The market demand potential is huge, and the process of equipment localization is accelerating

Industry operating income grew steadily. The paper industry is closely related to national life, and the market size of China's paper industry has grown steadily from 2018 to 2022. In 2020, due to the impact of the new coronavirus epidemic, the prosperity of the paper industry is overall at a low level, and the industry income fell by 2.67%. In 2021, the domestic economy will recover, and the operating income of the paper and paper products industry above designated size in China will increase by 15.32%, and the operating profit will increase by 7.03%. In 2022, the domestic economy was greatly affected by the epidemic, the future supply chain of the industry was hindered, and the operating income of the paper and paper products industry above scale slowed down, increasing by 0.4% year-on-year, which was 14.92 percentage points lower than that in 2021. In terms of profits, affected by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, international energy prices have increased significantly, the production cost of the industry has increased, and the operating pressure of the industry is larger, and the operating profit of the paper and paper products industry above the scale is 62.1 billion yuan, down 29.80% year-on-year. Looking forward to 2023, with the acceleration of the landing rhythm of the "steady growth" policy, the vitality of market players is expected to be further stimulated, and industry revenue and profits are expected to rise.

Second, the industry's independent innovation ability has been strengthened, and the process of equipment localization has been accelerated

The paper industry is an important basic raw material industry closely related to the development of the national economy and social undertakings, and the consumption level of paper and paperboard is a sign to measure the level of modernization and civilization of a country. Papermaking equipment as an important market segment in the middle reaches of the papermaking industry, its technical level is related to the overall development level of the industry.

Papermaking equipment mainly includes crushing equipment, transmission equipment, wet pulp machine, extrusion machine, folding machine, crushing conveyor and baler. According to the process flow of pulp and paper making, paper making machinery can be divided into material preparation equipment, pulp equipment, paper machines and finishing processing machinery. Among them, the material preparation equipment is the equipment that pretreats and processes according to the requirements of the cooking or grinding process before cooking or grinding, which is divided into non-wood fiber material preparation equipment and wood fiber material preparation equipment, including grass cutter, reed cutter, peeling machine, chipper, etc. Pulping equipment is the equipment used in the process of separating plant raw materials into fibers, including digester, wood grinder, hot mill, pulp washing machine, pulp bleaching machine, beater and waste liquid recovery equipment. The complete equipment of the paper machine includes the flow box, the mesh department, the press department, the drying unit, the calendering machine, the paper winder, and the main engine such as the transmission department and the auxiliary system such as water, vacuum, lubrication and heat recovery.

Papermaking equipment mainly includes crushing equipment, transmission equipment, wet pulp machine, extrusion machine, folding machine, crushing conveyor and baler. According to the process flow of pulp and paper making, paper making machinery can be divided into material preparation equipment, pulp equipment, paper machines and finishing processing machinery. Among them, the material preparation equipment is the equipment that pretreats and processes according to the requirements of the cooking or grinding process before cooking or grinding, which is divided into non-wood fiber material preparation equipment and wood fiber material preparation equipment, including grass cutter, reed cutter, peeling machine, chipper, etc. Pulping equipment is the equipment used in the process of separating plant raw materials into fibers, including digester, wood grinder, hot mill, pulp washing machine, pulp bleaching machine, beater and waste liquid recovery equipment. The complete equipment of the paper machine includes the flow box, the mesh department, the press department, the drying unit, the calendering machine, the paper winder, and the main engine such as the transmission department and the auxiliary system such as water, vacuum, lubrication and heat recovery.

Papermaking equipment is a highly professional industry, involving machinery, chemicals, materials, anti-corrosion and other technical fields. China's papermaking equipment industry has a short development history, the overall technical level of the industry is relatively lagging behind, and the market size is small. From the international market, paper equipment manufacturers are mainly concentrated in Germany, the United States, Italy, Japan and other manufacturing developed areas, compared with the international paper equipment leading enterprises, domestic paper equipment suppliers in terms of scale, technology and quality, there is a big gap, for a long time large paper machinery and equipment are dependent on imports. In recent years, the state has introduced a number of policies to promote the innovation and development of technology and equipment in the paper industry and green transformation. Among them, in order to improve the technical level of China's paper machine and speed up the process of localization of large and medium-sized paper machines, the state has also arranged technical transformation funds supported by national debt to introduce some technical projects. Under the guidance of the "manufacturing power" strategy and related policies, participants in the paper equipment industry have gradually increased. With the paper equipment manufacturers have increased research and development efforts and aviation, shipbuilding and other cross-industry investors to participate in the layout of paper machinery and equipment research and development and production, the technical level of the industry has gradually improved. By the end of 2022, China has a total of 2,273 patents related to papermaking equipment, including 1,670 utility model patents and 578 invention patents. Among them, 164 new paper equipment patents will be added in 2022. And research and innovation of waste paper pulping complete sets of technical equipment, drum pulper, new closed screening equipment, double disk pulper, super calender and other equipment, equipment localization process continues to accelerate. In 2022, 164 new paper equipment technology patents were added in China, a slight decline from the previous two years, but it is still at a high level compared with before 2016, and industry research and development is accelerating. In recent years, with the continuous improvement of the level of papermaking equipment, China's market share is also gradually increasing. It is expected that in 2022, China's paper equipment market share will increase to about 28% of the global total, and the industry localization process will further accelerate.