The market competition in China's valve industry is fierce. At present, the scale of enterprises in the market is small, and the proportion of small and medium-sized enterprises is more than 90%. Most enterprises are backward in technology, mainly concentrated in the low-end market. This leads to the lack of competitiveness of China's valve products in the international market and the lack of research and development of medium and high-end products.

      In China's current valve market, except that the low-pressure valve has reached the acceptable level in the international market, the high-pressure valve still depends on import. In the case of macroeconomic downturn and uncertain international trade form, the import and export volume of the industry fluctuated greatly. In 2018, the total import and export volume of the industry reached US $23.952 billion, and in 2019, the total import and export volume decreased slightly to US $23.385 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.37%.

      The import volume and price of China's valve industry fell together, and international trade was challenged

      According to the customs data, from 2012 to 2019, the import volume of China's valve industry generally fluctuated and increased. In 2018-2019, due to the impact of trade friction with the United States, the import volume and growth rate of the industry decreased. In 2019, the import volume of the industry was 102.355 million units, a year-on-year decrease of 1.58%.

      From the perspective of import amount, the import amount of valves reached US $7.328 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 19.95%; In 2019, the import amount was USD 7.154 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 2.37%.

      The export has dropped somewhat, and the export volume will reach US $16.231 billion in 2019

      In terms of export, according to the customs data, the export amount of China's valve industry showed a fluctuating upward trend from 2017 to 2019, reaching US $16.624 billion in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 13.5%; In 2019, the total export volume of China's valve industry fell to US $16.231 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 0.02%.

      From January to December 2019, the export amount of China's valve industry fluctuated greatly, of which the largest export amount was USD 1.632 billion in January 2019; In February 2019, the lowest export finance was USD 690 million.

      At present, domestic key valve manufacturers have been able to design and manufacture various valves according to international standards such as ISO international standards, DIN German standards and AWWA American standards, and the products of some manufacturers have reached the international advanced level. The overall level of the valve industry has been greatly improved. However, compared with foreign countries, the quality of Chinese products is not stable enough, such as running, emitting, dripping and leakage often occur in domestic valves. There is still a certain gap in the supporting capacity of valves compared with developed countries.

      In the past two years, affected by international trade frictions, the international demand for China's valve products has declined, and the international trade has been challenged to some extent. In this context, China's valve enterprises should improve product technology and quality, increase high-end product R & D technology, catch up with the international level as soon as possible and improve international competitiveness.