Large-scale equipment refresh is progressing steadily

Source: Economic Daily

In recent years, with the acceleration of the pace of industrial upgrading in mainland China, the demand for new equipment has been growing. Promoting large-scale equipment renewal is not only conducive to meeting the needs of enterprise development, but also conducive to promoting the high-quality development of the industry. At the beginning of this year, the executive meeting of the State Council deliberated and adopted the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in".

Accelerate the implementation of policies

Recently, 11 departments including the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Transportation jointly issued the "Jiangxi Provincial Transportation Field Large-scale Equipment Renewal Action Plan", focusing on the three major areas of urban new energy buses, old operating trucks and old operating ships, and implementing seven major actions of electrification and replacement of urban passenger vehicles, elimination and renewal of old operating diesel trucks, scrapping and updating of old operating ships, replacement of old equipment for postal express, renewal and transformation of logistics facilities and equipment, digital transformation and upgrading of infrastructure, and standard improvement. At the same time, focusing on the three major areas of urban new energy buses, diesel trucks operating at and below the third level and old operating ships, the "Implementation Rules for the Renewal Subsidy for New Energy City Buses and Power Batteries in Jiangxi Province", the "Implementation Rules for the Scrapping and Renewal Subsidy for Old Operating Trucks in Jiangxi Province" and the "Implementation Plan for the Scrapping and Renewal Subsidy for Old Transportation Ships in Jiangxi Province" were issued to promote the energy-saving and low-carbon transformation of transportation equipment and facilities.

"For public transport companies, the introduction of subsidy policies has saved car purchase and energy costs, and also allowed us to enjoy the improvement of equipment efficiency. On the one hand, the subsidy for new car renewal can directly save part of the cost of car purchase; On the other hand, the renewal of power batteries will effectively save energy costs. Fu Shengshu, deputy director of the maintenance department of Nanchang Public Transport Group in Jiangxi Province, told reporters.

According to the "Sichuan Province Implementation Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" issued in May this year, Sichuan has clarified four major actions to promote large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in. At the same time, 7 supporting policies have been clarified from the aspects of finance and taxation, finance, factors and innovation, and 50 key measures have been listed in the attached list. Recently, Sichuan issued the "Several Policies and Measures to Further Support Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in" to support large-scale technological transformation and equipment renewal in the industrial field, from July 24, 2024 to December 31, 2027, 3 billion yuan will be allocated every year to support projects such as equipment upgrading, intelligent transformation and digital transformation, green and low-carbon, safe production, and microtechnological transformation in the industrial field.

This year, Ningxia launched the implementation of equipment renewal, consumer goods trade-in, recycling, and standard improvement, and introduced 25 implementation plans and supporting policies. According to statistics, this year, Ningxia has completed the renewal of 21,500 sets of equipment, scrapped and updated 14,100 sets of agricultural machinery, and purchased and updated more than 32,000 pieces (sets) of education, teaching and scientific research instruments and equipment. From January to August, Ningxia's investment in industrial technological transformation increased by 14.2% year-on-year, and the investment in the purchase of equipment and tools increased by 8.6% year-on-year, which strongly stimulated investment growth.

Grasp the key links

"The industrial field is the main demand side for equipment renewal, and it is also an important supply side for the trade-in of consumer goods and an important carrier for resource recycling." Zeng Jiming, deputy director of the Sichuan Provincial Department of Economy and Information Technology, said that the total industrial assets of Sichuan are nearly 7 trillion yuan, and the annual investment demand for equipment renewal exceeds 250 billion yuan. It is understood that at present, Sichuan has reserved and implemented more than 4,000 equipment renewal projects in the industrial field, with a total investment of more than 960 billion yuan, which has strongly supported the rapid growth of industrial investment. From January to July this year, Sichuan's industrial investment and technological transformation investment increased by 13.9 percent and 9 percent respectively, of which equipment investment increased by 7.3 percent.

In order to comply with the new wave of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods, Sichuan has accelerated the implementation of support measures. Chengdu High-tech Zone proposed that this year, it will strive to achieve an investment of 7.6 billion yuan in the renewal of equipment in the industrial field. "Chengdu High-tech Zone will work hard and increase horsepower, actively strive for the first batch of industrial technological transformation pilots in Sichuan Province, promote the overall implementation of equipment renewal and technological transformation of key industrial chain owners and chain-affiliated enterprises, accelerate the construction of intelligent transformation and digital transformation empowerment platform, and promote enterprises to carry out production process upgrading and advanced equipment renewal around intelligent and digital transformation." Wang Feng, director of the Economic and Information Department of the Development and Reform Bureau of Chengdu High-tech Zone, said.

Wu Qingfu, vice president of Chengdu First Technology Co., Ltd., a national-level specialized and new "little giant" enterprise, introduced that the company's funds for equipment renewal and information transformation come from self-raising and government financial support, including major scientific and technological special support in Sichuan Province.

Ningxia has expanded the scope of support for equipment renewal, including equipment renewal in the fields of energy and power, old elevators, as well as energy conservation, carbon reduction and safety transformation in key industries into the scope of ultra-long-term special treasury bond support, from the original 8 fields of industry, environmental infrastructure, transportation, logistics, education, cultural tourism, medical care and other fields of equipment renewal and recycling to 11 fields. Jiang Zhewen, deputy director of the Development and Reform Commission of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said that Ningxia combined with the characteristics of the local agricultural industry to include six types of agricultural machinery, including green (yellow) feed harvesters, mowing (flattening) machines, rake machines, feed mixers, full mixed ration preparation machines, and milking machines, into the scope of scrapping and renewal subsidies, so as to better promote the renewal of equipment in the agricultural field.

The guarantee and supervision of financial funds is the key link in strengthening the work of "two new". Zhu Jian, deputy director of the Department of Finance of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, said that on the one hand, Ningxia will actively apply for enterprise loan discount funds according to the approval of the national equipment renewal project; On the other hand, it actively connects with the ecological environment department, declares and strives for special funds, and further supports the comprehensive utilization of waste electrical and electronic recycling.

In addition, Ningxia has lowered the threshold for project application in a targeted manner. For example, the requirement of "a total investment of more than 100 million yuan in equipment renewal declaration projects" has been cancelled. The person in charge of the interviewed enterprise said that he expects the equipment renewal policy to be implemented as soon as possible, so that the business entity can fully enjoy the policy dividend and financial living water. Ningxia also continued to optimize the project application methods and processes to improve the efficiency of project application and fund issuance. It is understood that since the implementation of the "two new" afterburner measures, Ningxia has focused on key areas such as industry, transportation, environmental infrastructure, recycling, key energy use, and old elevator transformation, and has strived for 2.378 billion yuan of national ultra-long-term special treasury bonds to support equipment renewal projects, and supported the construction of 73 projects with a total investment of 11.022 billion yuan, and vigorously promoted the equipment renewal, technological transformation, transformation and upgrading of key industries.

As an old industrial city, Ningxia Shizuishan City regards calcium carbide chemical industry, metallurgy, carbon-based materials, coal chemical industry, thermal power generation and other industries as the focus of transformation and upgrading, further clarifies the industrial development direction, improvement goals and development paths, and guides enterprises to accelerate the improvement of innovation-driven, equipment update and iteration level. In order to seize the policy opportunity of large-scale equipment renewal and transformation in the industrial field, the city has accelerated the construction and layout of digital information and artificial intelligence, promoted the intelligent and intelligent transformation of factories and workshops, and further promoted the development of traditional industries to high-end, intelligent, green and integrated, so as to build a modern industrial system.

The benefits for the business are obvious

"After the preliminary declaration, some of the company's equipment renewal projects were included in the list of the first batch of 'equipment renewal loans' in Sichuan, and we are communicating with the cooperative financial institutions designated by the government departments for credit communication, and some projects are actively applying to be included in the Sichuan Province's 'industrial equipment renewal and technological transformation project library', in order to get more financial support." Yao Zhe, director of public affairs of Chengdu Yousaino Biotechnology Co., Ltd., believes that this year, Sichuan's support for equipment renewal in the industrial field has increased significantly, and the policy supports enterprises with "real money", which is worth looking forward to.

Sichuan Kangnuoya Biomedical Technology Co., Ltd. is a pharmaceutical company, and now the company is also taking advantage of the policy of equipment renewal to actively promote equipment upgrades. "The introduction of relevant policies has further boosted the confidence of enterprises to update equipment and technological transformation, and we have successively carried out the upgrading and updating of technical equipment such as integration intelligence and informatization, and have now realized the intelligent operation and management of the whole process from procurement to quality control." Wu Hongtao, vice president of the company, told reporters.

Ma Xinghua, chairman of Jiangxi Jiujiang Zhenxin Shipping Co., Ltd., is very concerned about the implementation of local policies, and the company is preparing to promote equipment renewal according to the time node of the implementation plan, and plans to dismantle 4 old ships and build 2 new energy ships in the future. "After the completion of the new ship, it can not only improve transportation efficiency, reduce maintenance costs, but also improve the overall safety level of the ship." Ma Xinghua said.

Liao Xiaofeng, director of the Planning Department of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Transportation, said that the large-scale equipment renewal of the highway and waterway industry, and the guidance of enterprises to carry out trade-in activities through fiscal, financial and other policies will not only help promote technological innovation and product upgrading of transportation equipment, but also help promote clean energy transportation equipment, and will drive the construction of related supporting facilities. In the next step, the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Transportation will work with local transportation authorities to do a good job in the review of relevant materials and the issuance of subsidies. (Economic Daily reporter Zhong Hualin, Liu Chang, Yang Kaixin, Liu Xing)