Valves are an important part of large-scale complete sets of devices, which are mainly used for cutting off, throttling, regulating pressure and changing flow direction of pipeline media (materials, water, steam, air, oil, etc.).
Valves have many varieties and specifications, wide uses and large consumption, which can be divided into industrial valves and civil valves. Industrial valves are mainly used to adjust the medium flow, pressure, temperature, liquid level and other process parameters in the field of industrial automation process control.
In the global industrial valve market demand, the oil and gas field, including drilling, transportation and petrochemical, accounts for the highest proportion, followed by the demand of energy, electricity and chemical industry. In the application fields of domestic industrial valves, the chemical industry, energy and power, and oil and gas industries are also the most important markets for valve sales. In the next few years, with the rapid development of China’s economy and the improvement of industrial automation, the transformation and upgrading of China’s equipment manufacturing industry, as well as the continuous growth of national investment in oil and gas, petrochemical, environmental protection, electric power, metallurgy and other fields, the scale of China’s industrial valve market will maintain rapid growth.
At present, the backbone enterprises of valve production in China have been able to design and manufacture various valves in accordance with international standards such as ISO international standards, DIN German standards, AWWA American standards, etc. some manufacturers’ products have reached the international advanced level, the overall level of the valve industry has been greatly improved, and some products have also gone to overseas markets. However, compared with foreign products, the market competition in China’s valve industry is fierce. At present, the scale of enterprises in the market is small, and small and medium-sized enterprises account for more than 90%. Most enterprises are backward in technology, mainly concentrated in the low-end market. This leads to the lack of competitiveness of our valve products in the international market and the lack of research and development of medium and high-end products.
In the past two years, affected by international trade frictions, the international demand for China’s valve products has declined, and international trade has been challenged to a certain extent. According to customs data, the export value of China’s valve industry showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2017 to 2019, reaching US $16.624 billion in 2018, an increase of 13.5% year-on-year; In 2019, the total export volume of China’s valve industry fell to US $16.231 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.02%. In this context, Chinese valve enterprises should improve product technology and quality, increase high-end product research and development technology, catch up with the international level as soon as possible, and improve international competitiveness.
Relevant experts pointed out that qualified enterprises must speed up industrial upgrading and move forward to the field of medium and high-end valve products, such as oil, nuclear power and other national key development fields. The market potential of domestic substitution of imported valves cannot be ignored. At present, China’s economic situation and various policies continue to be favorable, providing extremely favorable development factors for China’s valve industry. Although there is still a certain gap between China’s valves and foreign countries, the key for China’s valve enterprises is to further improve the product quality and technical content. Only by consolidating the foundation and unremitting exploration and innovation, can China’s valve brands become famous overseas and gain more markets.
