1. Overview of the development of the prefabricated construction industry

This year, due to the impact of the new crown epidemic, the progress of infrastructure activities in the first half of the year was severely hindered. In the second half of the year, due to the better control of the epidemic, as the national and local governments introduced the resumption of work and production and the implementation of new infrastructure policies, the construction industry ushered in again A new round of development opportunities for strong growth.

After nearly ten years of development, China’s construction industrialization and prefabricated buildings have now entered a plateau and a tough period. Although the popularity of prefabricated building technology in all parts of the country is still increasing, there are feedbacks from the construction of industrialization demonstration bases from all over the country. And the analysis of the implementation of prefabricated projects have shown growth troubles in the process of rapid development. The scale and quantity of prefabricated buildings have reached a considerable scale, and some industrialization promotion scientific and technological achievements have been made, but they reflect prefabricated buildings. The overall effect of improving quality and efficiency is still not obvious. The implementation process also exposed problems such as shortage of industrial workers, low project quality, low construction efficiency, and poor project management expertise. It is urgent for localities to conduct systematic summaries and reflections.

The existing traditional construction industry management system needs continuous innovation and improvement, combined with the high-quality development needs of the construction industry in the new era, and accelerate the implementation of professionalization and professionalization of the assembly-type entire industry chain. At present, the integration and upgrading of the industrial chain related to prefabricated construction in China and the construction of software and hardware have not been completed. The level of professionalism and specialization of employees in engineering construction, design, construction, and production units is low, and the industrialization technology management ability and engineering experience are very lacking. , Most companies still implement prefabricated projects according to the lowest price bidding concept of traditional cast-in-place structures. Unreasonable planning and design schemes, unscientific construction schedules, and professional technical and technical management of contractors and component processing plants are common. Insufficient industrialization implementation capabilities have seriously affected the implementation effects of industrialization projects, resulting in prominent problems such as high cost, poor quality, and low efficiency in the project implementation process.

The core connotation of the modernization of the construction industry is to use industrialized lean construction methods to construct high-quality buildings to achieve the green development goal of energy saving and emission reduction. The development experience at home and abroad proves that prefabricated construction is a systematic project. It is necessary to steadily advance the project practice of talent team construction and project management, and consolidate the foundation of product production and construction quality, in order to finally achieve the high-quality and efficient development goal of prefabricated buildings. The whole industry should realize that without talents and quality as the foundation, it is undesirable and unworkable to stay in a short period of time and copy low-quality buildings on a large scale. Facing the urgent needs of all parts of the country to transform and upgrade to the modernization of the construction industry, governments at all levels and related enterprises in the precast concrete component industry should maintain a clear understanding, determine the industrialization technology system and development path according to local conditions, and actively carry out pilot projects and demonstration projects We will continue to sum up experience and draw lessons from the construction of our country, and promote the modernization of my country’s construction industry in a down-to-earth manner. The practices of popularizing prefabricated buildings, which are not restricted by customer-oriented conditions, are greedy for completeness, and are eager for success, must be corrected.

2. The development of precast concrete component enterprises

The investment and construction of prefabricated factories across the country is too fast, and there is a lack of guidance for overall industrial planning and layout. Many prefabricated factories blindly invest in construction, resulting in a lot of waste of land and resources; due to limited market share growth, a considerable number of factories cannot receive orders or receive orders. The inability to operate is more prominent, which has exposed the disorderly state of investment and development of my country's prefabricated factories.

(1) The development status of PC enterprises

In 2020, the number of national precast concrete component manufacturers will continue to grow rapidly. According to incomplete statistics, nearly 200 new precast factories were added this year. So far, there are more than 1,200 precast factories nationwide with a scale of more than 30,000 cubic meters. Due to the lack of experience in PC factory operation by the construction party, new PC factories generally have problems in heavy investment and construction, while neglecting operation and management, resulting in unreasonable plant planning and design schemes, inapplicable process equipment configuration, and low plant operating efficiency. New factories with relatively large investments have shortcomings in software construction such as personnel and management. If there is no overall advantage in the industry chain, there will be great operating risks. It is foreseeable that there will be quite a lot of PC factories in the next 3 to 5 years. Closed or changed production. Lessons from this aspect should arouse the great attention of practitioners or future investors.

At present, the main force in the production of prefabricated components is mainly the use of old prefabricated factories or upgraded factories. Except for some large enterprises that have better management and management, the operating conditions and economic benefits of most factories are not optimistic, facing the impact of low-price market competition. , The payment recovery is difficult, the personnel is severely drained, and the operation and management is difficult. Except for a few differentiated PC companies that have better benefits, most companies are in a state of loss, resulting in a sharp decline in the operating quality and economic benefits of the entire PC industry.

(2) Development of prefabricated component products and technology

At present, my country’s prefabricated component products are mainly concentrated in prefabricated wall panels, prefabricated floor slabs, prefabricated beams, prefabricated columns, prefabricated stairs, and prefabricated balconies for residential construction. The application objects of this part of the component are mainly assembled integral structural engineering, except for Beijing , In most areas of Shanghai and overseas, horizontal components such as prefabricated laminated panels, stairs, and balconies are still mainly used. The standardization of products is generally very low. In addition, the product technology is single and the types are few, which seriously restricts its promotion and application.

The product system of prefabricated components for municipal infrastructure includes prefabricated pipe corridors, prefabricated bridges, prefabricated segments, prefabricated drainage pipes, etc. With a large market scale, high standardization, and good product quality, it has gradually become the main product of the PC industry. The development of municipal components has always been compared. Healthy and orderly is a benchmark for future development of building components.

1 At present, the main development directions of the national prefabricated component product system include the following aspects:

(1) The development of prefabricated component technology for low-rise buildings is still in its infancy. There is no mature prefabricated technology system and product system for fully assembled structures in all parts of the country. Beijing and Shanghai, which are in a leading position in PC development, have already started. Research and development of prefabricated building systems suitable for low-rise buildings, and have done some relatively successful pilot and demonstration projects.

(2) The application of large-span prefabricated prestressed components in industrial buildings has been increasing year by year. At present, the application of double T-slabs, prestressed hollow floor slabs and other components in large-span concrete frame structures and steel structures has attracted more and more attention, and the development momentum is good .

(3) The prefabricated exterior wall technology development of the prefabricated building envelope system is the direction of future development. The prefabricated exterior wall has the characteristics of integration of decoration, maintenance and insulation, and is the core key component of the prefabricated building. Beijing Institute of Prefabricated Construction Engineering It has maintained a leading position in this field, and has completed a number of influential and high-quality exterior wall siding projects in recent years.

2 In recent years, many construction companies have devoted themselves to developing a mold-free product system based on industrialized construction. This is a special design, production, and construction technology system. Its products include: double-skin wall panels, hollow wall panels, truss templates, etc. Judging from the current situation, the implementation effect of such technologies is not ideal. This type of technology belongs to a professional technical system or construction method, and more emphasis is placed on the integration of cast-in-place and non-dismantling formwork. It needs to be explained that this type of technology has poor compatibility with general design and construction, and is not essentially prefabricated. In the context of the concrete building system, the product is not a PC component in the general sense. The system should be implemented based on a professional enterprise insisting on an integrated construction management model of design, production, and construction.

3 The development of the enclosure and decoration products of prefabricated buildings has received great attention from the entire industry. With the increase in market demand, the development and application of various cement-based lightweight functional products are favored. Such products include decorative products. Lightweight concrete products, lightweight concrete slabs with enclosure and thermal insulation functions, lightweight concrete partition wall products, etc. The consumption of such building materials will increase year by year, but product performance and quality need to be improved.

(3) Product quality of prefabricated components

The overall quality of precast concrete building components in my country is still low. There is still much room for improvement in the appearance quality of precast components, manufacturing precision and internal quality. On the one hand, due to the weak quality management foundation of prefabricated enterprises, the employees are mainly transferred from construction and building materials enterprises, and lack training and experience in modern industrialized manufacturing; on the other hand, there is also a shortage of technical management personnel and industrial workers, leading to many The factory is managed by contract. Although the number of factories has increased, the product quality has not improved much; coupled with the serious lack of quality management of construction enterprises, these have restricted the quality improvement and promotion of prefabricated components.

The quality level of prefabricated components in first-tier cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen is relatively good. In addition to the government’s attention to supervision, the prefabricated building quality management measures have been introduced successively, and the product inspections and component entry inspections of prefabricated component manufacturers have been strengthened. There is also a very important role for local prefabricated component benchmark companies to lead and demonstrate. These companies are significantly higher than small and medium-sized enterprises in terms of their employees' engineering quality awareness and technical quality management level. The quality of the industrial infrastructure of a region is an important basic condition for evaluating the implementation quality of prefabricated buildings. The quality of personnel and experience accumulation of an enterprise also determines its development quality.

(4) Price of prefabricated components

Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Shenyang and other big cities have successively released monthly reference price information for prefabricated components starting this year. Due to differences in raw materials and labor costs, the prices of components also vary greatly, with a difference of about 30%. The number of prefabricated companies has increased and price competition is fierce. The actual price is generally 20% to 30% lower than the market guide price. As a result, prefabricated companies have basically no profit margins. Most newly-built companies and less powerful companies are in a difficult situation.

The price composition of prefabricated components includes direct costs such as materials, labor, equipment and facilities, as well as indirect costs such as management fees, profits, taxes and fees. From the current level of enterprise production management, there is not much difference in overall production efficiency, and price competition The main purpose is to solve the business problem of more monks and less congee, and to ensure the normal operation of production and the demand for personnel expenditure. There is no question of accumulation and development at all. This is also the survival and development problem faced by most prefabricated factories.

3. Countermeasures and suggestions for the development of the precast concrete component industry

The construction of large-scale prefabricated factories across the country is about to be completed. So far, more than 2,000 PC factories have been built, and the designed PC production capacity has reached 50-60 million cubic meters, which in general has far exceeded the actual demand of the current PC market by 22 million cubic meters. Except for a few regions, the number and scale of prefabrication factories in most regions can already meet the market demand for the development of prefabricated buildings in the next five years. At present, the risk of reinvesting in new prefabrication factories is extremely high, and the risk of new prefabrication factories is also high. Is increasing day by day.

(1) How to avoid waste of resources caused by overheated investment in PC factories?

Government departments should strengthen the approval of PC factory projects and land use planning. In principle, they should restrict the construction of prefabricated factory projects and control the investment in prefabricated factory projects from the source.

At the enterprise level, it is recommended to conduct in-depth investigations to understand market needs, and make careful decisions through industry associations and expert consultation, and pay attention to identifying investment risks.

(2) How can the already built PC factory get rid of the difficult situation of operation?

Having invested in the construction of prefabricated factories, the main task facing many companies is how to do a good job in operation and management. The first thing is to study where the market is. What suitable products should the enterprise produce? The second is how to strengthen management and improve production efficiency? Once again, how to form operating characteristics and maintain continuous competitiveness enhancement? This is a major problem facing business managers. It requires companies to combine local and their own characteristics to innovate and expand the development path of localization, to use the main energy in the development of new products and refined management of the company, and to comprehensively improve the prefabricated components. Production efficiency and product quality.

(3) How the PC industry develops healthily should arouse great attention and in-depth thinking from all walks of life

In the future, in addition to actively participating in technical exchanges and training, and continuously improving product quality and management level, prefabricated enterprises should also strengthen localized collaboration, based on the continuous development needs of the regional market, jointly maintain market order, form a price self-discipline mechanism, and ensure the operation of prefabricated enterprises Results. When necessary, the diversification and professional development of products can also be expanded through asset reorganization to form an integrated solution for prefabricated buildings.

Competition in the business process is inevitable, and only through the market rules of survival of the fittest can the success of PC companies be established. The design and construction level of prefabricated buildings is still relatively low, and the development of PC is still in its infancy. The market scale is small, the product system is single, and the quality and service level is relatively low. The emergence of homogenized low-price competition, and the lack of software in product quality management and after-sales service in most companies, has also led to serious losses and operational difficulties in many new companies engaged in the PC business.

The development of my country's precast concrete component industry will not be smooth sailing and overnight. It is destined to experience hardships and obstacles. At this stage and even a long time, it will face the test of how to survive. The majority of prefabricated enterprises and practitioners must establish firm beliefs, do a good job in business management work down-to-earth, and continuously improve product quality and comprehensive service levels, in order to truly achieve the goal of high-quality development in the PC industry.