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| "Green Tide" Expediting the Globalization of Wire |
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Release time:
2006-12-12 16:00:07
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frequency:
48
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As the second largest industry cluster of China's machinery industry, wire and cable sees an increasing importance in the national economy. In recent years, wire and cable products see a booming export with considerable growth potential and development space. Yet, in company with people's growing awareness on energy saving and environmental protection, it is worthy of considering with the forthcoming development of wire and cable sector. 1. Mingled hope and fear in Export. The customs statistics show that our country exported 996,000t of wire and cable valuing USD 3.86 billion from January to October of 2005, an increase of 15.6% over the same period of 2004 (similarly hereinafter). It can be said that the wire and cable export is getting better, which have the following principal features: firstly, it gives priority to processing trade and the general trade rises rapidly. From January to October of 2005, our country exported wire and cable of 663,000t by processing trade, increased at a rate of 10.1%, holding 63.6% of the total export volume of wire and cable in the same period in our country. General trade exported 335,000t of wire and cable, increased by 27.3%, holding 33.6% of the total export volume of wire and cable in our country. Secondly, the export destinations center in USA, EU and Hong Kong, etc. From January to October of 2005, our country had exported wire and cable of 216,000t, 192,000t and 148,000t to USA, EU and Hong Kong respectively, increased by each 10%, 12.7% and 8.9%. The total export volume of the above three markets account for 55.8% of the total export volume of wire and cable in the same period. Thirdly, the major export variety is the electric conductor withstanding voltage of 80V-1000V. From January to October of 2005, our country had exported 563,000t of electric conductor withstanding voltage of 80V-1000V, increased by 10.7%, accounting for 56.5% of the total export volume of wire and cable in the same period in our country; 156,000t of electric conductor withstanding voltage not exceeding 80V, increased by 30.9% and making up 15.7% of the total. Although the export situation is pleasing, a good few problems still exist in the globalization of our wire and cable sector. In view of the current situation, our country's wire and cable sector suffers a serious surplus of productive capacity and sharp structure conflict. As it is easy to enter wire and cable sector in our country, there are so many enterprises involved with total productive capacity more than double of the gross domestic demand and their products concentrate on bare wire and power cable, etc. that have low technical contents, while those extra-high voltage cable and optical fiber cable with high technical contents are not in large production although enjoy rapid export growth. From January to October of 2005, our country's export volume of cable withstanding voltage over 35kv increased 6 times over the same period of 2004, its total volume of 3000t only accounted for 0.3% of the country's total export volume of wire and cable in the same period. Similar situation occurred to the export of optical fiber cable, with the export volume of 12,000t, increased by 1.3 times, but only 1.2% of the total export volume of wire and cable. The export statistics data indicates that our country's wire and cable products enjoy favorable growth but it is also obvious that the production cost rises rapidly. Wire and cable sector is very sensitive with the price fluctuations of raw materials. As the raw material cost accounts for about 80% of the total cost of production and the great appreciation of such raw materials as copper and aluminum for wire and cable production of late years have greatly reduced the profit percentage of wire and cable manufacturers, whom have to undertake big cost pressure. Furthermore, the environmental requirements of the foreign clients have been stressed increasingly by domestic manufacturers. Currently our country's wire and cable adopt PBDE and PBB in their fire retardants. According to the RoHS of EU, it will be forbidden to use lead, mercury, cadmium, cadmium, sexavalent chrome, PBDE, PBB in the electronic equipment launched in markets since July 1, 2006. Japanese large electric appliance companies also have relevant requirement that all wire and cable used in various electric appliances must be subject to the related environmental protection certification since March 2006. These regulations provide a new subject to the exporters of wire and cable. 2. Whose products are more environmental friendly, who will benefit more. It is indicated in some authority's market research, Europe, USA and Japan, etc. are more demanding for cable products. In their related regulations they give the standards that wire and cable products must be low in toxicity, flame retardant, low fume, no or little corrosive gas and noxious halogen gases, no lead and other heavy metals, no pollution to soil, high resistance to temperature, recycling of wasted wire and cable, especially they attach great importance to the security and non-toxicity of products. Throughout the years the wire and cable in the domestic market takes PVC and polyethylene as main insulating materials. These wire and cable products produced by traditional technology are vulnerable to fire in short circuit, has large burning fume density and produces a great deal of noxious halogen gases, which will threaten the users' health and property. It is evident that these products won't have the chance to land on the markets of European Union, United States and Japan, etc. in the future. Besides the strict requirements of developed countries, the Olympic Games (2008) also proposes very high requirements for environment protection to keep pace with the international trend. Its Olympic Village adopts environmental friendly building materials for its all construction, leaving no chance to non-environmental friendly cable. Beijing Municipal Government has made such commitment to the IOC. As a matter of fact, Beijing Power Supply Bureau issued a regulation that it was forbidden to use PVC cable in its jurisdiction as early as 1998; in 2001, our country's department concerned issued the relevant standard on low fume and non-halogen materials for optical fiber cable. In the same year, the Ministry of Public Security promulgated the grading and relevant requirement on flame retardant and flame resistant cables. Since the end of 2002, it has been forbidden to use PVC and other non-environmental friendly cable products in large public sites in Shanghai and Beijing, etc. In 2010, environmental friendly cable products will be employed in Shanghai World Exposition. With the appearing publicly of the national relevant policies, our construction, traffic, communication and power supply sectors will pay much attention to the use of environmental friendly cable products in the near future. It is not difficult to find from the state promulgated regulations that to use green products will become a trend and to develop them has become an urgent affair for manufacturers. The mandamus requirement of the EU mean not only its stress on environmental protection but also a technical barrier for wire and cable product export. USA, Japan and Europe take the lead in the development and manufacture of environmental friendly wires. As early as 1998, Japanese Cable Maker’s Association worked out the standards for wire and cable products, with the features of adopting non-halogen and lead-free ecological materials. There were a dozen items in the JCS standards about environmental friendly cable, covering residential building, office building, general-purpose wires and telecom cable, etc. So, the implementation of EU mandamus requirement objectively promotes our country's technical improvement and product structure adjustment of wire and cable sector, and forces us to produce green products and take part in the market competition at higher level. In company with the coming of the effective date of EU RoHS, "green tide" will surge in our country’s wire and cable sector. Some experts point out that whose products are more environmental friendly, who will benefit more. Wire and cable manufacturers should adopt prompt measures to speed up their independent innovation and improve their international competition ability to meet the new challenge.
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China Electric Engineering Online
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