International demand for valve products is declining, and improving competitiveness is a top priority

Valves are an important part of large-scale complete sets of equipment, mainly used for cutting off, throttling, regulating pressure and changing flow direction of pipeline media (materials, water, steam, air and oil, etc.).

Valves have a wide variety of specifications, wide uses, and large quantities. They can be divided into industrial valves and civil valves. Industrial valves are mainly used to adjust process parameters such as medium flow, pressure, temperature, and liquid level in the field of industrial automation process control.

In the global industrial valve market demand, the petroleum and natural gas fields including drilling, transportation and petrochemical account for the highest proportion, followed by the demand in the energy, power and chemical fields. Among the application fields of domestic industrial valves, the chemical, energy, power and oil and gas industries are also the most important markets for valve sales.

In the next few years, with the rapid development of China's economy and the improvement of industrial automation, the transformation and upgrading of China's equipment manufacturing industry, and the continuous growth of national investment in oil and gas, petrochemical, environmental protection, electric power, metallurgy and other fields, China's industrial valve market The scale will maintain rapid growth.

At present, key valve manufacturers in China have been able to design and manufacture various valves in accordance with international standards such as ISO international standards, DIN German standards, AWWA American standards, and some manufacturers’ products have reached the international advanced level, and the overall level of the valve industry has been relatively large. To improve, some products have also moved to overseas markets.

However, compared with foreign products, the market of my country's valve industry is fiercely competitive. At present, the scale of enterprises in the market is relatively small, with small and medium-sized enterprises accounting for more than 90%. Most of the enterprises are technologically backward and mainly concentrated in low-end markets. This has led to the lack of competitiveness of my country's valve products in the international market and the lack of mid-to-high-end product development.In the past two years, due to the impact of international trade frictions, the international demand for my country's valve products has declined, and international trade has faced certain challenges. According to customs data, the export value of China's valve industry showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2017 to 2019. In 2018, it was 16.624 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 13.5% year-on-year; in 2019, the total export value of China's valve industry fell back to 16.231 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decline. 0.02%.

In this context, my country's valve companies should improve product technology and quality, increase high-end product research and development technology, catch up with the international level as soon as possible, and improve international competitiveness.

Relevant experts pointed out that qualified enterprises must accelerate their industrial upgrading and move towards medium and high-end valve products, such as oil, nuclear power and other national key development areas. The market potential of domestic replacement of imported valves cannot be ignored.

At present, my country's economic situation and various policies continue to be positive, providing extremely favorable development factors for my country's valve industry. Although there is still a certain gap between China's valves and foreign countries, the key to China's valve companies is to further improve product quality and technical content. Only by laying a solid foundation and unremitting exploration and innovation can China's valve brands become famous overseas and gain more market.