The morning sun shines in through the workshop glass, and the robotic arms on the assembly line are accurately grabbing metal parts, making a slight humming sound. The workshop director, Lao Zhang, stood in front of the console, staring at the logistics data on the display with a frown - this is the third time this year that he has received a delayed arrival notice from an American supplier. "The key parts that were originally available in three days will now be delayed for at least two weeks." He sighed and turned to the assembly area.
This scene is a microcosm of the supply chain shock in the packaging machine industry under the background of the Sino-US trade war.
In the past decade, the packaging machine industry has been highly dependent on global division of labor. Core components such as servo motors and sensors are mostly imported from Europe and the United States, while Chinese factories take on global orders with their cost advantages. However, as the tariff policies of the trade war are increasing, the packaging machine industry is forced to re-examine its supply chain layout.
"The cost of imported parts for a standard automated packaging machine has increased by 12%." The head of purchasing for an international brand in China revealed. In response to tariff pressure, some companies have begun to transfer their production lines to Southeast Asia, but more local companies have chosen to accelerate the process of technology localization. Taking the ply-pack factory as an example, its R&D team spent 18 months to overcome the localization problem of high-precision sorting modules, shortening the procurement cycle of core components from 45 days to 10 days.
"I always thought that imported technology was more reliable, but now it forces us to break through the bottleneck." Li Gong, director of R&D of ply-pack, stood in the test workshop and pointed to a new packaging machine being debugged. This equipment is equipped with a domestic visual recognition system that can accurately identify special-shaped packaging materials with an error rate of less than 0.3 mm.
The "technical blockade" pressure of the trade war is being transformed into an innovative driving force for the packaging machine industry. According to industry reports, the number of domestic packaging machine patent applications in 2023 will increase by 27% year-on-year, involving key technical fields such as intelligent algorithms and energy-saving drives. Small and medium-sized enterprises, on the other hand, have broken through by means of joint research and development, shared patent pools, etc., and gradually broken their dependence on imported technology.
"Now customers must ask two questions before signing a contract: What is the localization rate of the equipment? Are there any alternative suppliers for key components?" Ms. Wang, sales director of ply-pack, said with emotion at a customer forum. A purchasing representative of a food company admitted that they have included supply chain stability in the bidding scoring system: "Even if it is 5% more expensive, we will give priority to manufacturers who can guarantee the delivery cycle."
This transformation has forced the packaging machine industry to reconstruct its service model. Leading companies have begun to provide "supply chain hosting" services, helping customers hedge transportation risks by building their own regional storage centers and signing insurance agreements with logistics companies. Small and medium-sized factories, on the other hand, focus on regional markets and seize niche areas with flexible responses and localized services.
In the evening, the logistics fleet in Suzhou Industrial Park formed a long queue, and the lights formed a flowing light strip in the twilight. More than 200 packaging machines are shipped to the world every day, of which 35% of the orders come from countries along the "Belt and Road". The trade war has reshaped the competitive landscape of the packaging machine industry, but it has also spawned new market opportunities.
"Crisis has always been the best driver of transformation." ply-pack's general manager concluded at the annual strategic meeting. As the industry collectively moves towards intelligent and flexible production, those companies that have taken the lead in completing supply chain adjustments and technological accumulation are quietly building a moat in this protracted war.
