What is the market prospect of springs?

The development of spring industry has driven the demand for spring steel. According to the market research of insiders, the total demand for spring steel in China's automobile and railway industries will account for more than 90% of the total in the future, and the demand for spring steel for automobiles will reach more than 250,000 t during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. With the widespread implementation of railway speed increase in China, railway rolling stock needs to be completely reformed, rail spring fasteners need to be greatly updated, and the demand for spring round steel in railway system will also increase. It is estimated that the annual demand will be 75,000 t during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. According to statistics, the annual demand for spring steel (material) in China will reach 350,000 tons during the Tenth Five-Year Plan period. Production capacity and demand are basically balanced, but there are still contradictions in varieties. The output of high-grade and deep-processed varieties cannot meet the demand and needs to be imported to make up for it. The main imported varieties are spring steel for automobiles (about 5000- 10000t per year), round spring steel for railways and spring steel wire for oil pump valves. Among them, domestic round spring steel for automobiles currently needs 9000- 10000t per year, and imports account for about 30-40%. Spring steel wire for automobile valves needs about 2000 tons every year, which basically depends on imports. Zhu Yongzheng, general manager of Shanghai Zhong Xu Spring Company of Shanghai Automotive Co., Ltd. and Gu Jian, purchasing manager of China Spring Factory, introduced that their company consumes about 10000 tons of spring steel every year, including 4,000 tons of automobile suspension springs, 3,000 tons of automobile valve springs 1200 tons, and 3,000 tons of automobile stabilizer bars. Others are used to manufacture automobile coupler springs and oil pump springs. A car needs an average of 30 kilograms. At present, 70% of the spring steel for automobile suspension springs produced by Shanghai Zhong Xu Spring Company is imported from abroad, while 0/00% of the spring steel for automobile valve springs and automobile stabilizer bars is imported from abroad.

With the continuous development of spring application industry, the requirements for springs are getting higher and higher. For example, when the railway is speeding up and the freight car is overloaded, the buffer spring requires good performance to meet the requirements of "speeding up" and "overloading" of the train. Therefore, new requirements are put forward for spring steel. From the development trend, the requirements of spring on mechanical properties, fatigue properties, elastic resistance, physical and chemical properties and technological properties are getting higher and higher. Therefore, Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. of Shanghai Baosteel Group cooperated with Iron and Steel Research Institute to carry out the experimental study on mechanical properties and rotary bending fatigue of spring steel for speed-up railway. The fatigue test of cylindrical helical spring is carried out in cooperation with North Jiaotong University. Through scientific and technological research, WISCO has successively provided spring steel samples for speed-up railways for locomotive and rolling stock factories in Qiqihar, Guiyang, Xi, Tianjin, Jinan and Zhuzhou. Large-scale and super-long railway spring steel silver bright strip is also developed to meet the needs of passenger car speed increase.

The newly-built oil quenching and tempering production line for suspension spring steel wire invested by Shanghai Second Iron and Steel Company has an annual production capacity of 10000t. At present, the production line has been put into trial production, and the high-stress oil quenching and tempering suspension spring steel wire has been successfully developed. This kind of domestic spring steel wire is mainly used for springs with high fatigue resistance and high relaxation resistance, such as suspension springs of cars, mini-cars and high-grade motorcycle damping springs. This will greatly promote the localization rate of automobiles in China. At present, Shanghai No.2 Iron and Steel Company has put the domestic automobile tempering suspension spring steel wire on the market, and the varieties and specifications are relatively complete, including 55CSi, 60Si2MnA, 60Si2Cr, 65Mn and so on. And organize production in accordance with international standards to replace imports.

"Spring steel for passenger cars and railways" successfully developed by Jiangsu Xigang Group Company was included in the national torch plan project in 2003. It is understood that the spring steels developed by Xigang Company mainly include 60Si2MnA(T), 60Si2CrV(A), 60Si2CrA and 50CrVA, which are mainly used in railway and automobile manufacturing.

China's huge spring market has attracted the attention and optimism of foreign businessmen. It is reported that recently, the world-famous manufacturer of high-strength induction heat-treated suspension spring steel wire (rrw), Japan Gaozhou Hot Refining Co., Ltd., will set up a joint venture with Shanghai Automobile Co., Ltd. and Japan Meidawang Company, with an investment of/kloc-0.50 million US dollars, to research, produce and sell steel wire and other metal products for shock absorbers of automobiles and motorcycles, so as to meet the increasing quality requirements of spring steel in the domestic automobile industry. It is estimated that by 2006, the annual production capacity of the joint venture will reach 14400 tons. According to the market forecast of the joint venture company, by 20 10, the output of China cars will reach 4.4 million, and 40,000 tons of suspension spring steel wire will need high-intensity induction heat treatment, and its products will occupy more than 60% of the China market, ranking first in the industry.

Due to the accelerated development of the spring industry in China, the spring market is constantly expanding. Similarly, the prospect of domestic spring steel market is expanding day by day, but its competition will be more intense. How to occupy the domestic spring steel market is a major issue.