Краткий обзор китайской индустрии амортизаторов в 2022 году: постоянные технологические прорывы и явная тенденция к высококлассным продуктам

Shock absorbers are important components of vehicle suspension systems, used to mitigate and attenuate impact vibrations caused by vehicle speed and road excitation during vehicle driving. Every car has front and rear shock absorbers and steering shock absorbers, etc. At present, shock absorbers have a history of more than 100 years, and the most widely used shock absorbers with relatively mature and complete manufacturing processes are still cylinder hydraulic shock absorbers and pneumatic shock absorbers. As early as 1908, the first practical hydraulic shock absorber was developed by M. Handalle of France. After that, cylinder hydraulic shock absorbers gradually replaced rocker arm shock absorbers, but their significant disadvantage is that under high-speed conditions, the compensation chamber is prone to untimely filling of oil into the compression chamber, which leads to distortion of the shock absorber's working characteristics, which not only affects the shock absorption effect, but also causes impact and noise. For this reason, pneumatic shock absorbers appeared in the 1950s.

Related report: "2023-2029 China Shock Absorber Industry Market Research Analysis and Development Prospects Analysis Report" released by Zhiyan Consulting

Shock absorbers are widely used in the automotive industry, mainly to accelerate the attenuation of frame and body vibrations to improve the ride smoothness of the car. Therefore, they play a vital role in automobiles. With the rapid development of the economy, the automotive industry has developed rapidly, and higher requirements are placed on the shock absorber industry. The country has accordingly introduced a series of measures to encourage the development of auto parts. In the "Carbon Peak Action Plan Before 2030" issued on October 24, 2021, it is proposed to promote the high-quality development of re-manufacturing industries such as auto parts, construction machinery, and office equipment. Strengthen the promotion and application of resource recycling products and re-manufactured products. In the "Automotive Industry Investment Management Regulations" of 2018, it is mentioned to focus on the development priorities of the automotive industry, accelerate the promotion of new energy vehicles, smart cars, energy-saving cars and key components, advanced manufacturing equipment, power battery recycling technology, and automotive parts re-manufacturing technology and equipment research and development and industrialization. In the 2016 "Petrochemical and Chemical Industry Development Plan (2016-2020)", it is mentioned that in the fields of aerospace, high-end equipment, electronic information, new energy, automobiles, rail transportation, energy conservation and environmental protection, medical health, and national defense and military industry, requirements of lightweight, high strength, high temperature resistance, stability, shock absorption, sealing, etc. should be met, and the development of high-performance carbon fiber and composite materials, special rubber, graphene and other high-end products should be accelerated.

Development status: Rapid growth in the automotive industry and continued rise in demand for shock absorbers

At present, our country has gradually become the world's largest shock absorber producer. Foreign companies have established production bases in China, resulting in the domestic output of shock absorbers far exceeding the demand. According to statistics, in 2020, the output of my country's shock absorber industry reached 273 million units, but the demand was only 141 million units. In 2021, it is expected that the output of my country's shock absorber industry will reach 294 million units, and the demand will reach 152 million units. Overall, driven by the demand of downstream industries, the demand for shock absorbers is on an upward trend, and its output remains in an overall growth state.

From the perspective of the market distribution of shock absorber demand, the shock absorber market demand in East China, South China and North China is relatively large. This is mainly because the automobile manufacturing and consumption industries in these regions are booming, and the demand for shock absorbers is relatively strong compared to other regions. Among them, East China accounts for 29.6%, South China accounts for 19.7%, and North China accounts for 15.4%.

Judging from the automobile production and sales, although the development of my country's automobile market has slowed down in recent years, as my country's economy maintains a stable growth trend and people's income levels gradually increase, there is still huge room for growth in consumer demand for automobiles. According to data, my country's automobile ownership is on the rise, and in 2022, the number of automobiles will increase to 319 million. In the same year, automobile production reached 27.021 million and sales reached 26.864 million, up 3.6% and 2.2% year-on-year.

With the continuous development of the automobile industry, people are paying more and more attention to the vibrations generated during the driving of cars. It can be seen that the importance of automobile shock absorbers has become more and more prominent, and the attention to the shock absorber industry has gradually increased. Driven by the rapid development of the automobile market, the market size of my country's shock absorber industry has shown a state of sustained growth. In 2016, the market size of my country's shock absorber industry was only 8.361 billion yuan. By 2021, the market size of my country's shock absorber industry has grown to 13.98 billion yuan, an increase of 9.2 percentage points year-on-year from 2020.

Enterprise structure: R&D expenses continue to rise, and industry production and sales have achieved breakthroughs

At present, our country's shock absorber industry has a high degree of marketization, sufficient competition and high concentration. The top company is Top Group, which accounts for 20%, followed by Bohai Automobile, which accounts for 7.7%, and ADD Industry, which accounts for 6.8%.

ADD Industry is currently mainly engaged in the research and development, production and sales of automotive parts products such as automobile suspension system shock absorbers, automobile rubber shock absorbing products and engine seals. Among them, automobile suspension system shock absorbers are the main business that the company has been professionally engaged in since its establishment. It has the manufacturing and comprehensive service capabilities of the overall solution of the suspension strut assembly, as well as the ability to support complete vehicles. In 2021, its operating income was 1.208 billion yuan, an increase of 39.63% year-on-year; the gross profit margin was 19.14%, a decrease of 3.56 percentage points year-on-year, mainly due to the continued rise in raw material prices, exchange rate fluctuations and increased shipping costs. Top Group's main business is the research and development, production and sales of automotive parts, among which shock absorbers are one of its main businesses. The overall operating income is in a state of growth. In 2021, the operating income of shock absorbers was 3.347 billion yuan, and the gross profit margin was 2.382 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.66 percentage points.

In 2021, the production and sales volume of shock absorbers of both companies increased. Among them, ADD Industrial's production of shock absorbers was 14.1498 million units, a year-on-year increase of 45.10% compared with 2020, and its sales volume reached 13.4627 million units, a year-on-year increase of 41.71% compared with 2020; Top Group's production of shock absorbers was 7.4219 million sets, an increase of 1.9135 million sets compared with 2020, and its sales volume reached 7.17664 million sets, an increase of 1.7937 million sets compared with 2020.

Shock absorbers are the core components of the automotive suspension system. Increasing the proportion of R&D investment will help promote product optimization and upgrading and improve product safety, comfort and service life. According to data, between 2017 and 2021, ADD Industry and Top Group were on an upward trend overall. Among them, ADD Industry's R&D expenses in 2021 reached 77 million yuan, up 44.17% year-on-year from 2020; Top Group's R&D expenses reached 502 million yuan, up 41.61% year-on-year from 2020.

Development trend: guided by market demand and industry trends, shock absorbers are gradually developing towards high-end products

1. The competitiveness of domestic high-end shock absorber product is expected to be further improved

With the decline in the localization cost of high-end shock absorbers such as air suspension, the increase in the penetration rate of new energy vehicles and mid-to-high-end models, and the continuous improvement of consumers' requirements for automobile stability, safety, comfort and other qualities and consumption upgrades, the future high-end shock absorber market will have broad space. Although from the current point of view, my country has gradually formed a number of advantageous enterprises that can produce mid-to-high-end products with high technical levels and product scales, and through actively exploring the global market, domestic mid-to-high-end shock absorber products have entered the after-sales and modified car markets in developed automobile industrial regions such as Europe, the United States, Japan and South Korea, but in the field of high-end products, the gap between my country's independent brands and foreign manufacturers is still obvious, especially in terms of eliminating vibration source impact and product sealing technology, foreign manufacturers are ahead of domestic independent brand manufacturers. It is expected that as my country's independent brand shock absorber manufacturers continue to increase their research and development efforts and gradually improve their high-tech levels, the competitiveness of my country's domestic mid-to-high-end shock absorber products is expected to further improve.

2.Guided by market demand and industry trends, we will promote the continuous development of the shock absorber industry

As people's income level increases, the demand for the automotive industry is increasing, and at the same time, higher requirements are placed on the shock absorber industry. Through continuous research and development, the requirements for the intelligence and comfort of the shock absorber system are becoming higher and higher, and are gradually developing towards adaptive adjustable shock absorbers. For drivers, no matter how good their driving skills are, the suspension system will automatically adjust to the state that adapts to it, making the driver feel smooth and comfortable, which greatly meets the needs of consumers. The reason for this is that sensors are used to detect the driving state, and then the damping force of the driving is calculated by the computer, and then the damping force adjustment mechanism is automatically adjusted to change the damping force of the shock absorber by changing the size of the throttle hole. At the same time, in the context of lightweight automobiles, the shock absorber industry will gradually develop towards a semi-active or active shock absorber system with lighter weight, smaller size and higher performance.

Original article from: Zhiyan Consulting