Promote equipment renewal to empower industrial upgrading

Source: Economic Daily

In the final assembly workshop of the tractor factory of Weichai Lovol Smart Agricultural Technology Co., Ltd., workers are assembling smart tractors. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Ziheng

The mainland is the largest manufacturing country, with the added value of the manufacturing industry accounting for about 30% of the world's total, and the number of many types of machinery and equipment ranks first in the world. According to the estimation of relevant institutions, the net asset value of the whole society's equipment stock is about 40 trillion yuan. With the continuous and in-depth promotion of new industrialization and urbanization, the demand for all kinds of equipment renewal is increasing.

At present, it is of great significance to accelerate the implementation of equipment renewal actions to promote industrial upgrading and develop new quality productivity by improving technology, energy consumption, emission and other standards.

Helping to stabilize growth and promote transformation

After the mainland introduced a number of measures to support large-scale equipment renewal and the trade-in of consumer goods (hereinafter referred to as the "two new"), the 150 billion yuan of ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds to support large-scale equipment renewal have been arranged in two batches for all projects. According to preliminary estimates, this year's treasury bond funds will support more than 4,600 equipment renewal projects, with a total investment of nearly 800 billion yuan, which can drive the renewal of more than 2 million units (sets) of various types of equipment, and form an energy saving of about 25 million tons of standard coal per year.

Liu Dechun, director of the Department of Resource Conservation and Environmental Protection of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that positive progress has been made in the renewal of equipment in key areas, and the role of stabilizing growth and promoting transformation has been revealed.

From the perspective of the industrial field, the large-scale equipment renewal policy has prompted the traditional industry to achieve "two accelerations".

Better guide traditional industries to accelerate energy conservation and carbon reduction. The cement industry has historically had high energy consumption and CO2 emissions. "There are still about 16% of cement clinker production capacity in mainland China whose energy efficiency is lower than the benchmark level, and some cement companies have a large number of old equipment, and carrying out renovation and upgrading and equipment renewal is a key measure to promote energy conservation and carbon reduction in the industry." Kong An, former vice president of China Building Materials Industry Planning and Research Institute, said.

It can also promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. According to the data, from January to August, the national industrial equipment investment increased by 11.1% year-on-year, and the investment in technological transformation increased by 10.6% year-on-year, with the growth rate 2.4 and 5.9 percentage points higher than that of the whole year of 2023, respectively. In the second quarter, the penetration rate of digital R&D and design tools in industrial enterprises above designated size reached 83.1%, and the numerical control rate of key processes reached 64.9%, an increase of 1.1 and 1.9 percentage points respectively from the end of 2023.

Zhang Jianhua, deputy director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that all localities take large-scale equipment renewal as the starting point, implement technological transformation and upgrading projects in the manufacturing industry, adhere to market-oriented promotion, standardization guidance, and integrated software and hardware updates, and carry out four major actions of advanced equipment renewal, digital transformation, green equipment promotion, and intrinsic safety level improvement, so as to promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of the manufacturing industry.

From the perspective of the construction and municipal sector, the demand for the renewal of construction and municipal infrastructure equipment is not small, and while obtaining the support of ultra-long-term treasury bond funds, it has increased investment by paying out of pocket and raising more than 40 billion yuan.

Xing Haifeng, a first-level inspector of the Department of Urban Construction of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that at present, more than 6,400 water supply plants, sewage treatment plants, heat exchange stations, liquefied gas filling stations, garbage disposal stations and other facilities and related equipment have been updated. Completed the renewal of 21 million sets/pieces of equipment in residential old elevators, water supply and drainage equipment, sanitation equipment, construction equipment, lifeline projects, etc.; Completed 22 million square meters of energy-saving renovation of buildings.

From the perspective of transportation and agriculture, from January to August this year, the number of electrified replacement of urban buses, the renewal of old operating trucks, and the renewal of old operating ships increased significantly; The number of scrapped vehicles recycled nationwide was 4.21 million, a year-on-year increase of 42.4%, and it has reached more than 90% of the annual scrapped volume last year. The scrapping and renewal of old agricultural machinery was further promoted, driving the investment in agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and fishery to increase by 5.2% year-on-year.

Focus on supporting small and medium-sized enterprises

After the introduction of a number of measures to strengthen support for the "two new", the relevant support policies of the central and local governments have taken the benefit of more small and medium-sized enterprises as an important consideration. Through these measures, we can help willing enterprises solve problems such as shortage of funds and failure to meet the project declaration threshold, so as to update equipment in a timely manner.

The 12,000 specialized and special new enterprises are the most dynamic innovation groups in Jiangsu Province. In order to solve the problem of financing for equipment renewal of small and medium-sized enterprises, Jiangsu Province has introduced "specialized, special and new loans" to provide enterprises with two types of support: working capital loans and project loans, with a maximum loan amount of 30 million yuan for a single household. As of September 20, 11.26 billion yuan of "specialized, special and new loans" have been invested, benefiting 1,542 specialized and special new enterprises. "For non-performing loans, it is clear that the provincial inclusive financial development risk compensation fund will give up to 80% of the risk compensation to eliminate the worries of banks." Shen Jianrong, Secretary of the Party Group and Director of the Jiangsu Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said.

As a large province of private economy, Zhejiang Province has a huge demand for machinery and equipment owned and updated by private enterprises. To this end, Zhejiang Province has compiled and released three lists of high-end equipment supply, key equipment renewal, and enterprise financing needs. Since the beginning of this year, Zhejiang Province, cities and counties have organized 436 "Ten Chains, 100 Fields and 10,000 Enterprises" docking activities, with more than 43,000 enterprises participating, helping enterprises to dock orders of more than 60 billion yuan.

In addition, in view of the high threshold for the declaration of equipment renewal projects in industrial and other fields, and the difficulty of small and medium-sized enterprise projects to meet the requirements, the central level optimizes the project application conditions; In the transformation of energy conservation and carbon reduction in key industries, projects that save more than 500,000 kWh of electricity per year or more than 150 tons of standard coal per year after equipment renovation will be included in the scope of support, so as to benefit more small and medium-sized enterprises; Carry out pilot cities for new technological transformation of manufacturing industry and pilot cities for digital transformation of small and medium-sized enterprises, set up special guidance funds, focus on supporting the digital transformation of key enterprises, industrial chains, and science and technology industrial parks, and build a number of demonstration projects.

Better play the benefit of funds

Machinery and equipment are an important part of productivity and the "skeleton" of the modern industrial system. "Promoting a new round of large-scale equipment renewal is not a short-term economic stimulus measure, but a medium- and long-term measure to consolidate the foundation." Liu Dechun said.

At the same time as the central level takes out "real money", all localities also adopt investment subsidies, loan discounts, equity investment, financial leasing and guarantee subsidies and other ways to support equipment renewal.

Zhejiang Province has formulated and issued the "Work Plan for Using Financial Leasing Tools to Support Equipment Renewal" to comprehensively promote the development of the real economy of financial leasing services. For example, Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, launched the first comprehensive service platform "Equipment Home" APP, providing one-stop services such as equipment financing, new machine procurement, and direct sales of old machines, and has provided more than 430,000 units of equipment renewal support for 35,000 enterprises with a total amount of 30.3 billion yuan. "Give full play to the characteristic advantages of the combination of 'financing' and 'financing' in the financial leasing industry, and provide flexible, convenient and low-cost financial support for enterprise equipment renewal." Zhang Chunhua, member of the party group and deputy director of the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said.

Science and technology innovation enterprises are an important force in the development of new quality productivity in Jiangsu. In order to meet the needs of enterprises for equipment renewal, Jiangsu Province has introduced a policy of interest discount for the first loan of scientific and technological innovation enterprises. For the first loan of qualified science and technology enterprises, the provincial finance will give an annualized interest discount of 1% of the loan amount, and the maximum loan amount for a single household is 20 million yuan. As of September 20, 684 scientific and technological innovation enterprises have submitted their first loan needs, with a total amount of 3.534 billion yuan, of which 93% of the loans to technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises have been submitted.

Promoting large-scale equipment renewal will inevitably bring the problem of how to recycle and dispose of waste equipment, and systematically building a recycling and recycling system is an important way to solve such problems, and it is also a key link to promote the "two new" actions.

Li Donghui, Secretary of the Party Leadership Group and Director of the Hubei Provincial Development and Reform Commission, said that relying on the leading enterprises in Hubei Province and using digital technology as a means to seize the opportunity of "replacement", drive the recycling of "old ones", promote the effective docking of supply and demand, and form a benign interactive pattern of resource recycling. At present, there are 4,728 renewable resource recycling and processing enterprises in Hubei Province, with an annual utilization of more than 12 million tons of major renewable resources.

In the next step, it is necessary to continue to promote energy efficiency, safety, and technical diagnosis in key industries, actively use big data and other means to accurately solve problems, further promote the superposition of policy effects, and empower enterprises to upgrade and renew industries with equipment renewal. (Economic Daily reporter Feng Qiyu)