China's economic growth slowed down in 2012, and the growth rates of shipbuilding, construction steel structure, oil and gas pipeline industries decreased to varied extent, thus causing the weakened demand for welding & cutting equipment. In 2012, Chinese welding & cutting equipment market valued RMB33.9 billion with a year-on-year growth rate of 14%, while the growth rate was high up to 20% in 2010 and 2011.
As a new type of welding & cutting equipment, inverter welding & cutting equipment is replacing traditional one in most fields by virtue of high working frequency, fast response, excellent welding performance, energy saving and environmental friendliness, small size and light weight, and its market growth rate is higher than the average level of the whole welding & cutting equipment market.
In 2012, Chinese market size of inverter welding & cutting equipment reached RMB10.4 billion, up 18% from a year earlier, and contributing 31% to the welding & cutting equipment market value from 29% in 2010. In view of the uncertainty of China's economic growth over the next two years, the growth rate of the overall welding & cutting equipment market is expected to remain at about 5% in 2013-2014, and the growth rate of the inverter welding & cutting equipment market will be 12-13% because of ever high substitution rate.
Chinese Inverter Welding & Cutting Market Size and Growth Rate, 2007-2014E
Affected by the falling downstream demand, the customers preferred low-end inverter welding products in 2012. The low-end products feature low added value, resulting in decreased profitability of major Chinese inverter welding & cutting manufacturers.
Shenzhen Riland Industry Co., Ltd. is China's largest inverter welding & cutting equipment manufacturer. In 2012, to ensure its revenue, the company raised the proportion of low-end products in production and marketing. During the first three quarters of 2012, the net income of the company dropped by 17.50% year-on-year to RMB66 million, and the gross margin descended from 27.44% in 2011 to 25.73%. The company is optimistic about the prospect of automatic welding equipment, and it made more investment in the marketing of such equipment in 2012, but this pulled down the company’s the net profit margin in Q1-Q3 2012 by 5 percentage points, especially net profit margin in Q3 slumped by 35 percentage points.
As China’s second largest inverter welding & cutting equipment producer, Jasic Technology occupied 5.8% market share in 2012. In the first three quarters of 2012, its net income dropped by 15.91% year-on-year to RMB74 million. Because of the fairly high sales ratio in overseas markets, the gross margin of Jasic Technology was stable in 2012 without drastic decline. As the inverter welding & cutting equipment expansion project is completed in 2013, the company’s capacity of inverter welding & cutting equipment will rise to 600,000 sets.
The report covers the followings:
Industrial environment, technical environment, and policy environment of Chinese inverter welding & cutting equipment;
Development and outlook of Chinese inverter welding & cutting market, including market size, market structure, regional pattern, corporate competition; future development trends and influencing factors;
Structure of Chinese inverter welding & cutting application market, as well as development and outlook of main downstream markets;
Development of major Chinese inverter welding & cutting companies, involving revenue, gross margin, main products and development strategies.
