanghai Electric Apparatus Research Institute Yin Tianwen said.

However, it should not be overlooked that the technical shortcomings of the low-voltage electrical appliance industry have become the biggest bottleneck for the industry's forward development. According to statistics, foreign outstanding enterprises can achieve about 7% of total sales in the research and R&D investment of low-voltage electrical products. The average low-voltage electrical appliance industry in China is 1% to 2% of total sales, but only about 3% of excellent companies. This topic has also become the focus of this year's General Electric Low Voltage Appliances Subcommittee of the China Electrical Equipment Industry Association. It can be seen that this issue has attracted the attention of the entire industry.

Needless to say, in China's low-voltage electrical industry, low-end products are still mass-produced. This batch of products is bulky and consumes a lot of precious metal silver and copper, ferrous metals, plastics and other materials. Many materials are subject to international market prices. Therefore, the situation that the price of main raw materials for low-voltage electrical appliances remains high (or even continues to rise) will hardly change.

In addition, with the shortage of funds, rising financial costs, and rising wages caused by the rapid increase in the cost of labor is not irreversible, which will inevitably lead to the continuous decline in profit of low-voltage electrical appliances. At present, many companies are already in a state of low profit and loss, which has caused difficulties for enterprises to increase investment in scientific research, new product research and development, and technological transformation.

However, even facing these difficulties, but the low-voltage electrical industry still faces many advantages, such as: smart grid construction for China's low-voltage electrical industry has brought new opportunities, the market share of high-end low-voltage electrical appliances will therefore further expand; in the industrial restructuring, Under the background of reducing the energy consumption of GDP and developing a low-carbon economy, a new generation of low-voltage electrical appliances with energy saving, material saving, and high performance will be further developed; the development of new energy industry will provide opportunities for industry extension, and low-voltage electrical products It can be expanded to photovoltaic power inverters, new energy control and protection systems, distributed power, energy storage equipment, and DC switch electrical equipment.

At the same time, people must clearly understand that although domestic companies, especially private enterprises, have flexible business ideas and strong sales channels, they are not always in a good balance of company scale and product quality, and their R&D capabilities still need to be strengthened. Therefore, the state and local governments should actively encourage enterprises and industrial clusters to extend the industrial value chain, support low-voltage electrical companies to develop in a “special, refined, and special” direction, and form a number of distinctive and focused industrial chains to drive industrial upgrading. .