In recent years, domestic cement demand has continued to decline. Since the beginning of 2023, domestic cement prices have been under great downward pressure, and price wars have broken out in many places. Even in popular areas such as East China, cement prices have fallen to a historical low. In view of the situation of the real estate industry, the industry is not optimistic about the future demand for cement, and is full of confusion about the market trend. How does the
cement industry cope with the current predicament? Some views of Song Zhiping, former chairman of China Building Materials Group and President of China Association of Listed Companies, are worth pondering in the industry.
The industry is a big system, and the enterprise is an integral part of the system. Only when the whole system is healthy, can each enterprise develop healthily. If the system is not healthy, the development of a single enterprise will be very difficult. When the nest is ruined, how can eggs be finished? If the
development of the industry is not good, it is difficult for any enterprise to stand alone. Only when the value of the industry is realized, can value of the enterprise be maintained and promoted. In the
early years, China's cement industry was very chaotic, and the living environment of enterprises in the industry was extremely bad. Everyone is comparing the output to see who produces more cement, but when it is produced, it can not be sold, the market simply does not have such a large capacity, so they compete for the price, who sells cheaper. Suicidal price competition leads to shoddy, various quality accidents emerge in endlessly, and even endanger the survival of the whole industry.
At the 2009 China International Cement Summit, Song Zhiping put forward a point of view: "The interests of the industry are higher than interests of the enterprise, and the interests of the enterprise are contained in the interests of the industry.". The minor principles of individual enterprises should be subordinated to the major principles of the industry as a whole. "The coal and steel industry is our mirror," said
Song Zhiping. "When the industry is good, the enterprise is good; when the industry is bad, even the best enterprise will encounter difficulties, as we have seen from so many years of practice.". Therefore, our industry elites should calm down and study how to improve the overall efficiency of the industry.
In the past, cement enterprises often only buried themselves in their own development, and often carried out simple or even vicious competition among enterprises in the market. Enterprises always hope to defeat others, outshine others or "show off several branches together", but ignore the systemic problems of the whole industry.
In fact, as far as the whole country is concerned, because limestone, an important upstream resource in the cement industry, is relatively abundant, it is not complicated to build a new cement production line in terms of technology and equipment. Therefore, the idea of outshining others does not conform to the reality and can only drag the industry into a chaotic situation of fierce battles. In the cement industry, the important thing is not which enterprise to do well first, but how to do well in the industry first. Analyzed
from management, what is the reason? The industrialized era is an era in which demand exceeds supply. Enterprises carry out "Taylor" scientific management with a view to improving efficiency and producing more products. With the development of social economy, in the era of full competition, enterprises have proposed to compete around the three elements of "quality, service and price", hoping to achieve good quality and low price. This idea of improving efficiency by simply expanding the scale has become the management idea of traditional manufacturing enterprises.
However, in the current era of surplus economy, it is difficult to rely on incremental development to reduce costs and gain benefits. It is not enough for enterprises to consider only themselves, but must consider the optimization of the industry system and the common interests of enterprises in the industry. In order to achieve sustainable and healthy development of the
industry, entrepreneurs need to reach a consensus and jointly cultivate a healthy market.
A healthy market should have two conditions: first, large enterprises should have certain bargaining power to become an important force leading the healthy development of the market; second, enterprises should move from vicious competition and excessive competition to rational competition and cooperation.
To promote the healthy development of the market, there must be enterprises as pioneers. Large enterprises have greater responsibility for the industry, should think systematically, comprehensively and in the long run, should guide the healthy operation of the whole market, and lead everyone to mutual benefit and win-win situation. It is not enough to cure one's own disease, but to cure the disease of the whole system.
For example, for China's building materials, the joint reorganization is not a zero-sum game from the beginning, but a symbiotic win-win move. The so-called symbiosis and win-win is that "everyone makes money". We hope that when the industry is booming, everyone can make a profit. In the industry, we should not only "eat meat" ourselves, but also "drink soup" for everyone. We should have the idea of common prosperity and common prosperity, so that everyone can share the fruits of the healthy development of the industry. This is the reason why China Building Materials later insisted on being an "integrator" rather than a "newcomer". It can be said that this is also an inevitable strategic choice made according to the current situation of the industry and the law of market economy.
As the saying goes, "one prosperity is all prosperity, one loss is all loss". Under the current industry situation, domestic cement enterprises should pay more attention to the overall situation, the "blue sea" and win-win situation.
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