Recently, a CCTV report made Cixi, Zhejiang Province, once again known as the "hometown of heaters in China". The report said that this year, due to the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the energy crisis and other factors, the use of natural gas in many European countries was limited, the demand for various heating equipment continued to increase, and many importers added orders, bringing about a round of "replenishment tide".
Cixi is one of the heater production bases in China. At present, there are more than 100 heater manufacturers, and the export volume accounts for 30% of the country. According to the statistics of Cixi Customs, from January to August this year, the export of Cixi heaters was 3.35 billion yuan, up 26.3% year on year, including 1.53 billion yuan to the European Union, up 55.2% year on year. Cixi thus stepped onto the world stage and played the role of winter rescuer.
In addition to heaters, Cixi has formed six high-quality landmark industrial chains, including smart home appliances, energy-saving and new energy vehicles, bearings, intelligent equipment, rare earth magnetic materials, and medical devices.
From a small county town in the East China Sea to today's "big city at the county level", Cixi has been running on the fast track of development.
The supporting facilities for small household appliances industry are very complete
Ningbo Cartier Electric Co., Ltd. participated in the "rescue". "This year, the demand for electric heating products in the European market has really increased greatly, and we still have some refunds in October." Shen Ze, general manager of Cartier Electric, said that the company's products mainly focus on the household market, including electric blankets, air heaters, thermal radiation equipment, etc., and are sold to more than a dozen countries in Europe, with an estimated output value of 800 million yuan this year.
Cixi heater's hot sale in Europe this time is actually a long history. Since the 1990s, innumerable small workshops based on families have grown in all corners of Cixi. Over the past 30 years, they have all become large-scale.
In Cixi, there are many small and strong enterprises like Cartier. Today, these mature enterprises together constitute Cixi's perfect industrial cluster, forming a good cluster effect. "We have a complete set of industrial supporting facilities for small household appliances. Cixi is basically self-sufficient in terms of packaging cartons, heaters, motors, electric controls and power lines inside electrical appliances." Shen Ze said.
Under the nourishment of such a complete industrial chain, Cixi has incubated a number of high-quality enterprises: Fong Tai and Bull are marching into the hundreds of billion level industry giants. The high-end equipment represented by Cixing Co., Ltd., Cixing Bearing, Zhongdalide and Jianxin Nuclear Magnetic Technology Co., Ltd. has intelligently built "Zhejiang Model", which has global competitiveness. The magnetic material enterprises represented by Baotou Steel Rare Earth, Heli Magnetic Materials and Jinlun Magnetic Materials have doubled. In 2021, the scale of Cixi smart home appliances will exceed 100 billion yuan, achieving a historic breakthrough.
Attach importance to product innovation and talent introduction
In the past two years of operation, Gan Jiefeng's "environmental supermarket" has more than 200 customers, including Ningbo Institute of Environmental Protection Science Research and Design.
"Although there are many environmental protection companies in Cixi, they do not produce equipment, but go to Shandong, Hebei and other places to purchase. Although the price is cheap, due to the distance, it is difficult to guarantee after-sales service." Gan Jiefeng said: "We are engineering equipment, and our technical team can produce everything from waste water and waste gas treatment, dedusting air duct to fan. A project may need to purchase equipment in three places, but now we have all of them. They can be equipped at one time, and the whole vehicle can be delivered to the construction site for direct installation. If there are after-sales problems, we can find one of them, which can greatly accelerate the progress of the project."
The concept of "environmental supermarket" shows the power of innovation. In fact, the innovation gene has been active in the factories of large and small enterprises in Cixi, bringing them the vitality of sustainable development.
"Cartier Electric is a factory that attaches great importance to research and development, and our boss is also a research and development worker, so our annual investment in research and development is more than 30 or 40 million yuan." Shen Ze said.
In addition to focusing on product innovation, Cixi's enterprises also attach importance to the introduction of multi-dimensional talents. "In recent years, we have been constantly introducing talents from marketing, R&D, industrial design, factory internal supply chain management and other ports, hoping to continuously increase the innovation vitality of the enterprise." Shen Ze said.
The escort of "mother's family"
Since 2020, the COVID-19 has swept the world, and the international trade environment has suffered a great impact. So far, it has not completely recovered from the downturn. This is a challenge for Cixi, which has developed industrial economy and active import and export production. At this time, the role of Cixi Municipal Government is particularly important, which plays a very important role in the stability of the industrial chain.
