Faced with the current situation that steel traders are struggling in the cracks, Yang, president of the Metal Materials Industry Chamber of Commerce of the Beijing Federation of Industry and Commerce, has repeatedly called for: "Steel mills should realize that we are also enterprises, and we have spent hundreds of millions on steelmaking, only tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of tons a month. We are not playing, we have to survive, pay taxes, support employees and create value for enterprises. We can't drink the northwest wind. " This is not to say that steel mills are the main "culprits" of steel traders' insufficient profits. But so far, steel mills still ignore the existence of steel traders, implement its overlord clause, ignore the legitimacy and seriousness of contracts, ignore market rules, and watch steel traders put money into them when prices are upside down. Is this normal business practice? Is this a normal market economy behavior? This is really sad!
There are many factors to improve the profit space of steel traders, such as policy factors, market factors, technical factors, self-management factors and so on. This is obviously a short article that can't cover and explore thorough and complicated issues, but our reporter will provide the experiences and practices of some enterprises interviewed to the vast number of steel traders, hoping to provide some reference for everyone with his own meager strength.
First, carefully choose steel production enterprises. Chairman Chen Ping said: "When steel traders choose steel mills, they should not unilaterally think that the bigger the steel mills, the better. Don't just stare at the big ones, choose the ones with stable price policies and good reputation. " What suits you is the best. At the same time, don't hang yourself from a tree. One more choice means one more chance.
Second, large-scale operation, comprehensive service, and the development of super terminal mode by means of unified purchase and distribution. This is the practice of large steel trading enterprises with strong financial strength, especially state-owned enterprises. They set up purchasing supermarkets through nationwide channel layout, large agents, large processors, small and medium-sized users and traders without resources, and jumped out of the circle of low-level competition by virtue of the advantages of scale operation, so that their profits were guaranteed to a certain extent.
Third, industry segmentation, industrial chain, serving specific types of customers. Based on the analysis of the market, they choose a certain sub-industry group as the main service object, and improve the comprehensive service power by improving the integration and concentration of the steel industry chain.
Fourth, product specialization, service diversification, and the development of a single variety and complete specifications. They specialize in a certain kind of products and provide comprehensive services to customers by establishing a product store model. For example, Hebei Langfang Zheng Tai Material Co., Ltd. specializes in H-beam management, and soon became a leader in this industry.
Fifth, product customization and ordering are developing towards the mode of serving the special requirements of special customers. For example, Shanghai Lucheng Metal Material Co., Ltd. began to finely process products with special specifications for end users four years ago and achieved great success. These enterprises provide customized processing services for domestic and foreign customers through their professional knowledge and capital strength.
Sixth, regional processing and distribution, comprehensive agent procurement, to regional processing, trade integration model development. They establish or combine steel processing centers and logistics distribution vehicles to provide extensive and in-depth procurement agency, processing and distribution services for enterprises in the region.
Seventh, develop direct supply to customers, reduce intermediate costs and improve profits. They use the advantages of capital and corporate brand to develop and cultivate direct supply customers, establish good strategic partnership with customers, seize the end customers, seize the market initiative and achieve a win-win situation with customers.
Eight is the exit. Some large steel trading enterprises, such as Minmetals and Sinosteel, have their own export channels and even set up their own offices abroad. Small and medium-sized steel traders have also carried out export business through other channels. However, due to "anti-dumping and countervailing" in some developed countries, as well as measures such as reducing export tax rebate, export licensing system and imposing export tariffs on steel products, steel exports have dropped sharply.
Nine is "expanding the industrial chain". Upstream expansion is to open iron mines, sell coke, sell raw and auxiliary materials needed for steel production, and sell billets. And the downstream is processing and distribution, logistics services, steel trading market and so on. As for those enterprises that do real estate and other industries under the guise of steel management, they have faded out of this industry and are beyond the scope of this article.
Ten is to carry out electronic trading of steel products. Online steel supermarkets and steel futures will soon become the development trend. Although the relevant state departments have not really given the green light to steel futures, as a convenient, fast and hedging modern steel trading mode, it will surely enter the normal business activities of the steel trade industry.
The eleventh is to strive for the right to speak and establish the position of steel traders in the steel industry chain, which is the key to enhance the profits of steel traders. Yang Zeng, president of Beijing Metal Chamber of Commerce, put forward the idea of "steel agent system" more than once: the ex-factory price and sales price of steel are uniformly set by steel mills, and steel traders get reasonable profits through their own services (agent fees of steel mills). The benefits of this can not only change the current antagonistic situation between steel mills and traders, but also promote the stability of the steel market. Xin Xile, vice president of China Metal Material Circulation Association and general manager of sinosteel Sinosteel Iron and Steel Company, agrees with this view. He said: "The agency system and disguised agency system are one of the means for steel trade enterprises to maintain a certain profit." Many steel traders have repeatedly called for the implementation of agency system, but so far no steel mill has adopted it.
Some experts in the industry also put forward the "five-ring concentric principle" from a technical point of view: the core layer target market ring-the tight layer target market ring-the loose layer target market ring-the edge layer target market ring-the radiation layer target market ring.