Recently, Mr. Qiu Shangqi, the chairman of China Minsheng Stone Industry Group (hereinafter referred to as CM Stone), was invited to attend the general election conference and the second general meeting of Wuhan Chamber of Commerce for stone industry, and was invited to give the speech on “Thinking On The Competitiveness Of Stone Industry". Mr. Qiu revealed the attributes of stones from a new dimension, and put forward unique views on the existing problems of stone industry and on how to improve the situation. At the same time, Mr. Qiu shared some thoughts on the profitability, self-discipline, capital participation and the brand promotion of the stone industry, as well as how to improve the industrial competitiveness. This article is collated according to the speech of Mr. Qiu as follows.
· Uniqueness
There are no two identical stones in the world; —— This is the basic characteristic of natural stones which distinguishes from other construction materials. With the improvement of the living standards and the public aesthetic taste, uniqueness has become one of the concerns of more and more people. The natural stone has the characteristic of uniqueness, and that is why it is preferred by the public.
· Natural attributes
The natural marble is a kind of metamorphic rocks formed through the high temperature and high pressure in the earth's crust, and the main component of marbles is calcium carbonate, accounting for more than 50%. Granite is a kind of magmatic rocks, the main component of which is silica, accounting for about 65%.
· Eco-friendly
On one hand, stone processing is a physical process which is different from the processing of other construction materials, as a consequence, the energy consumption is low. And this process will not produce any harmful gases. At the same time, because of the wet operations, the dust can be reduced. Some wastes such as powder and residues produced during the processing are non-poisonous, and which can even be processed into other building materials. On the other hand, the radioactivity of natural stones is much lower than ceramics tiles. According to these, the stone industry is an environmental friendly industry.
· Color properties
The rich colors and textures of stones are formed naturally, because the stones are formed after hundreds of millions of years of complex physical and chemical changes as well as the evolution of geological movements. The color differences among stones shows the infinite charm of this material.
· Other attributes and benefits
The more you explore the stones, the more secrets you will find. Natural stone has not only the characteristics of freezing tolerance, pressure resistance and fire resistance, but also the characteristics of healthy and energy-saving. As a consequence, stone is the most environmental-friendly construction material. And this is why it is more and more widely used in public constructions.
· Quarry (Q)
Quarry resources are the source of the whole stone industry chain, and the importance of which is evident. However, there are not any “green quarry” standards at the moment, and the environmental awareness of most of stone enterprises is weak. As a result, quarry exploitation is insufficient, uncontrolled, and even destructive, which leads to the waste of stone resources and the deterioration of ecological environment.
· Factory (F)
Processing and manufacturing is the core process of the stone industry. Through which, the natural resources are changed into usable resources for human beings. Processing is also the impetus to the developments of application technologies for stone industry. Processing efficiency has become one of the important indicators to measure the development level of stone industry.
At present, stone processing in most parts of China is still based on the traditional cutting tools and manpower, which is not only inefficient, but also leads to a lot of dust and noise during the processing. In addition, due to the information asymmetry among all nodes of the stone industry, the integration ability of this industry is low. As a result, the real demands of final consumers for stone products cannot be realized.
· Customer (C)
The stone industry has the problem of insufficient systematic publicity and low frequency trading for a long time, which has led to the weak awareness for stone attributes of designers and consumers. They may even misunderstand the natural stone, thinking that it is harmful to human beings.
To change all these problems, changes have to be made from the quarry exploitation. First of all, it is necessary to establish “green quarry” standards, increase the awareness about environmental protection of stone enterprises, and guide them to exploit quarries orderly and properly in a sustainable way. Secondly, it is important to improve the integration ability of the stone industry, which relates to the transformation and upgrading of stone industry. What’s more, systematic brand promotion is needed to improve the understandings of designers, consumers and other people for stones. The last but not the least, it is essential to realize the interconnections among all nodes of the industrial chain, and to provide the financial services in the stone industry with the help of finance and technology.
Quarry(Q)
On one hand, it is necessary to establish the “green quarry” standards and regulations as well as to increase the awareness for environmental protection of stone enterprises. On the other hand, to invest in quarries in a systematic way, and to control all the quarries of one category in order to better integrate the quarry resources.
Factory (F)
Under the requirements of personalized customization, it was difficult to achieve scale expansion by using traditional cutting machines and manpower. With the development of technology, the wide application of intelligent processing equipment is the trend. Nowadays, intelligent processing equipment has been able to solve the demand of "personalized customization" and "large-scale production". In addition, the physical wastes such as stone powder, residue and other wastes produced during the processing can be processed into concrete aggregate, high-strength brick, artificial stone filler, and other architectural material, which realizes the development of circular economy.
Customer (C)
Any industrial chain will eventually lead to the final customer, and only the completion of sales to customers is the final realization and return of resources in the industrial chain. For stone enterprises, how to build a channel to link with customers is key to think.
In terms of technology, the application of BIM (Building Information Modeling) in the stone industry is an important breakthrough. BIM, which is put forward in 2002 by Autodesk company, is widely recognized all around the world today. This technology can improve the efficiency and save resources for stone industry. Meanwhile, with the help of BIM, it is possible to develop an online transaction system, together with the offline display platform to increase the transaction frequency of the materials.
In terms of brand promotion, stone enterprises should strengthen brand awareness, establish a systematic publicity and promotion system. In addition, it is also important to establish effective communication with design institutes, designers, and consumers in order to know what they need and what they ask for.
Finance (F)
Only when the financial capitals and the stone industry are well combined, the industry can develop sustainably. Setting up industrial funds and developing financial supply chain may be the good choices for stone enterprises to realize the further development.
Technology (T)
Technology is the most important productive force. The development of BIM technology can change the industry ecology. BIM can be applied in the stone industry to improve the interconnections among quarry owners, factories, traders, designers and all other participants in the whole stone industrial chain and to develop online transaction platform which is useful to improve the industrial efficiency and customer service experience.
In future, the stone industry will develop based on the business model of “Quarry-Factory-Customer+Finance+Technology”, of which, “Quarry-Factory-Customer” is the current model of the stone industrial chain, while the participation of finance and technology will further accelerate the development of this industry.
Most stone enterprises are concerned about how to increase the profitability of this industry. As all know, when the supply exceeds the demand, the price of product goes down. On the contrary, the prices will rise. Therefore, it is necessary to regulate and control the balance between supply and demand. To achieve this, it is necessary to establish an industrial alliance, which can effectively solve this problem. At the same time, it is important for stone enterprises to control all quarries of the same category, and to establish promotion system and sales system in order to increase the profitability of stone industry.
From the perspective of finance, capitals were not properly used for the stone industry during the past time. Only when the link between stone industry and financial capital is established and only when the stone enterprises come into the market, those entrepreneurs can obtain additional benefits beyond industrial profits.
The last but not the least, all stone enterprises need to keep in their mind that the importance of integrity and legal compliance.
