Dazu Traditional Hardware looks forward to "refreshing youth"

On the last day of August, in the 11th group of Pingqiao Community in Longshui Town, Dazu County, Jundelian was slouching and licking the millet. The past few days were busy and the workers asked for leave. His kitchen knives seemed very deserted.

Not far from the "Dazu Hardware Industry Incubation Park", it is a busy scene. Trucks come in and out, and workers carry goods on and off.

The same industry, different circumstances, this is the microcosm of traditional "hardware" transformation of the epitome of the period.

Once brilliant

Twenty-five years ago, Jude even stayed in a small workshop of less than 20 square meters, clapping wooden bellows all day and forging 40 or 50 kitchen knives every day. Despite the hardships, he was able to make more than two entries a day, which was a huge sum of money at the time.

Now, although the area of ​​the workshop has been expanded to 440 square meters, and seven or eight workers have been hired for “high salaries”, but a knife has a profit of only 1 yuan. Compared with the past, the business is getting lighter every day, and sometimes the door-to-door sales are rejected. Outside the door. Today, he gradually started to think.

In Dazu, like Jude Lian, hundreds of people now face similar choices.

Dazu’s “hardware” accompanied by Dazu rock carvings has a history of 1,200 years. In the 1970s and 1980s, with the spring breeze of reform and opening up, Dazu "hardware" ushered in a golden period, and production once accounted for more than half of the national market. At that time, there were thousands of family workshops with nearly 100,000 direct employees. The "Dangdang" forge sounded endless and the busy scene was very prosperous.

However, by the mid-to-late 1990s, this situation was broken - whether it was production, output value or market share, Dazu "hardware" was successively surpassed by the rising stars of Shandong Linyi, Zhejiang Yongkang and even Sichuan Meishan and Nanhai. Sands is also tempted by its status as a river and lake.

According to statistics, between 2007 and now, in just two or three years, Dazu "Hardware" small workshops have disappeared by 80%. What happened to the once brilliant Dazu "hardware"?

Now it is declining

"It is aging and the metabolism is too slow," said Luo Huilun, president of the Dazu Hardware Association.

Luo Huilun analyzed that the causes of the decline of Dazu’s "hardware" include the following:

First, the production process is backward, and most of them are still at the low-level productivity level of small producers. Dazu "hardware" is divided into hand-made products and machine-processed products. Its hand-made products are mainly produced using ancestral handicrafts. These handicrafts have basically been eliminated by domestic counterparts. The machined products are only processed by simple machines such as air hammers and cutting machines. The technology is backward and the technical content is low. In contrast, counterparts in Yangjiang, Guangdong, and Yongkang, Zhejiang, etc., adopt highly sophisticated mechanized operations throughout the entire process. The key processes are even more nitriding, which results in faster work efficiency and better quality.

Second, the quality of employees is not high. Dazu County surveyed 100 industrial and commercial households in the Longshui Hardware Market. The result was that primary school education accounted for 40%, junior high school education accounted for 37%, high school education accounted for 23%, and no one had received higher education.

Third, the ability to update products is poor and “copying antiques” cannot meet the needs of market changes. Jinzhong’s knife has been produced for many years, and its function and appearance remain the same. It can only sell two or three yuan, and the added value is very low; and similar tools produced in Suzhou, a value of 200 yuan. Deng Jiadao inherited a hundred years, slow technical progress, still dominated by forging.

Fourth, long-term small workshop management.

Dazu Yusui Farm Tools Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is a foundry that has developed from a small workshop. General Manager Chen Yuanwen noted in his 20-year career as a cutting knife that his competitors, such as Shandong and Zhejiang, “have completed capital accumulation, technological progress, and management upgrades in a short period of time, and most of us are still in the field. Stepping."

There are also practitioners complaining that government support is not enough and it is hard to blame. No one has directed them to develop new products.

In any case, Dazu "hardware" has come to "an extraordinary period." More and more people of insight have spoken loudly to protect and develop Dazu, the traditional industry that has lasted for thousands of years.

Looking forward to "refreshing youth"

This year, the Dazu County government promoted five traditional cutting tool companies such as Jinzhong and Dengjia to jointly establish the Chongqing Dazu Longshui Hardware Cutters Group. The preparatory work has now been basically completed. This means that Dazu’s “hardware” has accelerated its transformation from traditional to modern.

“We are not simply reorganizing resources, but we hope to reshape our glory through integration.” Deng Jianjian, the descendant of Deng Jiadao, said.

"You must use modern technology and ideas to fully arm Dazu 'hardware' to make it 'rejuvenate'," said Zhang Yanlan, deputy director of the Dazu County Economic and Information Commission.

In terms of management, Dazu will organize local enterprises to go abroad, learn advanced technology and management experience, introduce equipment and production techniques, and strengthen horizontal exchanges with advanced hardware areas.

In terms of technology, the Dazu County government has successively built a hardware innovation service center, a testing center, and a heat treatment center. On the one hand, it provides product development and product quality inspection services for the hardware industry. On the one hand, it solves the problem of quenching technology of cutting tool products.

Since last year, Dazu has also introduced Chongqing Bank and HSBC Bank to ease corporate financing problems. With funds, many companies expanded their production—at the end of last year, Dazu had about 50 hardware companies with an annual output value of more than 5 million yuan, which was a five-fold increase from two years ago.

In addition, sales will change the traditional way of selling stalls.

Last year, Dazu’s "hardware" industry output value reached 10.4 billion yuan, of which modern enterprises contributed more than 70%. This year, this figure is expected to exceed 14 billion yuan. “In the next two years, we will maintain the annual growth rate of the “hardware” industry at more than 30% and reach RMB 26 billion in 2012, making Dazu become the largest hardware production and processing base and product distribution center in western China,” said Zhang Yalan.

The traditional “hardware” family workshop will be preserved as a culture, and it will become a new tourist highlight after Dazu’s succession of stone carvings by exploring its historical and cultural connotations.