Wang Ruixiang, president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, pointed out that since the 12th Five-Year Plan, as the machinery industry has bid farewell to high-speed growth and entered a period of adjustment and transformation, the deep-seated contradictions accumulated over the long term in the industry have become more prominent. To achieve the industry's "double high" (high quality and high efficiency), it is necessary to break through four constraints on the development of the machinery industry: weak innovation capability, imbalanced industrial structure, insufficient integrated development, and high energy consumption and pollution.
The lack of strong independent innovation capability has always been a prominent issue restricting the development of the machinery industry. Wang Ruixiang introduced that the "Development Outline" proposes that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the internal expenditure on R&D funds of enterprises above designated size should account for no less than 1.5% of their main business income, and for large and medium-sized enterprises, this proportion should not be less than 2.2%.
Imbalanced industrial structure is also a shortcoming. Since the 12th Five-Year Plan, the pace and intensity of structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading in China's machinery industry have accelerated, but problems such as lagging basic development and insufficient high-end supply still exist. On one hand, this is reflected in the high dependence on foreign high-end materials and key components; on the other hand, it is reflected in the insufficient R&D and design capabilities for high value-added and large complete sets of equipment.
"Building a reasonable industrial structure is a basic requirement for achieving the development of China's machinery industry from 'large to strong'." Wang Ruixiang said, "During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the overcapacity in the low-end of the machinery industry should be alleviated, breakthroughs in short-board equipment should be achieved, and the development of high-end equipment and new industries should accelerate, especially in achieving significant breakthroughs in key basic materials, basic processes, and core components, significantly improving the capability to support high-end equipment.
Promoting industrial integration is also a major task for the industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan. "Currently, there are widespread issues in China's machinery industry, such as insufficient integration between main engines and supporting components, insufficient integration between manufacturing and services, and insufficient depth of integration between the two industries." Chen Bin, executive vice president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, said that how to innovate the system and mechanism, break industry boundaries and departmental segmentation, integrate the industrial chain, and promote cross-border integration within and between industries has become a new topic that the machinery industry needs to face under the new normal. "We hope that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, the penetration rate of digital R&D design tools among enterprises above designated size will reach over 75%, the CNC rate of key processes will increase to over 50%, the networking rate of digital production equipment will steadily improve; the overall level of integration of the two industries will reach the 'integrated enhancement' stage, and the intelligent manufacturing demonstration applications in key industries will achieve results; the intelligent level of key complete machine products such as automobiles, machine tools, and construction machinery will be significantly improved," Chen Bin said.
Low carbon is another goal for the Chinese machinery industry during the 13th Five-Year Plan, including a reduction of 18% and 10% in energy consumption per unit of industrial added value and steel consumption, respectively, compared to 2015 for enterprises above designated size; a significant reduction in pollutant emissions from industry enterprises; a significant improvement in the level of circular economy and remanufacturing for complete machine products such as automobiles, construction machinery, and machine tools; a market share of high-efficiency and energy-saving products and equipment reaching 50%, an increase of 10% in the operating efficiency of industrial boiler systems based on the current level, and a 5% reduction in fuel consumption of internal combustion engines based on the current level.
