Extending the industrial chain and implementing the expansion of cement-related industrial chains such as aggregate, commercial mixing, assembly building and cement equipment manufacturing have always been regarded as an important opportunity for cement enterprises to make the cake bigger.
However, in the current sluggish market demand, the concrete industry with serious accounts receivable problems may become a potential risk project for some cement enterprises.
Data show that by 2023, the total receivables of concrete and cement products industry have exceeded 1 trillion yuan , the scale of accounts receivable has continued to rise, and the repayment cycle has been further extended.
In 2023, the proportion of total accounts receivable and bills in total revenue of eight listed companies with commercial concrete as their main business rose sharply to 108.17%, an increase of 13.08 percentage points over the same period last year.
At the same time, the overall turnover days of accounts receivable and bills of these eight listed companies are 380.19 days, an increase of 54.85 days compared with 2022, and the repayment cycle has been further extended for more than one year. This shows that the difficulty of repayment in the concrete industry will further increase in 2023, and there will be greater pressure and risk in the operation of enterprises. Accounts receivable and notes of listed companies mainly engaged in commercial mixing business in
2023 (unit: day,%)
In addition, due to insufficient market demand, the concrete industry is also facing fierce price competition. Combined with the impact of the entry of cement enterprises, the industry situation is very grim. Many enterprises choose to exchange price for quantity and take low-price competition strategy in exchange for market share.
According to the report of Cement Big Data Research Institute of China Cement Network, 20 listed companies disclosed the average price of commercial concrete in 2023. The average price of commercial concrete sold by these companies was 335.16 yuan per square meter, down 15.75% from the same period last year, an increase of 10.73 percentage points compared with 2022.
In 2023, the overall commercial mixing gross profit rate (median) of 22 concrete listed companies was around 12.41%, which was 0.39 percentage points lower than that in 2022.
In recent years, the cement industry has stepped into the concrete industry on a large scale, which has increased the revenue and profit channels of enterprises, but the potential risks have increased accordingly.
According to the statistics of China Cement Network, as of 2023, at least 11 cement and related listed companies have been involved in the commercial mixing industry, ranking 413 million square meters in China's building materials, 122 million square meters in Huaxin Cement and 54 million square meters in Jinyu Group. The overall capacity utilization rate was 20.96%. In terms of accounts
receivable, as of 2023, the total receivables of cement and related listed companies amounted to 107.295 billion yuan, which was slightly lower than that at the end of 2022, but the range was not significant. At the same time, considering that the profit of the whole cement industry is only 30 billion yuan in 2023, such a high amount of accounts receivable has further increased the pressure of enterprise operation. Ren Zhengfei, the founder of
Huawei, once said that at the strategic key opportunity point and the survival crisis point, we can invest at all costs, but at the non-strategic opportunity point, we can not spend money indiscriminately. Cement enterprises should also consider whether they should narrow the battle line, concentrate their forces to fight the war of annihilation and improve their profits in such a cold winter.
