(November 28, 2010)

In 2009, affected by the global financial crisis, the global sales of bearings fell by 12.5% year on year to USD34 billion; due to the continuous downturn of the automotive industry, the contribution of automotive bearing to the total sales of bearings dropped to less than 30%, while the machinery bearing's grew to over 40%. At the same time, the world's eight major bearing companies all saw sales decline, as shown below:

By contrast, China has maintained rapid growth driven by the strong market demand. In 2009, China's roller bearing output reached 12.51 billion sets, up 15.1% year on year; the apparent consumption reached 11.13 billion sets, up 21.8% year on year; the import value increased by 5%.

This report analyzes the status quo of bearing markets at home and abroad, and focuses on the demand and enterprise competition in market segments including automotive bearing, railway bearing, wind power bearing and so on.

1. Automotive Bearing

The rapid development of China's automotive industry has promoted significant increase of demand for automotive bearing in recent years.
China sold 13.64 million cars and 680 million sets of automotive bearings in 2009. In 2010, China is expected to sell 17 million cars and 850 million sets of automotive bearings, given each car needs about 50 sets of bearings (including those for maintenance and repair).

2. Railway Bearing

In 2009, the operating mileage of China's railway reached 86,000 km, surpassing Russia to rank second in the world. In the future, China will build over 40,000 km of railway, which will offer a vast development space for railway bearing and create demand for 3.8 million sets of railway bearings in 2010. In the field of railway bearing, WAFANGDIAN BEARING, LUOYANG LCY BEARING, HRB and TIANMA BEARING have remarkable advantages. Among them, LUOYANG LCY BEARING is a leader in railway passenger car bearing market; WAFANGDIAN BEARING and TIANMA BEARING are the leaders in Chinese freight car bearing market.

In addition, the report also focuses on 10 domestic enterprises, including WAFANGDIAN BEARING, LUOYANG LCY BEARING, HRB, XIANGYANG AUTOMOBILE BEARING, XIBEI BEARING, C & U GROUP and so on.

WAFANGDIAN BEARING is good at the manufacturing of large precision bearings; HRB targets at precision and high precision bearings, with 60% -70% shares in aerospace bearing market.

LUOYANG LCY BEARING is famous for railway bearing, with about 30% market shares; C & U GROUP has advantages in small and precision household and office bearings.

TIANMA BEARING performs well in short cylindrical roller bearing and railway freight car bearing. It has begun to enter the field of wind power bearing and railway bearing in recent years.

WANXIANG QIANCHAO takes a leading position in Chinese wheel hub bearing and wheel hub bearing unit market, with about 30% market shares. In the future, it will focus on the development of constant velocity drive shaft and wheel hub unit.

XIANGYANG AUTOMOBILE BEARING is a key automotive bearing enterprise in China. After years of unsuccessful efforts in reorganization, it finally reached a restructuring agreement with Tri-Ring Group in 2009.

LONGXI BEARING is the only domestic enterprise specializing in the manufacturing of joint bearing, with more than 60% shares in the domestic market and about 12% shares in the international market.

XIBEI BEARING is a leading oil machinery bearing enterprise in China, with 80% shares in the domestic market. It is also the only manufacturer of high-speed railway bearing in China. It has set foot in wind power bearing in recent years.

LUOYANG BEARING SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY has the only Ministry-owned state Class-1 large scientific research institute in China's bearing industry.
Now, it has held a strongly competitive position in the field of high-grade, precision and sophisticated bearing.

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