The upstream of the bearing manufacturing industry is mainlyBearing steel, modified plastics, technical ceramicsand other raw materials, and the main parts of bearings such asBearing rings, rolling elements, sealsWait. Bearing steel is an important raw material for bearings, and its cost accounts for more than 50% of the total cost of bearings.
The quality of the bearing steel directly affects the key quality indicators such as the strength, corrosion resistance and fatigue life of the bearing. In the past, China's bearing steel in the steel purity, non-metallic inclusions fine diffusion, carbide uniformity and other aspects of the international advanced level of the gap, with the improvement of the level of smelting equipment and the improvement of production technology, the quality of China's bearing steel has been greatly improved, in some technical indicators have gradually reached or approached the international advanced level.
At present, China's bearing steel market concentration is relatively high, and the top 4 bearing steel manufacturersCITIC Special Steel, Juneng Special Steel, Zhongtian Iron and Steel, Benxi Special SteelThe total market concentration is 71%. The most important changes in bearing steel directly affect the cost of raw material procurement in the bearing industry.
In recent years, China's bearing steel market has basically remained stable, and in 2020-2021, there will be a certain range of steel market fluctuations, which will have a certain impact on the overall profit level of the industry, and since the second half of 2022, the bearing steel market has shown a downward trend.