According to the National Bureau of Statistics data, in 2011 China bearing manufacturing industry scale (annual sales revenue of more than 20 million yuan) a total of 1,416 enterprises, the annual industrial output value of 193.211 billion yuan, an increase of 27.59%; sales revenue of 191.097 billion yuan, an increase of 30.30%; total profit of 12.523 billion yuan, compared with the previous year's growth of 26.54%. It is expected that by 2015, China's bearing production is expected to exceed 28 billion sets, the main business income is expected to reach 210 billion yuan, becoming the world's largest bearing production and sales base.
Currently China's bearing industry is mainly facing three major outstanding issues: low industry production concentration, low R & D and innovation capacity, low level of manufacturing technology.
First, the industry's low production concentration. In the world bearing about 30 billion U.S. dollars in sales, the world's top 8 multinational companies accounted for 75% to 80%. Germany's two largest companies accounted for 90% of its national total, Japan 5 accounted for 90% of its national total, the United States 1 accounted for 56% of its national total. China's 10 largest bearing companies, such as Waxaxial, sales accounted for only 24.7% of the industry, the top 30 production concentration is only 37.4%.
Second, the low capacity of research and development and innovation. Industry-wide basic theoretical research is weak, participation in the development of international standards is weak, less original technology, less patented products.
Currently our design and manufacturing technology is basically imitation, low product development capacity, as shown in: although the matching rate of the domestic host to reach 80%, but high-speed railroad buses, medium and high-grade cars, computers, air conditioners, high-level rolling mills and other important host of supporting and maintenance bearings, basically rely on imports.
Third, the low level of manufacturing technology. China's bearing industry manufacturing process and technology and equipment technology development is slow, low rate of CNC machining, grinding and processing automation level is low, the country has only 200 automatic production lines. Bearing life and reliability of advanced heat treatment processes and equipment, such as controlled atmosphere protection heating, double refinement, bainite quenching, etc. Coverage is low, many of the technical challenges failed to make a breakthrough. Bearing steel research and development of new steel grades, steel quality improvement, lubrication, cooling, cleaning and abrasives and other related technology research and development, is not yet able to adapt to the level of bearing products and quality improvement requirements. As a result, the process capacity index is low, poor consistency, product processing size dispersion, product quality is not stable and affect the bearing precision, performance, life and reliability.