The opening ceremony of China Concrete and Cement-based Products Industry Convention 2018 hosted by China Concrete and Cement-based Products Association (CCPA) was held in Changshan, Hunan Province on December 1st, 2018. At the second part of the opening ceremony, CCPA executive president Xu Yongmo delivered a keynote speech to more than 1200 audience. The speech was divided into two major parts. The first part was about understanding the development trend and plotting the moves. The second part was about promoting the development through innovation.

Mr. Xu started with the current situation of the industry and its development trend. In recent 10 years, enterprises with annual income larger than 20 million RMB in the industry had been developing fast. Dramatic changes occurred in the number of enterprises, scale and their annual income. The market is concentrated in the hands of macro enterprises, and the overall image of the industry has been greatly improved. The number of listed companies kept increasing and they have been the momentum forces to lead the industry. However, there are existing problems yet to solve. There are overcapacity at the lower end of the industry and insufficient capacity at the higher end. Innovation is still weak. Mr. Xu pointed that the industry development was supported by national strategy such as urbanization. The vast difference between various regions and between the urban and rural areas will further enhance the depth of market. Incessant consumption upgrading boosted demands for urbanization and environment protection. The one belt one road initiative provided the industry with the opportunity for international development. Currently, the industry has the characteristics and development trend as follows. The industry is developing towards comprehensive integration, diversity, transformation from single material providers to comprehensive service providers and globalization. The world is in a process of adjustments so that the market demand, industry policy, environment protection regulations, innovation and commercial competition mode are all under revolutionary changes. The national fundamental policies such as environment protection, supply-side reform, high-quality development, green construction and utilization of solid wastes, are made in accordance with the economic development and the changing market demand. The policies are in turn promoting the transformation of the industry, e.g., the supply-side reform and high-quality development is pushing the industry to change from making to creation, from quantity to quality, from production to brand building.

Mr. Xu believed that the future development of the industry could only by innovation. Nowadays new technology, new industry, new development mode and commercial format are springing up. The information technology, advanced manufacture, new material, new energy, low energy consumption technique and environment protection are speeding up the transformation and upgrade of traditional industry. He emphasized technology and innovations that imposed great influence over the industry, such as big data, cloud computing, information technology, intellectual technology, new material, ultra-high performance material, comprehensive utilization of solid waste, energy-saving and emission-reduction technology and environment protection, etc. He also introduced revolutionary technology expected to fundamentally influence the industry, such as decorative concrete, ultra-high performance concrete, strength-and-hydration oriented Portland cement, big data platform for concrete and chemical admixtures, inexpensive high-strength light-weight aggregate, concrete surfactant and repair materials, precast concrete construction and component production, mould design and production, smart immune concrete, etc. Competition between enterprises are in essence the competition between new material, new technology, intellectual property right and globalization which depend on platform the enterprises obtain resources from and their continuous ability to innovate.