TPT March 2025

INTERVIEW

FD Machinery Company

some potential customers because of this, the company’s regulations are firm and unshakable. From this perspective, the previous crisis was actually caused by us and we will take this as a warning. n How do you see the tube and pipe industry changing over the next few years following the recent pandemic and problems with a global recession and so on? What do you think the tube industry in general can learn for the future? For a company of FD’s size, the global economic recession has not had much of an impact. Instead, due to the recession, people’s investments have become more rational and long-term, and they place greater importance on the performance and quality of equipment. Our contract value has doubled for two consecutive years. Since the requirements for the equipment are relatively high-end, the contract prices are also quite fair. With the advancement of equipment, the industry may develop in a more diversified and specialised way in the future, which can reduce costs to a greater extent. For example, with the miniaturisation of steel pipe factories, the cutting centres will make a comeback. Different from before, this time, through a certain form of industry association, a unified and reasonable price will be negotiated to directly provide the raw material specifications required by customers and undertake the delivery of steel pipes. Technology and equipment service companies will also emerge, directly serving factories, including providing spare parts, equipment maintenance and personnel training. Even supplying operators. Factories only need to pay service fees according to their output. The association will play a role in market segmentation, dividing sales regions and controlling the sales price range to avoid vicious competition. As factories become more decentralised, the transportation distance of steel pipes is shortened. With specialised division of labour, each party earns its own money. The main task of factories is to sign supply and sales contracts. Large factories will be replaced by family workshops equipped with highly automated equipment. The steel pipe manufacturing industry, a large-scale industrial sector, will be the first to be transformed into a happy factory where people can work and live with dignity, allowing them to fully enjoy the pleasures of a slow life. n What advice would you give to someone trying to make it in the tube industry as you did yourself? If a student or young person wanted to get involved, what should they do to succeed? Love the job you do. Only when you love your work is it possible to achieve good performance.

hard, these difficulties can basically be overcome. Our company is not very large, and there isn’t too much pressure associated with our positions. The most difficult times occur when we face force majeure situations such as the Covid 19 pandemic. It’s most agonising when the lives and even safety of our employees who are on-site for debugging are threatened, yet we feel powerless. n What’s the most exciting or challenging project you have been involved in during your career so far? In 2005, we put into production the world’s first heavy duty flexible rectangular and square tube production line. For tubes with a size of 500mm/20mm, 90 per cent of the rolls can change specifications through adjustment without the need for replacement. Since then, the flexible rectangular and square tube units have no longer been restricted by specifications and wall thicknesses. Now, all large-scale flexible rectangular and square tube units internationally use this technology. Although I feel a bit helpless, it’s still exciting. This is one of the most challenging projects I’ve ever worked on. The subsequent projects such as robot roll-changing and high-speed double-car saw units are also very challenging. All these technologies took eight to 10 years from project initiation to full maturity and went through more than three practical projects. So here, I would like to express my gratitude to these three customers. Even though this equipment was later modified, I still want to thank them all for their strong support. n What is the worst crisis you or your company have faced in your role – and what is the best lesson you learned from the tough moments? The most serious crisis occurred when our core technology was stolen, causing a large number of copycat products to flood into the market in an instant. We were caught off guard. It was also at that time that the number of employees in FD decreased from more than 300 to 50 and the output value dropped from tens of millions of dollars to just hundreds of thousands of dollars. The company then entered its second start-up phase. Today FD has professional patent engineers and very strict management of technical materials. Although we have lost

FD Machinery www.fdmachinery.com

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MARCH 2025