1. The industry scale is small, regionally dispersed, and enterprises are generally small in scale. Incomplete statistics show that the number of staircase production enterprises nationwide is around 800-1000, indicating a relatively small industry scale. Staircase enterprises are widely distributed around large and medium-sized cities with relatively developed economies, such as Shanghai which currently has more than 100 staircase enterprises, while Hangzhou and Ningbo nearby also have about 100 enterprises. Compared to building materials industries like flooring, the staircase industry has yet to form obvious regional industrial clusters and remains rather scattered. Relatively concentrated areas include Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong, and Beijing. Judging from the current enterprise situation, Chinese staircase enterprises are generally not large in scale, with over 90% being small workshop-style enterprises. Although some well-known enterprises such as Meibu, Yi Ji, Jiebu, and Liu's have emerged [http://www.yzteb.com], accumulating a certain enterprise scale, their output is significantly lower compared to other industries: the largest domestic staircase enterprise currently only has an annual production value of over 100 million yuan for staircase projects in 2005.
2. A wide variety of products, mixed specifications, and low industrialization levels. On one hand, the Chinese consumer market has strong personalized and fashionable characteristics, leading to a wide variety and mixed specifications of staircases. Classified by material, there are solid wood, steel-wood, metal, glass (tread), stone staircases, etc. Compared to materials like stone, glass, and metal, wood is naturally environmentally friendly, visually comfortable, tactilely soft, dignified, elegant, and more approachable, making it very popular among Chinese consumers. Therefore, solid wood and steel-wood staircases have developed rapidly and occupy the majority of the domestic market share. On the other hand, staircase enterprises are small in scale [http://www.winallchina.com], with low mechanization levels. From an overall industry perspective, the level of industrialization in the staircase industry is still quite low. Although well-known enterprises such as Meibu, Yi Ji, Jiebu, and Liu's have made many efforts in product standardization in recent years, the concept of overall (finished, complete set, assembly-type) staircases has not been fully promoted within the industry.
3. Rapid development speed of the industry, lagging industry standards and management. The staircase industry has a long history, but it has only formed an industrial scale in the last two or three years. Compared to the development speed of the industry, the standards of staircase products and the management of the staircase industry are relatively lagging behind. Currently, the only product standard related to the staircase industry is the "Residential Staircase, Handrail, and Banister Industry Standard for Building Industry" [http://www.china-kewen.com], which is relatively simple and vague and does not address core issues such as overall (finished, complete set, assembly-type) staircase products and accessories. Meanwhile, due to the regional dispersion of staircase enterprises, there is a lack of necessary communication and exchange between enterprises, often leading to independent actions and free development. Additionally, because of the small scale of the staircase industry, it has not yet attracted the attention of relevant national departments, and no corresponding association or chamber has been established to manage the industry. As a result, the entire market is basically in a state of disorderly competition.
**Main focus on solid wood staircases** [http://www.china-kewen.com]
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