China glass industry has made many achievements after the last annual conference, during which January to May is a period of best harvest. I am not only excited but also worried about this hard-earn situation because that there is a heave and set rule in the recent more than 20 years’ development of glass industry. Namely, when the industrial benefit is rising, many enterprises are busy with investment and expanding while the industry steps into a bind in the following years with lowered benefits. Anyway, the blindness of industrial development detached from market demand never left us.
In the recent years, carrying out the No. 38 documents issued by the General Office of State Council, the glass industry has made great achievements and the fixed assets are falling back gradually. However, up to now, china flat glass industry still has excessive productivity and at a extensive developmental step with more than 30 newly-built production lines. What is more, the glass quality doesn’t fit the high-speed increase of glass quantity and the investment and output are out of balance. Besides, there is industrial structural contradiction. On one side, for the excessive productivity, first it is the fall-behind excessive productivity with 70,000,000 weight boxes small glass that needs to been eliminated but electronics & information industry like STN, TN thin glass is in short supply, 0.33mm product is still in blank and energy saving glass has the problem of positive promotion and expanding in architectural market. Furthermore, energy saving and carbon emission reduction industry still cannot meet the state-issued standard and has big gap compared with the international advanced level. Desulfidation and denitration still remain in the preliminary step and there is times of gap between labour productivity and international level.
At the present, the most important thing is further accelerating the developmental mode transformation of glass industry by changing the quantity oriented mode. Anyway, we should focus on the coordinated development of industrial scale, quantity and quality, benefits, safety, environment and social responsibility. As follows are some notes we should pay much attention to:
First, do well on energy saving and carbon emission reduction, eliminate fall-behind work;
Second, enhance processing industry and develop new products. There is big difference between the present china glass industrial processing rate of 36% and international average level of 60% and international advanced country of 80%. We need develop solar new industry, electronic flat display glass, architectural energy saving glass and decorative new glass products. Glass industry has many new applications, great developmental potential and bright future. These are all improvement of quality and techniques, not simple quantity expanding.
Third, pay much attention to products quality. Our float glass quantity is more than 50% of world overall output but the high-quality glass is just 15% of the world quantity. According to the recent 10 years’ selective quality test, the highest products qualification rate is just around 88% and in a yearly reduction trend.
Fourth, further enhance the brand cultivation and improve industry concentration. Under the market situation of over supply, the low concentration will definitely lead to a price conflict and ignore the products quality. At the present, the industry should focus on merger and restructuring. The concentration rate of the first tenth enterprises in glass industry is less than 60% and there is a big gap compared with the 70% aim of the eleventh Five- Year plan. Therefore, we should improve the industrial concentration by merger and restructuring based on market rules and with the big enterprises as the core.
In order to change the developmental mode, we must keep structural adjustment as the guideline. For the structural adjustment, it contains the adjustment of technical structure and products structure and the organizational structure adjustment. What is more, there will be new content for new task and new situation and new key points at different developmental step. We could realize all the things I mentioned above like energy saving and carbon emission reduction, quality and brand, development and processing, new products development, merger and restructuring and fall-behind product elimination by structural adjustment.
For technical structural adjustment, we should keep energy saving & carbon emission reduction and products quality improvement as the core in order to make good achievements in energy saving & carbon emission reduction, Desulfidation and denitration, float glass online surface modification, full oxygen burning technology and low temperature excess heat electricity generation technology and make the technical and economic index of our float glass production keep pace with international advanced level. For products structural adjustment, under the guide of Markey demand, we should focus on the development of glass processing products, all likes of new products. For organizational adjustment, we should focus on merger and restructuring. The big enterprises have played an important role in enhancing the industrial structural adjustment and optimization, improving regional market concentration, accelerating technical improvements, energy saving, carbon emission reduction, eliminating fall-behind productivity, developing recycling economics, improving economic benefits, etc. Anyway, with structural adjustment as guideline, we should do well on the adjustment of technical structure, products structure, and organizational structure.
In order to set up a powerful country in glass industry, we should keep independent innovation as the core. Looking back on 1981, without the success in Luoyang float glass technology and effective promotion in the glass industry, we will pay a heavy cost and cannot make the great achievements if we just depend on the foreign technology. Therefore, we should say thanks to the inventors and colleagues who has set great example of independent innovation for us. Anyway, independent innovation is very important for our industrial development, we should further enhance the industrial independent innovation with energy saving & carbon emission reduction and new products development as the focus.
The twelve Five-Year plan is coming and we should insist on the following five aspects: first, keep the demand of architectural industry as the guide; second, keep structural adjustment as the mainline; third, keep recycling economics and low carbon developmental mode; fourth, grasp the good opportunity, accelerate new products development and create new industry; fifth, keep the policy of from big to strong by innovation. Based on the above five insists and under the leading of scientific development, we will realize the modernization and make our country a great power in glass industry.
I believe that china glass industry will have a bright future!
