Shijiazhuang, 25 Jan (Xinhua) -- With the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing just around the corner, in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou, Hebei Province, where the snow project is held, a "big guy" resembling a bulldozer is stepping up his work in some snow fields. It climbs over the hills, as if on the ground, leaving strips of five or six millimeters deep, thin ridge-like "noodle snow" everywhere it goes, and the slopes become flat and even.
This "big guy" sprayed with the "SG400" logo is a high-end high-horsepower snow burk machine independently developed and produced by China. The snow surface it presses out can better respond to the force of the skier, allowing the athletes to slide more smoothly.
Snow groomers are an important site equipment to ensure the quality of snow in the snow field. But before, the global market was almost occupied by foreign companies, and the Chinese market was no exception.
"In the past, there were no mature manufacturers in China to produce such machinery." Wen Xiaoxuan, the designer of the SG400 snow groomer, introduced, "In order to promote the localization of ice and snow equipment, we based on a high starting point, first promoted the research and development and application of high-end snow groomers, filling the gap of similar products in China. ”
Located at the National Biathlon Center in Chongli District, Zhangjiakou City, snow groomers operate on the track. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Mou Yu
With the bidding and preparation of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games, ice and snow sports have continued to spread, and the ice and snow equipment market has heated up. Stimulated by demand, Chinese enterprises actively invest in the research and development and production of related products, effectively breaking through the monopoly advantages of foreign brands, and the "national tide" in the field of ice and snow equipment manufacturing is surging.
Wen Xiaoxuan's Hebei Xuangong Company, located in Zhangjiakou City, was originally a veteran backbone enterprise producing construction machinery, and a few years ago, it paid attention to the driving effect of the Winter Olympics and actively carried out industrial transformation.
In 2017, the company set up a project for snow groomers, and since then it has conquered a number of key technologies along the way. In view of the characteristics of the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympics with little snow and strong snow layer, the R&D team has carried out 109 improvements and designs for 19 components to better meet the requirements of low temperature and strong work intensity of the snow field.
About a year later, the SG400 snow groomer rolled off the production line and passed a safety performance test at the end of last year. The optimized machine frame weighs only one-third of that of a typical construction vehicle, can climb a steep slope of 45 degrees, can break the snow layer at minus 40 degrees Celsius, and stores a variety of domestic snow parameters, which can quickly cope with snow conditions.
On China's first domestic snow wax truck, the captain checks the body equipment on board. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Hu Huhu
More domestic large-scale ice and snow machinery has been unveiled on the occasion of the arrival of the Winter Olympics: the domestic snow wax vehicle that will be put into use for the first time in the Winter Olympics, involving new energy power, photovoltaic power generation, 5G and other technologies, there are 6 waxing operation tables in the 20-meter-long carriage; the domestic snow kirin M2 snow machine has broken through a number of core components and the key technical bottlenecks of the whole machine intelligence, using 5G intelligent technology to automatically make snow, and the core indicators have reached or exceeded the level of similar foreign snowmakers...
According to the 2019 annual report of the "White Paper on China's Ski Industry", 1149 new snow machines were added to China's ski resorts in 2019, including 682 imported brands and 467 domestic brands, and the market share of the two is constantly narrowing. Previously, only 50 domestic snow machines were newly purchased in 2015.
In addition to large-scale equipment for enterprises and businesses, in the field of consumer-facing personal ice and snow equipment, "Made in China" also performed well.
In 2018, Jingxi Sports Equipment Co., Ltd., which settled in Zhangjiakou, mainly produces skis, dry snow blankets and so on. It is reported that its snowboard sales increased by an average of 15% to 20% per year, mainly sold in China to Beijing- Tianjin-Hebei, Northeast and other places; the sales of dry snow blankets have also increased rapidly since the promotion last year.
The Ice and Snow Sports Equipment Industrial Park in the High-tech Zone where Jingxi is located, as well as the Xuanhua Ice and Snow Industrial Park, are the two major ice and snow equipment research and development and manufacturing agglomeration areas planned and built by Zhangjiakou by taking the opportunity of the Winter Olympics, attracting internationally renowned enterprises such as French MND, Italian Tianbing, and M3 of the United States, as well as Chinese rookies such as Qingtou Intelligence and Guangzhou Yongyuan.
In the Zhangjiakou High-tech Zone Ice and Snow Sports Equipment Industrial Park, workers of an ice and snow equipment company check the quality of snow machines in the workshop. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Shiyao
Wang Tiejun, deputy director of the Zhangjiakou Municipal Bureau of Commerce, introduced that in the past few years, the local ice and snow equipment industry base integrating ice and snow equipment research and development, design, manufacturing and testing has begun to take shape, and a series of locally produced ice and snow equipment have been introduced and put into application.
A series of well-known Chinese sports brands are also optimistic about the ice and snow market, and strive to lay out ice and snow equipment manufacturing. ANTA, Peak, etc. not only acquired international winter outdoor brands, but also actively invested in independent research and development.
In the three major winter Olympic villages of the Beijing Winter Olympics, many fitness equipment is from the local brand Shuhua Sports in Fujian, a strong province with a strong sports industry. "Based on the feedback from the coaching and athlete team of the Chinese Ice and Snow National Team, the research and development of our Winter Olympic products is relatively smooth." Hao Jinhui, head of the physical fitness department of Shuhua Sports, introduced that according to the types and characteristics of different competition projects, the R&D team has configured nearly a thousand pieces of fitness equipment according to local conditions, and carried out spatial planning and sports function partitioning.
Fitness professionals experience fitness equipment at the Beijing Winter Olympic Village Fitness Center. (Courtesy of the interviewee)
The "Ice and Snow Sports Development Plan (2016-2025)" pointed out that it is necessary to innovate and develop the ice and snow equipment manufacturing industry, and support the development of ice and snow products enterprises and clothing, shoes and hats with their own brands. According to the "Ice and Snow Equipment Industry Development Action Plan (2019-2022)" jointly issued by nine ministries and commissions of China, in 2022, China's ice and snow equipment industry is expected to have an annual sales revenue of more than 20 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of more than 20%.
Bai Yufei, a professor at the Sports Business School of Beijing Sport University, believes that skiing in European and American countries has a long history, and its brand has entered the field of ice and snow equipment early, which has become a symbol of high quality in the hearts of consumers at home and abroad, so this market is relatively solidified.
"In this situation, there is pressure on national brands to cultivate consumer loyalty." Bai Yufei said, "In the future, we can support our own brands through the establishment of ice and snow equipment industry alliances and other ways. ”
Text reporters: Yan Qilei, Chu Mengmeng, Qin Jing, Zhao Xuetong, Yang Fan
Video reporters: Feng Weijian, Wang Min