He Wei: How does China's sewing machinery industry make a difference?

China's sewing machinery industry in line with the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry, the product to the direction of high efficiency, energy saving, automation, potential to find the direction of research and development from the actual needs of the downstream industry, such as fabrics, processes and other changes.

At present, China's sewing machinery industry has achieved initial results in the production of electromechanical equipment. However, it has examined its own research and development capabilities, faced with the transformation and upgrading of the downstream garment industry, and the production of domestic electromechanical equipment has also encountered bottlenecks. Such a market full of opportunities and challenges, how can China's sewing companies exert their power? He Hao, executive vice chairman of China Sewing Machinery Association made an analysis.

I: It is understood that mechanical and electrical integration equipment is popular among service enterprises. What is the status of the current investment and R&D of sewing equipment enterprises in the field of mechatronics equipment?

He Wei: Domestic sewing companies have invested heavily in R&D and marketing, making mechatronic equipment develop rapidly. The computer sewing machine can be described as having a large amount of space and has accounted for 40% of the total sales volume of the sewing machine, and this proportion was only less than 5% during the “Eleventh Five-Year Plan” period. In terms of special machines, China has basically achieved zero breakthrough on all models. Domestic enterprises can not only produce their own products, but also realize marketization. Only a few models can't achieve marketization.

I: Is it possible to fully meet the needs of downstream companies in the production of mechanical and electrical integration equipment in domestic sewing machines?

He Wei: Basic sewing machines can basically meet the needs of downstream companies. However, if special machines and automatic sewing units are compared with foreign advanced brands, we still have a gap. Late start, lack of industry personnel, technology is relatively weak. The talents for mechatronics are particularly in short supply.

The author: From the current level of technology, do domestic sewing companies encounter ceilings in the performance improvement of mechatronic equipment?

He Wei: It is not as serious as the ceiling, but it does face great challenges. First of all, in terms of design, the domestic sewing industry was followed by a “follow-up” strategy that copied foreign products, lacked the most basic research on the machine principle, and had very little independent intellectual property rights. A large number of electronically controlled enterprises' products are in the "imitation" stage, and technical support encounters bottlenecks.

This leads to product homogeneity, a serious price war, and no basic guarantee of product quality. If the market quickly picked up last year, a large number of companies launched electronic control equipment, and they all sold very well. The quality of the products is worrying. This is also a harm to the electronic control products that are under development.

I: The price advantage has always been the label of the domestic sewing machine, but this advantage does not support its sustainable development. Since the industry picked up in 2010, some companies have been raising prices. What do you think?

He Wei: Prior to the domestic product cost-effective is an advantage, and now the price of foreign products is also going down, and then find the advantage of space on the price is not great. And now, the prices of domestic products have no way to support the technological progress of the industry, and talent, R&D, and maintenance services all require input. Good corporate gross profit is 15%-20%. Most of the company's net profit is only 3%-5%. Such low profit can no longer guarantee the sustainable development of the industry.

In the past two years, companies have reported that they want to increase their prices. The association has also held seminars and advocated that the value should return. After all, as other prices rise, the cost of production is soaring. However, pricing is by no means an artificial act, it is to follow the laws of the market. If the supply of products exceeds demand, or if the homogenization of products is not in the core competitiveness, there is no way to raise prices. As an association, we hope to see the rational and healthy development of the industry.

I: Do you think that the sewing industry should become a booster for the transformation and upgrading of the fashion industry, such as clothing, and how hard should it be?

He Wei: In order to tie in with the transformation and upgrading of the garment industry, our products must be developed in the direction of high efficiency, energy saving, and automation. At the same time, we must also pay attention to the specific changes and needs of the apparel industry, such as small batches, multiple processes, diversification, and these trends, as sewing companies should ponder to provide more practical equipment services.

In the sewing machine industry, before the "sewing machine sewing machine", it is necessary to completely change this mode of development, our products have a comparable with foreign outstanding products, then the potential to dive down from the actual needs of the downstream industry On the search for research and development direction, such as fabrics, processes and other changes. Of course, in this regard, the enterprise is the main body and the association is the driving force.