Recently, with the announcement of the Fortune 500 list, the failure of Conch Group has become the focus of attention in the industry. As the "gold-sucking king" of the cement industry, Conch Group has been ranked among the top 500 companies in the world for five consecutive years. Its failure is not only a reflection of the enterprise's own operating conditions, but also a microcosm of the grim situation of the whole industry.
Since last year, the cement industry is facing an extremely complex and severe situation. This year, it has suffered a rare winter in the past 30 years. In the first half of the year, the loss of the whole industry reached 2 billion yuan, and the sales volume dropped by 11%. As the core enterprise of Conch Group , Conch Cement 's annual report for 2023 shows that its operating income in that year was about 141 billion yuan, an increase of 6.8% over the previous year, but its net profit attributable to the parent company was 10.43 billion yuan, a decrease of 33.4% over the previous year.
In this context, although the failure of Conch Group is unexpected, it is also reasonable.
However, a failure is not important, Conch Group is still one of the most powerful enterprises in the cement industry. According to the data of Conch Cement, the core enterprise of Conch Group, in 2023, although the decline in the price of main business cement led to a certain decline in net profit, the overall operating performance of Conch Cement still maintained a strong resilience. The sales volume of self-operated cement clinker products increased, with an annual sales volume of 285 million tons, an increase of 0.72% over the same period last year. Conch Cement will also continue to accelerate the layout of new formats such as new energy and digital industries, and steadily promote the development of international blank markets. New formats and overseas businesses will continue to contribute new revenue and profits to the company, and the company's leading position will continue to be consolidated. In the
first quarter of this year, Conch Cement realized a net profit of 1.502 billion yuan, and its profitability is still outstanding in the industry. Although the semi-annual report has not yet been released, it can be predicted that in the case of industry-wide losses, the report card of Conch Cement will probably perform well.
Compared with the honor of "the world's top 500", Conch's strong ability to "absorb money" in the plight of the industry is more admirable. In addition, the whole industry is more concerned about whether conch can shoulder the heavy burden and lead the cement industry through the current difficulties.
As a leading enterprise in the industry, Conch not only has significant advantages in technological innovation and market development, but also has accumulated rich experience in energy saving and emission reduction. At a time when the cement industry is facing severe challenges, the role of conch is particularly important. The industry expects Conch to play its leading role in the industry and help the whole industry to achieve transformation and upgrading by promoting industry self-discipline, mergers and acquisitions, technological innovation and green development, so as to jointly cope with the difficulties faced by the industry.
After all, the real value of an enterprise lies not only in its short-term financial performance, but also in its leadership in the industry and its contribution to the future development of the industry. From this perspective, Conch Group still has a long way to go.
