Valve Industry Output in First Half of the Year Exceeds 630 Million Yuan!

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, the valve industry in Huojia County, Xinxiang City, Henan Province, was renowned nationwide. However, with the rapid development of the market economy, drawbacks of the local outdated production model became increasingly prominent, leaving the industry in a predicament. Today, Huojia County is revitalizing the industry through high-endization and intelligence. By implementing a series of measures such as park planning, equipment upgrading, and talent attraction, it has broken through technical bottlenecks and formed an industrial cluster. Currently, the qualification rate of Huojia's valve products ranks among the top in China, with products exported to home and abroad.From family workshop-style production to modern manufacturing, how did Huojia's valve industry achieve its transformation? What lies ahead as it strides toward the goal of becoming a "China High-end Valve Industry Base"?Transformation ChoiceIntelligent equipment such as laser cutting machines and robotic arms are scientifically arranged to precisely manufacture precision components. On digital dashboards, efficiency and quality data of each production line are updated in real time, making everything clear at a glance... Inside the Valve Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Park in the southern district of Huojia County's Industrial Agglomeration Area, advanced intelligent production workshops are reshaping people's perceptions of traditional manufacturing."In the modern industrial system, valves are the 'key switches' for fluid control. From precision instruments in aerospace to tap valves in ordinary households, they are indispensable," said Zhao Yubin, President of Huojia County Valve Industry Association, highlighting the industry's importance.Walking into the finished product area, a sleek silver stainless steel special valve catches the eye. "This customized product, specifically designed for deep-sea engineering, adopts self-developed corrosion-resistant alloy materials. Its surface finish and sealing precision have reached internationally leading standards," said Li Shaowei, Chairman of Kaigao Valve Co., Ltd., with pride.Such a scene was unimaginable in Huojia County many years ago. Around 2010, Huojia's valve industry was trapped in a quagmire of "low-level internal competition." Among over 120 valve enterprises in the county, more than 90% were family workshops, equipped mainly with outdated lathes. Their processes were limited to basic machining such as turning, milling, and grinding, and products were mostly low-pressure ordinary valves with low technological content, yielding a profit margin of less than 10%. More critically, the scattered production model made environmental governance difficult and quality standards inconsistent. Some enterprises were ordered to rectify due to excessive dust and direct discharge of wastewater, resulting in severe order losses and an endangered survival."Our valve industry started early, but times are changing. If we fail to keep pace with the times and improve quality, we can only earn meager processing fees and face the constant risk of being eliminated by the market," said Li Jinglei, person in charge of Xinxiang Naite Valve Factory, who has been in the valve industry for 20 years. At that time, transformation was no longer a "choice" but a "must-answer question" for Huojia's valves to survive.Mutual EndeavorHow to "turn on" the valve for development and inject vitality into the traditional industry? In recent years, Huojia County has taken "industry-driven county development" as its foundational strategy, aiming to "strive for excellence in industrial upgrading" and pressing the "accelerator button" for the valve industry's transformation and upgrading.To address the problem of scattered enterprises, Huojia County specially allocated 179 mu of land to build a valve industrial agglomeration area. It has constructed supporting public service platforms for settled enterprises, including sewage treatment plants and solid waste recycling centers, solving environmental protection and quality control issues at the source. To date, 14 scattered enterprises have taken the lead in completing the "relocation from villages to parks," realizing intensive development featuring "unified planning, unified pollution control, and unified testing."Data shows that after the completion of the industrial agglomeration area, the average production efficiency of Huojia's valve enterprises has increased by over 30%, and the product qualification rate has jumped from 85% to 99.2%, gradually shedding the label of "low-price and low-quality."Zhao Shikun, a post-80s entrepreneur from Huojia's Kangnan Village and founder of Henan Yuquan Valve Co., Ltd., brought back his business experience accumulated since starting his career to Huojia, joining hands with the development of the valve industry. "With the factory built and scaled up, more and more local workers in Huojia have returned to work in their hometown," said Zhao Shikun with satisfaction."I used to work in a valve enterprise in Zhejiang and gained a lot of work experience. Now working in the hometown valve industrial park, the treatment is good, and most importantly, I can take care of my family while earning money—it's a win-win," Yang Xiaoli, busy on the mold production line, told reporters with a smile. She and her colleagues are full of confidence in the future, thanks to the good working environment and stable salaries in the hometown industrial park.RebirthEnterprise settlement and production, as well as industrial park incubation, are only part of Huojia's valve industry's rebirth. How to achieve long-term development and gain a firm foothold in fierce market competition? Technological innovation and industrial chain integration are Huojia's answers.At the core of Huojia's Valve Industrial Agglomeration Area stands a stone tablet inscribed with "Produce reliable valves, be responsible enterprises." In the 1980s, Huojia's first batch of valve factories emerged amid the planned economy. At that time, valve workers proposed the "Four Reliable Principles": "Reliable to oneself, reliable to inspectors, reliable to users, and reliable to the country." Today, this principle has been endowed with new connotations in the new era, becoming the "core code" driving the industry toward high-endization.For the valve industry to truly "stand firm," technological renewal and product iteration are essential. To this end, Huojia's Valve Industrial Park has taken the initiative to cooperate with universities such as Kaifeng University Valve College and Zhongyuan University of Technology, establishing professional R&D teams. It focuses on tackling key areas such as high-temperature and high-pressure valve sealing technology and intelligent control valve chip integration, injecting "scientific and technological momentum" into industrial upgrading."Relocating from villages to the park is not just a change of production location, but the start of the enterprise's rebirth," Li Shaowei said with determination in his eyes. Relocation and equipment upgrading have become key leverage points to break the industrial predicament. Today, Kaigao Valve's product range has long exceeded past limitations. Steel and stainless steel valves have successively overcome technical bottlenecks, with over 1,600 specifications of industrial valves applied in key national fields such as petroleum, natural gas, metallurgy, and electric power. "Many people thought I was foolish—production costs in the village were low, and moving to the park would incur huge rental expenses," Li Shaowei said, pointing to a trial-production line in the intelligent workshop. "Look, now one worker can operate 6 CNC machine tools, greatly improving production efficiency. That's the value of upgrading."In the testing laboratory of Henan Yuxin Valve Co., Ltd., engineers are testing a batch of high-temperature valves to be exported to Southeast Asia, ensuring each product meets international standards. On the digital screen of Henan Zhongyuan Valve Co., Ltd., order data from provinces such as Hebei and Gansu jumps in real time, witnessing Huojia valves' competitiveness. At the shared spraying center at the other end of the park, the automated production line of Henan Kangfa Spraying Co., Ltd. operates efficiently, providing unified and high-quality surface treatment services for valve bodies of different enterprises, realizing resource sharing and cost sharing."We not only aim to produce high-quality products but also build a sound industrial ecosystem," introduced Wang Xingang, Director of Huojia County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology. Currently, the county has formed an industrial cluster with over 40 valve enterprises developing in coordination. A complete industrial chain closed loop has taken shape, covering R&D, casting, precision machining, testing, spraying, and export. All links are efficiently linked, bursting with strong synergy.From workshop-style production with "fires burning in every village and smoke rising from every household" to building a nationally renowned high-end valve industrial cluster; from relying on low-price competition for "commodity products" to breaking foreign monopolies and serving major national projects... Huojia's valve industry has embarked on a transformation path of "breaking out of the cocoon and becoming a butterfly" for traditional manufacturing in more than 10 years. Today, the valve products produced here cover over 10 varieties and more than 100 models, including gate valves, butterfly valves, and ball valves, exported to more than 20 countries and regions in Southeast Asia, Africa, etc. In the first half of this year, the output value of Huojia's valve industry exceeded 630 million yuan.