At present, concrete industry is facing unprecedented difficulties and challenges. On October 18, China Cement Network participated in the Third National Conference on the Development of Ready-mixed Concrete Industry with the theme of "Green, New, Excellent and Future". At the meeting, many concrete merchants expressed their worries about the current market situation to China Cement Network.
On the one hand, the market demand is declining, with the adjustment of the real estate market and the slowdown of infrastructure investment growth, the demand for concrete is weak. A concrete dealer in Shenzhen reported to China Cement Network that the government's investment in large-scale projects has been sharply reduced, and there are many mixing stations in the region, resulting in fierce competition. On the other hand, the huge scale of accounts receivable makes it extremely difficult for enterprises to withdraw from the market. Once withdrawn, the recovery of huge accounts receivable will be more difficult.
According to the data analysis of the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first half of 2024, the main economic indicators of the concrete and cement products industry grew negatively year on year. The main business income of the industry totaled 652.00 billion yuan, down 16.5% year on year; the total profit totaled 10.603 billion yuan, down 43.67% year on year. In the first half of the year, the number of loss-making enterprises in the whole industry was 7,123, an increase of 1,076 over the same period last year; the loss area of enterprises reached 38.77%, an increase of 5.86 percentage points over the same period last year; the accumulated loss amount was 14.243 billion yuan, an increase of 22.87% over the same period last year; the 10102 of net accounts receivable at the end of the period was 0.40 billion yuan, an increase of 1.70% over the same period last year; The turnover rate of accounts receivable is 1.3 times, and the pressure of enterprise capital turnover is increasing. From January to August 2024, the total output of commercial concrete in China was 1.576 billion cubic meters, which was 11.3% lower than that of the same period last year.
Previously, many cement enterprises have reported to China Cement Network that one of the important reasons for the difficulty of cement price increase is that the concrete industry can not effectively transmit prices. This time, China Cement Network consulted some concrete enterprises.
"We also want to sell at a high price, but with such a high price and a sudden rise of so much, how can anyone pay for it?" Excess concrete production capacity and fierce market competition make it difficult for high-priced products to be accepted by the already weak market.
It is understood that ready-mixed concrete is a price-sensitive product, belonging to dry bulk ordering products, mostly purchased by experts, purchasing decision-makers are often familiar with products, manufacturers, industry changes, generally a transaction of more than one million yuan, some even more than one hundred million yuan. Therefore, if the difference between unit prices is more than 5 yuan, it will obviously affect the purchase decision of decision makers.
At the same time, the rising price of cement makes the cost of concrete enterprises increase and the profit is constantly compressed. Most enterprises require cash payment for cement purchases, while concrete sales are mostly on credit, and the concrete merchants caught in the middle suffer at both ends. How can
concrete enterprises go through this difficult cycle? One concrete business expresses with respect to two words, hold to, cross cycle with firm belief, up to be good. Some people in the concrete industry also pointed out that the current concrete enterprises should actively solve the problem of accounts receivable, control the increment, reduce the stock, and make full use of digital technology to enable the industry to achieve cost reduction and efficiency enhancement.
