In recent years, with the rapid development of the bearing industry in China, the bearing market has become increasingly optimistic, which has driven the demand for bearing steel to increase. Bearing steel has become a highlight of the domestic high-quality steel market.
According to the statistics of China Bearing Industry Association on 116 enterprise groups and major enterprises in the national bearing industry, 107 of them produced 498.4 million sets of bearings from January to May 2004, an increase of 10.51% over the same period last year; The sales volume of finished bearing products was 483 million sets, up 7.99% year on year; The export sales volume of bearings was 185 million sets, with a year-on-year growth of 4.55%; The total industrial output value was 7.6364 billion yuan, up 25.64% over the same period of last year; The industrial added value was 2.3574 billion yuan, up 20.91% year on year. At present, China has become one of the world's bearing producers.
According to the analysis and prediction of the insiders, China's bearing market is huge, especially the rapid development of the domestic host industry, which will provide a large market space for the development of the bearing industry. Last year, all sectors of the machinery industry maintained a rapid development trend, such as engineering machinery, heavy mining, agricultural machinery, instruments and meters, machine tools and other machinery industries, which had a large growth rate, some of which reached more than 28%. In the first half of 2004, the added value of the machinery industry increased by 27.3% over the same period of the previous year, including the average growth of CNC machine tools, forklifts, earth moving machinery, power generation equipment, smelting equipment and metal rolling equipment of more than 50%; The total export of machinery products increased by 46% year on year. As a result, the demand for bearings is driven. In addition, the demand for electromechanical supporting bearings for a number of national engineering projects, such as the West to East Gas Transmission Project, the West to East Power Transmission Project, the South to North Water Diversion Project, the Three Gorges Project, the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, and the 2010 Shanghai World Expo, has built a huge platform for the bearing market.
The continuous expansion of the bearing market has also brought the market and business opportunities for bearing steel. Shanghai Baosteel Group No. 5 Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. is one of the domestic production bases of bearing steel. In recent years, the production and sales of bearing steel have been booming. Last year, No. 5 Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. developed high-quality bearing steel, such as bearing steel for automobiles, freight cars and speed increasing passenger cars. The new products of bearing steel produced increased by 23.8% over the previous year. In the first half of this year, the company's output of bearing steel has reached 78000 tons, with a year-on-year growth of 35.3%. The newly developed cold drawn ultra pure bearing steel is used to produce high-speed silent bearing steel for air conditioners, and is highly praised by users. The annual sales volume of bearing steel produced by Jiangyin Xingcheng Special Steel Co., Ltd. reaches 300000 tons, accounting for one third of the domestic consumption. It is the third largest bearing steel manufacturer in the world.
The domestic bearing market will continue to expand in the future. According to expert analysis, China will produce 3 billion sets of bearings by 2005, and the total industrial output value will reach 31 billion yuan. At present, China has a production capacity of 2.4-25 billion sets, of which the supply of universal bearings exceeds the demand. During the "Tenth Five Year Plan" period, the supporting main engines of bearings are automobiles, motorcycles, household appliances, tractors, railway vehicles, metallurgical mining machinery, petrochemical machinery and textile machinery. The prospect of China's bearing export is promising. It is estimated that the export will reach 1.8 billion sets in 2005, and the foreign exchange will reach 900 million to 10 million dollars. As a result, the demand for bearing steel will increase significantly. It is predicted that the domestic consumption of bearing steel will reach 1.2 million tons in 2005, an increase of at least 20% over the current level.
However, due to the higher requirements for the quality, noise and service life of bearings in the future market, the bearing industry also puts forward higher requirements for bearing steel. For example, precision bearings for machine tool spindles, aerospace precision bearings, special bearings for computers and video recorders, etc., these products have high requirements for bearings. However, at present, the physical quality of domestic bearing steel is not stable, which affects the improvement of bearing noise, life index and performance, resulting in a significant gap between the internal and surface quality of domestic bearings and those of developed countries. To this end, some domestic steel mills are further carrying out scientific and technological research activities to meet the needs of the bearing market. On the basis of optimizing smelting quality, No. 5 Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. carried out research on silver bright steel peeling technology, analysis of bar surface defects and quality control, and researched and developed high-quality bearing steel; Develop high technology and high reliability steel for railway locomotive bearings and passenger and freight car bearings to meet the requirements of passenger train speed increase.
