From time to time, the hardware industry, which has been a supporting role for various walks of life, has received much attention in the consumer market. At that time, regardless of hardware factories, hardware workshops, hardware stores, etc., business owners can earn huge profits from it. However, with the relocation of the borders, the profits that had previously been plucked by hand have become minimal in today's economic climate. The hardware business owners are in dire straits.
In Danzao Town, Foshan City, Xu Cai, 85 years old, is still working every day. This year, his hardware factory has not yet received an order. It is understood that Xu Cai was the first hardware factory in the 1960s to drive the entire industrial economy and was called 'Father of Danzao Hardware'. Today, this man of the times, in order to reduce costs, he and his wife are acting as first-line workers.
More and more money is harder to earn. Xu Cai’s phrase has been broken. Manpower is high and materials are expensive. However, the final price of the product is hard to increase. As he grew older and his profits became thinner, he was reluctant to make the factory bigger. Small profits do not want to do more.
With the deepening of the market, the author has investigated that the profit space of the hardware wealth chain is shrinking, and the pressure on more and more hardware companies is increasing. Lack of independent brands, severe competition in homogenization, rising raw materials, high labor costs, and lack of high and new technology have all come together, resulting in a sharp decline in the profits of the hardware industry.
A high: Manpower costs are forced to rise
The shortage of labor was hailed by the industry as the first year of the rabbit industry in the hardware industry. In recent years, labor shortages have forced hardware companies, especially small and medium-sized hardware companies, to be typical. In order to start work properly, they have to use 'pay raises' cards to retain skilled workers.
'In order to retain employees, the company has been trying to improve the treatment, such as improving food, providing a husband and wife room, a floor with an elevator, etc. After the year, employees' investment is also about 5% -10%. 'A person in charge of a ceramic company disclosed that the factory has begun to ignite, but the staff are insufficient to work, in order to recruit workers, have already adjusted the original recruitment conditions, salary and treatment has also increased by 10%.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the labor costs in the Pearl River Delta rose by an average of over 20% in 2010. At present, the total labor market is still in a situation where the demand exceeds supply, and the structural contradiction between workers and workers is prominent. For hardware companies, the production of the first-line general workers is the biggest demand point, in order to deal with 'employment shortage' salaries become the company's chief weapon to raise the average wages of the average salary of the general workers from last year's 1800 yuan to 2,500 yuan.
Two high: raw material prices
Before the Spring Festival in 2011, Baosteel sounded the first clarion call for the price increase of the New Year's steel mills. The prices of various types of steel manufactured in February rose by 100-300 yuan/ton. Afterwards, other steel mills such as Wuhan Iron and Steel and Anshan Iron and Steel Group followed suit. The use of new iron ore agreements to enter the New Year will increase the price of steel products.
At the end of 2010, the price of copper exceeded the 50 yuan/kg mark and steadily increased. On February 15th, the price of copper oscillated around RMB 67/kg, which was close to the historical high of 70 RMB/kg over the past five years. Compared to the low of 42 RMB/kg last year, the price of copper has increased by nearly 60%. The price of aluminum oscillated around 16.2 yuan/kg on February 15. It has also approached the high of 16.5 yuan/kg in one year, which is more than 30% higher than last year's low of 12.44 yuan/kg.
The rise in raw material prices has become a deterrent to hardware development since the beginning of 2010, and it is naturally difficult to lower prices in 2011. Most hardware owners reported that the increase in raw material costs has led to a 5% to 8% increase in production costs compared to the end of last year. This kind of cost investment, rewritten the hardware industry 'low input, high output' earnings history.
Three high: new technology threshold is high
Experts have appealed that under the circumstances of increasing cost pressures, the hardware industry must change the traditional low-wage, low-cost, low-profit manufacturing model to optimize the economic structure and strive to achieve economic development if it is to ensure the sustained and steady growth of the hardware industry. Way of transformation. In order to meet the challenges of market competition, it is necessary to explore new ways and ideas of competition, such as nurturing more companies with international reputation in terms of quality and added value, and gradually shifting from cost advantage to quality and brand.
Improve the level of innovative technology, seek product innovation, increase product added value, and get rid of the current status of large-scale production only relying on low labor costs, hardware companies need a very high research and innovation capabilities, look at the structure of China's hardware industry, small and medium Enterprises are blooming all over the place, with few brands and funds, backward hardware and equipment, and shortages of technical talents, all of which restrict enterprises from entering the threshold of high technology. Therefore, although the vision is good, it is difficult to implement.