Ready-mixed concrete that condenses cement and sand and gravel aggregates is a major material used in national infrastructure and engineering construction. It is an important part of infrastructure materials in major countries. It is used in housing construction, bridges, airports, highways, railways and various industrial mining, It is widely used and indispensable in the construction of national defense projects. At the same time, ready-mixed concrete also plays an important role in important fields such as ecological protection, environmental protection and waste, and emergency rescue. The 2021 performance report shows that China's ready-mixed concrete industry has made a smooth start to the 14th Five-Year Plan.

　The annual output broke 3 billion cubic meters for the first time

The ready-mixed concrete industry conforms to the development trend of the times, accelerates the transformation and upgrading of the industry, and continues to be driven by policy innovation, technological innovation and management innovation under the joint promotion of internal and external driving forces. the exploration and practice of the green development path marked by the elimination of backwardness and green and intelligent production.

Statistics show that in 2021, my country's ready-mixed concrete output reached 3.293 billion cubic meters, a year-on-year increase of 6.9 percent, a record high. In 2021, despite the impact of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the global supply chain order is destabilizing and the prices of raw materials and bulk materials and energy are rising too fast, leading to increased cost pressures and quality risks in the concrete industry. However, the industry still achieved an annual output of 3 billion cubic meters for the first time. The most fundamental reason why the production and sales of ready-mixed concrete industry continue to rise is the pull of China's capital construction market demand.

The concrete mixer truck is ready to leave for Zhongjian Commercial Concrete/Supply Chart, which belongs to Zhongjian West Construction of the project.

According to the data, from January to December 2021, the national fixed asset investment (excluding farmers) was 54454.7 billion billion yuan, up 4.9 percent year-on-year; from January to December, the national real estate development investment was 14760.2 billion billion yuan, up 4.4 percent year-on-year. In 2021, in order to ensure the goal of economic growth, the state will actively promote the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycles promoting each other. The construction of major projects to promote regional coordinated development and the transformation of old residential areas, new urbanization, rural revitalization and new infrastructure investment in the fields of people's livelihood are also increasing. Benefiting from these favorable pull, the industry demand was further released. In the first half of the year, the ready-mixed concrete market once showed a trend of booming supply and demand. In the second half of the year, due to the tightening of financial policies and environmental protection policies, upstream raw material prices rose sharply, superimposed on the new coronary pneumonia epidemic spread more points, market demand fell, the industry production and operation under pressure. Growth in 2021 is only 2.6 percentage points higher than in the same period in 2020, unchanged from the same period in 2019. In 2021, China will accelerate the construction of a "double cycle" development pattern, while the ready-mixed concrete industry will adhere to the supply-side structural reform as the main line, actively participate in carbon emission reduction, carbon neutralization tasks, grasp the industry optimization and upgrading of high-quality development opportunities, and push the industry's green, low-carbon and intelligent development to a high level.

From the perspective of subdivided industries in the field of infrastructure construction, the investment performance of railway transportation and road transportation, which mainly drive the demand for ready-mixed concrete, is relatively weak. The completed investment in railway transportation decreased by 1.7 year-on-year, and investment in road transportation decreased by 0.3 year-on-year. Investment in water conservancy management industry increased by 2.1 year-on-year, and investment in environmental management industry decreased by 1.6 year-on-year. In contrast, real estate investment increased by 6.3 year-on-year, of which the completion of construction investment in real estate development investment increased by 10.5 year-on-year, which is a good growth level in the same period in recent years.

As an important structural material for construction engineering, after years of development, ready-mixed concrete has formed a series of industrial chains, which has made important contributions to the construction of infrastructure and various construction projects in China. In recent years, driven by the market and policies, the scale of the industry has continued to expand, the technical level and management level have been rapidly improved, and the industrial structure has been continuously improved. At the same time, the ready-mixed concrete industry conforms to the development trend of the times, speeds up the transformation and upgrading of the industry, and continues to explore and practice the green development path driven by policy innovation, technological innovation and management innovation, with the elimination of backwardness and green and intelligent production as the symbol under the joint promotion of internal and external power: the individual units that make up the industry improve the level of green production from the perspective of the enterprise's own development; through the publicity and implementation of green, low-carbon and high-quality development policies, as well as the introduction and innovation of international and domestic advanced green and low-carbon technologies, equipment and processes, the competent departments and associations of the industry lead and promote the industry to the road of green, low-carbon and high-quality development. The whole industry has good benefits in transformation and upgrading, quality improvement and efficiency improvement.

　Become the largest annual sales of building materials

The research and application of cementitious material system and admixture technology, comprehensive utilization technology of solid waste resources, new admixture technology, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) preparation technology, ultra-high pumping concrete technology, high durability concrete technology in marine environment, special concrete technology, carbon neutral concrete technology and other research and application have brought new development impetus to the industry.

2021 is the first year of the 14th Five-Year Plan. With the establishment of carbon peak, carbon neutral target and implementation path, the ready-mixed concrete industry has ushered in great opportunities and challenges in energy consumption control, application innovation and clean energy use. Under the new development pattern, smooth the domestic cycle, promote the domestic and international double cycle, comprehensively promote consumption, build a new type of industrial-peasant urban-rural relationship, build a high-level socialist market economic system, and the huge capital construction investment of "two new and one heavy" for the concrete industry It brings new development opportunities and also puts forward higher requirements for the quality, performance, function, and guarantee capabilities of materials. A new round of scientific and technological revolution represented by 5G, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data, new energy, digital economy and sharing economy has been further promoted, providing innovative elements to support the development of intelligent manufacturing in the industry.

In the past year, under the influence of multiple unfavorable factors such as the decline in real estate demand, the increase in raw material prices, and the continuous increase in transportation costs, the profits of ready-mixed concrete companies in many regions have declined, and the investment in new construction and reconstruction has slowed down, especially since the second half of the year. The sales demand of the sector has a greater impact. In 2021, the annual average price of ready-mixed concrete (C30) nationwide was 433.5 yuan/m3, slightly higher than the average price of the previous year by 2.2 yuan/m3. The 2021 Chengdu Ready-mixed Concrete Industry Development Report shows that in 2021, the price of concrete raw materials in Chengdu fluctuates greatly, especially the price of cement, which fluctuates by 240 yuan/ton throughout the year. The price of cement varies due to different payment terms and manufacturers. The maximum purchase price difference between enterprises is 80 yuan/ton. For ready-mixed concrete, product prices have risen slightly, but far less than the cost increase. However, in 2021, many very powerful policies have been introduced in finance and finance. For example, my country is focusing on building a new development pattern with domestic large cycles as the main body and domestic and international double cycles promoting each other. Focusing on the "double carbon" goal, promote green and high-quality development, Accelerate the implementation of "science and technology power", "manufacturing power", "transportation power" and "regional coordinated development", etc, all have played a very good role in stimulating domestic demand and restoring economic growth.

Accelerating scientific and technological innovation is a new track to enhance the efficiency of the industry. The research and application of cementitious material system and admixture technology, comprehensive utilization technology of solid waste resources, new admixture technology, ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) preparation technology, ultra-high pumping concrete technology, high durability concrete technology in marine environment, special concrete technology, carbon neutral concrete technology and other research and application have brought new development impetus to the industry. In recent years, the engineering application of ultra-high performance concrete in China has grown rapidly. There has been a wave of small peaks in the application of steel bridge deck pavement, prefabricated bridge connection, and steel-UHPC composite bridge. For example, in bridge engineering, UHPC has been applied to the main beam structure, arch bridge main arch, bridge deck structure, bridge joint and old bridge reinforcement. There are relatively few UHPC applications in building structures. At present, UHPC mainly focuses on non-load-bearing decorative components, and has a wide range of research prospects in protective structures.

　　Industry-wide accounts receivable at an all-time high

The accounts receivable of the whole industry are not only high but also increasing sharply. The huge amount of accounts receivable has become one of the most prominent problems affecting the high-quality development of the current ready-mixed industry.

The ready-mixed concrete industry has achieved a smooth start to the 14th Five-Year Plan, but from a specific analysis, there are both joys and worries in the opening year. In addition to the serious overcapacity and unbalanced regional development of ready-mixed concrete, the accounts receivable of the whole industry are not only high but also increasing sharply. The huge amount of accounts receivable has become one of the most prominent problems affecting the high-quality development of the current ready-mixed industry. Statistics show that at the end of 2021, the accounts receivable of the concrete and cement products industry reached 911.9 billion billion yuan, accounting for almost half of the year's revenue, a new high.

From the feedback from enterprises around the world, most of the outstanding problems of the serious situation of accounts receivable. At the same time, with the intensification of competition in the industry, the quality of contract performance and repayment rate of ready-mixed concrete enterprises continue to go out of new lows. It is understood that the overall repayment situation of the industry is 30% lower than that of the previous year, the amount of accounts receivable is still increasing sharply and the repayment cycle is lengthened despite the high level over the years, the proportion of bank undertakings and commercial bills is increasing, the capital cost of enterprises is increasing, the capital turnover and repayment pressure are reaching the peak in recent years, the capital turnover rate and turnover times of enterprises are reduced, and the financing cost and loan repayment risk are increased. This indicates that the business risk of the industry is increasing, especially the capital risk is increasing.

Affected by market competition, accounts receivable has always been the top problem in the development of the industry. For the concrete industry, due to the particularity of the building materials industry and traditional trading habits, the construction unit of the concrete enterprise sales payment shortage problem is serious, resulting in the total amount of accounts receivable of concrete enterprises increased year by year, so that enterprises have been facing a huge risk of capital turnover and bad debt loss risk. 2021 is a year when the real estate industry is facing tremendous changes. Real estate companies sometimes explode, and many real estate companies are facing debt crises, triggering a number of chain reactions. Funds invested in real estate are gradually decreasing, and the industry financing environment is still tightening, coupled with uncertainties such as epidemics. Factors have caused concrete companies to encounter greater challenges in terms of payment.

Controlling risks and seeking progress in stability are important prerequisites for the development of the industry this year. The industry is facing three major risks at this stage. First, the real estate industry continued to explode, triggering a number of chain reactions, resulting in concrete enterprises facing the risk of capital turnover and the risk of bad debt losses in accounts receivable. Second, at this stage, the quality of some sand and gravel is worrying, the market competition is fierce, some enterprises blindly reduce costs, and the quality risk is greater. Third, with the implementation of the new safety law, enterprises have a heavy responsibility for production safety and road transport safety, and enterprises with insufficient preparation will have the risk of "dropping the chain. The Central Economic Work Conference pointed out the overall direction of stabilizing the word and seeking progress while maintaining stability for the economic work in 2022. The ready-mixed concrete industry must organically integrate stabilizing market growth, adjusting industrial structure, and promoting transformation and upgrading, comprehensively consolidate basic management, and strengthen the industry Self-discipline, enhance the awareness of risk prevention, and strive to make progress in the new year. (Zhang Hong)

　　This article was originally published in "China Building Materials News" on March 7, 9th edition

Editor: Ding Tao

Proofread by: Zhang Jian

Supervisory: Han Fengfeng