Shipbuilding is one of the most important manufacturing and pillar industries in South Korea. It is also a major exporter of South Korea's foreign trade. It brings a huge trade surplus to South Korea every year. In previous years, the export volume and foreign trade surplus of South Korea's shipbuilding industry topped the list of South Korea's seven export industries for consecutive years. The ship export volume in 2010 and 2011 was US $46.7 billion and US $54.1 billion respectively. In 2012, the ship export volume fell to less than US $40 billion. Therefore, the trend of the shipbuilding market affects the sensitive "economic nerve" of South Korea. At the end and beginning of each year, the "cloudy, sunny, cold and warm" of the shipbuilding market has become a hot spot of analysis and prediction in the South Korean industry.
Forecast: the ship market is expected to improve, but it is still depressed in the short term
Korean financial circles and relevant industries are generally cautious about the outlook of the international shipbuilding market in 2013, but most of them believe that the shipbuilding market in 2013 will be better than that in 2012. According to the "Meteorological map" of South Korea's pillar export industry in 2013 published by the Korea Trade Association, the shipbuilding industry was "rainy" in 2012 and "cloudy" in 2013, which raised the meteorological level to a higher level. According to the analysis of South Korea's National Federation of economic men, the organization of large enterprise consortia in South Korea, although the shipbuilding and shipping market will be a little better than that in 2012, it is still difficult to get out of the shadow of slow world economic growth and European debt crisis. Most of the market analysts and researchers of several major securities companies in South Korea believe that although the ship market may improve slightly, the overall sluggish state of the shipbuilding industry will continue, and the market orders will increase slightly compared with 2012, but the total number of ship orders held by ship enterprises may fall, the current situation of low ship prices is difficult to change, and the market value of listed stocks of South Korean ship enterprises may decline.
A study commissioned by Korean securities industry information company engineer by South Korea's "Chosun Ilbo" shows that the profits of South Korea's large shipbuilding enterprises will decline in 2013. The study believes that as the European financial crisis will lead to negative economic growth in EU Member States, the financing capacity of Europe, as the center of the international ship financing market, continues to shrink, which will make it difficult to significantly increase the number of new ship orders. The Korea chamber of Commerce and industry believes that several large ship enterprises in South Korea will strengthen their efforts to capture the market in the field of marine equipment and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers, and the global oil and gas development, especially the large-scale development of shale gas and natural gas in the United States, will drive the increase of LNG ship orders.
In contrast, the market outlook of large shipbuilding enterprises in South Korea is called "cautious" by South Korean media. Li Zaicheng, general manager of modern heavy industry, said: "the economic downturn in developed countries will continue, the economic growth of developing countries will also slow down, and the world economy will enter a low growth stage, which makes our business environment more difficult; it is difficult for the markets of major sectors such as shipbuilding to get out of the downturn in the short term."
Gao zaihao, general manager of Daewoo shipbuilding, is also the president of Korea shipbuilding Association. On January 10, the Korea shipbuilding Association held a new year's group meeting of people from the Korean shipbuilding industry in 2013. When looking forward to the prospect of the international shipbuilding market this year, Gao zaihao said that the world economy has entered a stage of low-speed growth, and the growth of international trade has slowed down greatly. In previous years, the average annual growth rate of world trade was about 6%, and both last year and this year will fluctuate at the level of growth of 2.5 ~ 2.6%, This will inevitably reduce the growth rate of logistics volume in the shipping market and directly affect the shipbuilding sector. "It is expected that this year's ship export and new ship orders from South Korea will be the most difficult year since the financial crisis. The overall market environment makes it impossible for us to lift the 'tension' and relax at all," he said
In addition to the above two major shipbuilding enterprises, the prediction of the Korean shipbuilding industry for this year's market is that although the world economy is depressed, it may turn better in the second half of the year. Therefore, the shipbuilding market is likely to show a trend of "low before high"; Although the merchant shipping capacity is surplus, the energy-saving and environment-friendly merchant shipping market is optimistic, and the Korean ship enterprises have certain technical advantages compared with their competitors in this field. Therefore, the Korean ship enterprises look forward to making achievements in the order undertaking of energy-saving and environment-friendly merchant ships; In addition, the South Korean shipbuilding industry has great confidence in marine equipment.
In the domestic manufacturing industry, especially in the industrial fields of assembly, dispensing, handling and welding, robot application has become a hot spot and general trend. Some well-known enterprises have begun to apply robots in a large number, including Huawei, ZTE, BYD and so on. Foxconn also suspended recruitment and developed a million robot strategy. All this shows that China's robots are close to the manufacturing industry and will become the general trend of development.
In addition, the State Council issued the 12th Five Year Plan for the development of national strategic emerging industries, which also promoted the development of the Chinese market. In hospitals, families and some service industries, robots are used to speed up industrial upgrading. This huge market has also attracted the eyes of enterprises at home and abroad.
Although China's robot application field is broad, but looking at China's robot field, 80% of the market share is still occupied by multinational corporations. This market needs to be broken now, and such a potential market is also a good opportunity for the development of Chinese enterprises. At present, many local governments have issued corresponding policies, including Shanghai, Kunshan, Tangshan and Chongqing, introducing R & D and manufacturing enterprises, competing to build local robot industry and seize the robot market.
The use of industrial robots in China is increasing day by day, and the demand of robot market has increased significantly. It is expected to reach 35000 units in 2015, becoming the largest market in the world. In addition, the current situation of structural shortage of labor force and rising labor costs in manufacturing industry promote the development of China's robot industry. The demand for the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing industry enables the development of industrial robots to accelerate.
At present, robots are mainly used in the manufacturing industry. In addition, they are also used in the field of coal mine brick making, concrete machinery industry, hospitals, families and some service industries, military, scientific research, aerospace and other fields. Although China's robot industry will develop rapidly, due to the lack of autonomy in key robot parts, such as servo motor, reducer, controller and sensor, this will be a challenge that China's robot industry must face.