In recent years, the trend of large-scale wind power industry has driven the demand for large aluminum forgings to grow continuously, while large MW capacity companies with excellent technical strength and good layout are the first to benefit. A large number of forgings are used in wind turbine generators. The forgings in wind turbine generators mainly include wind turbine gearbox forgings, wind turbine bearing forgings and wind turbine tower flange forgings. Among them, flanges and bearings are further processed products based on forgings.
As the basic industry of machinery manufacturing, forging industry is of great significance to equipment manufacturing and national defense construction, and is an indispensable strategic basic industry related to national security and national economic lifeline. The data shows that in 2020, the output of free forging in China will be 4.642 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of 10%. The output of ring forgings was 1.247 million tons, up 43.4% year on year.
Automobile forgings are the basic safety parts in the automobile manufacturing industry. Crankshafts, front axles, balance shafts, camshafts, half shafts, cross shafts, connecting rods, gears, synchronous gear rings, steering arms, steering knuckles, constant velocity universal joints, rocker arms, shift forks, claw poles and other forgings are widely used in the dynamic parts, driving parts and suspension parts of commercial vehicles. The development of the die forging industry is closely related to the trend of the automobile market. In 2020, China's automobile forging output will be 5.84 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of 19.4%.
According to the survey data of China Forging Industry Association, the annual per capita forging output of the 50 free forging enterprises participating in the survey will increase by 13.67% year on year in 2020, and the annual output of forgers will increase from 464.55 tons in 2019 to 481.06 tons. In 2020, the free forging industry will show an upward trend, the labor cost and forging energy consumption will continue to decrease, and the enterprise benefits will increase for three consecutive years.
With the support of national policies, new infrastructure is expected to become an important driving force of the economy. The engineering construction and equipment manufacturing industry cluster in the new infrastructure intercity high-speed railway and intercity rail transit industry that directly benefit the forging industry is one of the largest investment fields. The new infrastructure is gaining popularity, and 31 provinces and cities have successively announced rail transit construction projects. With the favorable implementation of the new national infrastructure policy, rail transit equipment, civil engineering machinery, and vehicle parts manufacturers will generally benefit, thus driving the development of the forging industry.
In recent years, under the guidance of a series of national encouragement policies, the forging industry has adhered to the research and development mode of combining foreign introduction with independent innovation, and formed a number of high-end forging products with independent intellectual property rights. The steady improvement of the overall technical level of the forging industry has strongly promoted the development of China's forging industry towards high-end. The Chinese market has been widely recognized internationally, especially the demand for middle and high-end products will increase. With the further implementation of the national "the Belt and Road" initiative, new opportunities will be created for the industry to integrate into the world and reduce production capacity.