Faced with multiple pressures, where is the transformation and upgrading of the wooden furniture industry?

In 2011, there were two news stories for domestic wooden furniture companies. One was the domestic “Da Vinci furniture” incident, and the other was the United States’ introduction of “the most stringent formaldehyde standard in history”. This gave the company a wake-up call and brought this kind of thinking: In the face of brand pressure, foreign barriers and other multiple pressures, where is the transformation and upgrading of the wooden furniture industry?

Wooden furniture such as wooden furniture has always been a traditional bulk export commodity in the Hangzhou area. In recent years, Hangzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has helped enterprises improve the quality of their products by adopting measures that help companies improve their quality management systems and break foreign technical trade measures. Since 2009, the export of wood products and wooden furniture in Hangzhou has continued to show a trend of steady increase. In 2009, a total of 15,630 batches of exports were exported with a value of 270 million US dollars; in 2010, a total of 1,980 batches were exported, with a value of 360 million US dollars; in 2011 A total of 24,257 batches of exports were exported, valued at US$405 million...

However, behind the ever-increasing number of exports, there are many problems such as the continuous rise in labor and raw material costs, the continuous pressure on the appreciation of the ***, and the absence of proprietary brands and the emergence of an endless stream of technical trade measures. Therefore, how should export wooden furniture enterprises in the transition period be good at internal strength and take the road of reform? Not only is the problem of urgent need to be solved in the development of the industry, but also it is the question of how the government departments should guide and help them.

Hangzhou is the main export area of ​​wooden furniture in China, with 233 exporters of wooden furniture. In recent years, Hangzhou-made wooden furniture exports have shown good growth year after year. There are three reasons for this: First, social and economic conditions dominate the development of the furniture industry. The rapid development of the global real estate industry, the increase of population, and the increase in the income level of the people of various countries are very important factors in the development of the furniture industry, which has led to a sustained growth in the export of wooden furniture such as wood furniture in Hangzhou. Second, the geographic direction of exports has changed. In recent years, the wooden furniture exporting countries in Hangzhou are relatively concentrated, the United States is still the largest export market, and Europe ranks second. However, in the case of a relatively concentrated export market, the export of wooden furniture from wood products in Hangzhou to other countries and regions in the world has also gradually increased. Among them, the Latin American and African markets grew rapidly. In 2011, the value of wood products exported to Latin America and Africa, such as wooden furniture, was 5.274 million US dollars and 4.92 million US dollars, respectively, an increase of 95% and 23% respectively. The third is the expansion of business scale. In 2011, there were 11 large-scale enterprises with a production value of over 100 million yuan in the wooden furniture export enterprises in Hangzhou. Diversified marketing concepts and a balanced domestic and international market have contributed to the development of the wooden furniture industry in Hangzhou.

Although the amount of exports has increased year after year, it is well-known that at present, most of the domestic wooden furniture export companies still do OEM and OEM production and processing trade. According to the company CEOs’ words, “We earn artificial hard money and material costs. "The backward traditional business model and low added value of export products have become an issue that Hangzhou's wooden furniture export companies cannot avoid. At present, the scale of the furniture industry in Hangzhou is very different, and there are serious polarizations. The small and medium-sized private enterprises still occupy the majority. Some small and medium-sized enterprises have low production efficiency, backward production models, and no way to carry out research and innovation. Secondly, the added value of export products is low. Many small and medium-sized furniture companies earn only processing fees through exporting furniture, and they have long relied on low labor cost advantages. In recent years, with the appreciation of ***, the overall cost of China's furniture industry has been directly increased. With the continuous rise of the overall wage level of the labor force in China, this "core advantage" of wooden furniture export companies no longer exists. Compared with foreign furniture, which is worth several hundred thousand yuan, it has become very popular in the country. Hangzhou wooden furniture companies are eager to seek breakthroughs in the two key indicators of “brand image” and “innovation ability”, independent brands and innovative designs. To increase product added value.

In order to improve the quality of exporting wooden furniture, improve the effectiveness of export inspection and quarantine work, and maintain the quality reputation of “Made in Hangzhou”, Hangzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau has been through stringent access management, hierarchical classification and dynamic management, and strengthened inspection and quarantine inspection. And services and other measures to ensure the quality and safety of export wooden furniture products.

Checking services to strengthen source management and strict registration access. In accordance with the requirements of the registration and registration system, strict entry thresholds for the registration of wood products and wood furniture production enterprises are to be registered, and we must resolutely eliminate small-scale workshop enterprises with backward production facilities, extensive management, and weak quality awareness. Actively support and supervise registered companies to improve the quality management system centered on the control and traceability management of pests, toxic and hazardous substances, and strengthen the prevention and control of the safety of raw materials entering the plant, production and processing, storage, transportation, and export. Control, establish a surprise inspection and flight inspection system, advance the supervision work through process control, and improve the effectiveness of inspection and quarantine work.

Improve the assessment mechanism and implement classified dynamic management. Based on the test results of the safe items for exporting wood products and wooden furniture, domestic and foreign technical regulations and standards as the basic material, the product risk level is divided scientifically, and the export inspection items and requirements are clarified. On the basis of risk assessment of products, according to the prevention facilities, quality management level and integrity of production enterprises, combined with the enterprise's ability to monitor harmful organisms and quality and safety risks of exporting wood products and wooden furniture, the classification management of production enterprises shall be carried out. . Comprehensive management of production companies and product risk levels, determine the specific sampling ratio of inspection and quarantine supervision frequency of different products, and implement dynamic management of enterprise management categories.

Check the service simultaneously, and innovate to check the supervision mode. Inspection and verification of conformity of heavy metals, formaldehyde, flame retardancy and other related items in raw materials such as paints, adhesives, wood-based panels, fabrics, leathers, etc. related to safety, hygiene, and environmental protection requirements of exported products shall be tested according to the requirements of the exporting countries. Failed to export. While strictly checking, timely collect and report various types of inspection and quarantine and risk warning information for exporting wood products and wood furniture, and provide enterprises with expert technical advice, provide information and intelligence technical information, and guide enterprises through the continuous introduction of foreign technical trade measures. Foreign relevant mandatory certification requirements, and actively respond. At the same time, it has continuously improved the technical regulations and testing method standards system for exporting wood products and wooden furniture, translated the quality, safety and hygiene requirements of foreign countries into daily supervision work requirements, and explored and established the “Conformity Declaration+Safety and Hygiene Project Detection+Conformity Verification”. (Batch-inspection) + day-to-day supervision and management of the inspection and supervision model, and thus improve the long-term mechanism to ensure the quality and safety of exported wood products and wood furniture.

Encourage enterprises to strive to improve the quality of their own brand products, research and development of high value-added products, increase product technology content, enhance the core competitiveness of furniture exports; implement a diversified market strategy, actively explore emerging markets and domestic markets, reduce the development of the United States and Europe The degree of market dependence, while adjusting the business strategy, will focus on "export" and "domestic demand" and actively explore domestic market demand; strengthen daily monitoring and early warning, pay attention to changes in European and American exports and related market policy signs of change, through the establishment of trade protection policies and Technical barriers early warning mechanism to help companies understand and respond to foreign technical trade measures.

Prospects remain promising Adjustment of strategy to expand the market Although wooden furniture exports suffer bottlenecks to some extent, it is not a worry. With the continuous improvement of people’s living standards, unremitting quest for quality of life, and the historically good quality and price advantages of wooden furniture in China, the export of wooden furniture still has potential in the international market and will not disappear in the short term.

First, labor cost advantages and skill advantages are prominent. Although the labor costs of Hangzhou enterprises have risen rapidly in recent years, due to the increase in the degree of mechanization, the labor cost per unit product has decreased year by year. In addition, China’s long history of furniture manufacturing has provided the industry with a large amount of skilled labor. Because of these skilled workers, the company can not only obtain more orders, but also reduce design costs and improve the company's comprehensive production cost advantage in the face of complex design requirements of customers.

Second, it has the advantages of industrial clusters.

The furniture manufacturing industry chain involves raw materials such as logs, sawn timber, wood panels, hardware fittings, plastics, and paint, glue, sandpaper, and packaging materials. At present, the industrial clusters and specialized division of labor for exporting office furniture and outdoor furniture with the geographical features of Hangzhou have been gradually formed, which has increased the degree of specialization in furniture manufacturing and has played an industrial scale advantage. The Hangzhou furniture industry cluster belt exists in the form of an industrial park. These large and small industrial parks together form a huge industrial cluster, which is conducive to the rapid response of companies to market changes and lower production costs.

In addition, the production efficiency has obvious advantages. Although the major countries in Europe and the United States for traditional furniture production have important advantages that are close to the consumer market, the lack of flexible labor time system has limited the improvement of production efficiency. Although the emerging furniture production countries have low labor costs and abundant forest resources, they lack the constraints of developed industrial supporting systems. Improved production efficiency.

From the perspective of enterprises and government departments, the first is the need to adjust development strategies in a timely manner, actively guide support, and break through foreign technical trade measures. The second is to cultivate economies of scale and integrate the furniture industry structure. The third is to implement a brand strategy and enhance the value of Hangzhou's products. Only by striving to cultivate the Hangzhou wooden furniture brand with original design ability and gaining a considerable market share in China and expanding exports to gradually form a world-class brand, can we really get rid of the situation subject to the cost price, in order to obtain excess profits in the international market, and Maintain lasting international competitiveness.

News Replay On July 10th, 2011, CCTV's "Weekly Quality Report" broadcasted "Da Vinci's sky-high furniture "foreign brand" identity allegedly falsified", which detonated many indulgences in the furniture industry and also led to consumer-oriented furniture. Industry confidence crisis. On November 26, 2011, the "2011 (China) Furniture Industry Top Ten News" was released at the award ceremony of the Fifth (2011) China Furniture Industry Annual Review, and the "Da Vinci Incident Exposure" topped the list.

In January 2011, the U.S. Composite Wood Products Formaldehyde Standards Act entered into force and was formally implemented in July of that year. The Act stipulates that the formaldehyde emission limits for wood products such as particleboard, MDF, and hardwood plywood sold and distributed in the United States are more stringent than before. According to industry sources, the "law" on the formaldehyde emission standards can be called "the world's most demanding."