Equipment, in the impression of many people, is often associated with "big blocks", "heavy assets", and "high investment".
Recently, the State Council issued the Action Plan for Promoting Large scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Exchange (hereinafter referred to as the Action Plan), which clearly proposes to "promote a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods exchange" and "implement four major actions: equipment renewal, consumer goods exchange, recycling and reuse, and standard improvement".
What kind of market will device updates leverage? What comprehensive impacts will it bring? Our reporter conducted an interview on this matter.
Benefiting enterprises and benefiting the people, effectively driving effective investment
From industries such as steel, petrochemicals, chemicals, and building materials, to the fields of construction and municipal infrastructure, and then to transportation, agricultural machinery, education, tourism, and medical care, equipment covers all aspects of production and life. Equipment updates hold enormous market potential.
According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission, China is a manufacturing and populous country. In 2023, the investment scale in equipment in industries such as industry and agriculture is about 4.9 trillion yuan. With the deepening of high-quality development, the demand for equipment updates will continue to expand, making it a huge market with an annual scale of over 5 trillion yuan.
In terms of industry, China is a major industrial country, with a total industrial added value of 39.9 trillion yuan in 2023, accounting for 31.7% of GDP. By the end of 2023, the assets of industrial enterprises above designated size in China had exceeded 167 trillion yuan, and the global ownership of various key equipment, such as industrial robots, accounted for one-third of the global total, and the newly installed capacity exceeded half of the global total; The installed capacity of new energy equipment such as wind power has remained global for many consecutive years. "With the deepening of new industrialization, the demand for advanced equipment in the industrial sector will continue to grow, making it a field for large-scale equipment updates," said Yu Xiaohui, President of the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology.
Why push for device updates?
From the perspective of practical needs, with the accelerated upgrading of the industry, there is a need for some equipment to be updated and replaced. In some industrial enterprises, there is a situation where outdated and inefficient equipment has exceeded its service life, and some equipment products have become prominent shortcomings that restrict transformation, upgrading, and development. Taking electric motors as an example, currently the total number of electric motors in China exceeds 3 billion kilowatts, accounting for more than half of the total electricity consumption in society. However, the proportion of in-service electric motors is only about 20%. For example, in recent years, China's new energy industry has developed rapidly, with a large number of new energy equipment such as wind power and photovoltaics being used. The installed capacity has remained stable in the world, but some equipment will face the problem of mass retirement. According to calculations, by the end of the 14th Five Year Plan period, the scale of old wind farms that have been operating for more than 20 years will exceed 1.2 million kilowatts; Starting from 2030, photovoltaic modules will also enter a period of intensive scrapping, with a cumulative capacity of 17.8 million kilowatts to be recycled over 30 years.
From the perspective of the overall economic situation, the Chinese economy is showing a rebound and improvement trend, but still faces challenges such as insufficient effective demand and weak social expectations. "We need to leverage the fundamental role of consumption in economic development, further stimulate effective investment, stimulate potential consumption, form a virtuous cycle of mutual promotion between consumption and investment, effectively enhance economic vitality, improve social expectations, and consolidate the recovery trend of domestic demand."