In-Depth Report: Localization of High-End Bearings

China is a big bearing country, but it is a non-bearing power. Overall, China has entered the ranks of the world's leading bearing country, but from the perspective of product structure, China still has a long gap from the bearing power. Low production concentration in the industry, low bearing R&D capability of high-end products and low manufacturing technology level in the bearing industry still exist, and the deficit in import and export trade continues to expand.

High-end bearings still rely on imports, and localization needs to be accelerated. From the analysis of the imported components of the bearing industry, the demand for high-end bearings in China depends on imports. At present, high-end bearings such as cars, high-speed railways, wind power, and precision machine tool spindles have always been the soft underbelly of China's bearing industry and have long depended on imports. Bearing products produced in China have large gaps with well-known foreign companies in performance and price ratio, high precision, low noise, long life, and high reliability. Localization needs to be accelerated.

China's bearing industry eight localization key development direction. In October 2010, the Implementation Plan for the Revitalization of Machinery Basic Components Industry specified the key development directions for bearings in the eight sub-sectors of rail transportation, automobiles, wind/hydropower, nuclear power, aircraft, engineering machinery, metallurgy, and machine tools. The policy orientation will guide capital into the key areas of the bearing industry, drive the bearing industry to tilt toward high-precision, high-tech content and high value-added products, and accelerate the upgrading of the bearing industry.

The localization of high-end bearings is different. At present, the basic parts have become a shortcoming that restricts the development of China's manufacturing industry to high-end. During the 12th five-year period, the government will continue to increase the localization of high-end equipment components. Here we select the representative bearings of several key development industries mentioned in the “Implementation Plan” for feasibility analysis of import substitution (such as high-speed rail, wind power, machine tools, automobiles, and metallurgy). From the analysis we can see that the sub-industry bearing import substitution is very different. The high-end bearings need more policy guidance and research support.