Ten Year Revitalization Of Light Industry: Ushering In A Broader International Market

"We should eliminate backward production capacity with an iron hand!" This is a tough attitude issued by the State Council 10 years ago. In the face of the international financial crisis, the State Council immediately issued the Light Industry Adjustment and Revitalization Plan, requiring that from 2009 to 2011, efforts should be made to solve the outstanding problems and contradictions in the light industry field. Eliminating backward production capacity is one of the important tasks. The Plan points out that China's light industry must speed up independent innovation and take a new development path of green ecology, quality safety and circular economy.

The report from the field of light industry shows that in the first three quarters of 2018, the main business income of enterprises above the scale of light industry in China was 14.92 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year growth of 6.67%; The profit was 914.564 billion yuan, up 6.85% year on year. This shows that China's light industry has not only completed its tasks on schedule, but also ushered in a broader period of international market opportunities.

"Rushing to the Top" Achieves "Big Manufacturing Countries"

Light industry is China's traditional competitive industry. The light industry includes 21 categories, 69 categories and 213 sub categories in the classification of national economy, including food, paper making and household appliances. It covers the industrial combination group in the fields of clothing, food, housing, transportation, use and entertainment. It is a civilian production industry that meets the increasing material and cultural living standards of the people, and is also an important consumer goods industry that inherits the primary and tertiary industries, It has four significant characteristics of "satisfying domestic demand, exporting, employment pillar and serving agriculture, rural areas and farmers".

Since the founding of New China, due to the economic blockade of western capitalist countries, China's light industry has developed very slowly. We can only rely on the original light industry foundation, rely on the assistance of the former Soviet Union and the camp of socialist countries, constantly absorb advanced technology, and gradually promote the gradual development of light industry. In the 1950s, the light industry sector mainly focused on paper making, sugar making and salt making, and successively established a number of large and medium-sized mechanized production enterprises. Especially with the development of petrochemical industry, China has been able to produce PVC, polyethylene, polypropylene and other series of products. Among them, the output of plastic woven bags, agricultural films and plastic shoes ranks first in the world.

After the reform and opening up, the development of China's light industry ushered in a full outbreak period, which can be described as "rushing forward". Whether state-owned enterprises or private enterprises, as long as they can introduce advanced technology, the government will support "starting". The vigorous development trend has promoted the gradual diversification of light industrial products, and has made positive contributions to improving people's lives, prospering the market, expanding exports, increasing national income, solving labor employment, and promoting socialist construction.

Entering the 21st century, China's light industry has maintained rapid growth. According to statistics, the added value of light industry by enterprises above designated size increased by 5.2 times from 2000 to 2008, with an average annual growth of 22.9%. In 2008, the added value of young industries was 2623.5 billion yuan, accounting for 20.3% of the national industrial added value and 8.7% of GDP. In 2008, the total export volume was 309.2 billion US dollars, accounting for 21.7% of the total export volume of the country, an increase of 3.4 times over 2000, with an average annual growth of 20.2%. Export competitiveness has improved significantly, and China has become an important manufacturing base for light industrial products in the world.

At the same time, the output value of new light industrial products in China increased from 333.7 billion yuan in 2005 to nearly 660 billion yuan in 2008, with an average annual growth of 34.2%. Home appliances, plastics, leather and other industries have introduced foreign technologies and key equipment for digestion and absorption, formed a strong ability of integrated innovation and a certain ability of independent innovation, and formed a light industry production system with Chinese characteristics. There are more than 150 light industry characteristic regions and industrial clusters, with an annual output value of about 1.2 trillion yuan, accounting for about 16% of the total output value of light industry, which has become an important growth point to drive the development of light industry and local economy. Light industry has become an important support for promoting regional economic development in China.

In particular, China's light industry has developed into a livelihood industry with the strongest ability to absorb employment. In 2008, the employment of enterprises above the designated size in light industry reached 20.42 million, accounting for 25% of the employment of industrial enterprises above the designated size nationwide. With enterprises below designated size, the industry has attracted more than 35 million employees. Many small and medium-sized enterprises provide a large number of jobs for migrant workers and urban grassroots workers. 70% of the industries and 50% of the output value of light industry involve the deep processing of agricultural and sideline products, which directly benefits more than 200 million farmers in China and plays an irreplaceable role in increasing farmers' income, promoting agricultural industrialization and accelerating urbanization.

The "financial crisis" promotes the "revitalization plan"

However, it is unexpected that the global financial crisis triggered by the US subprime mortgage crisis has had a huge impact on China's real economy. Since September 2008, China's light industry exports have declined significantly, production halts and closures have increased, product backlog has been serious, employment has decreased, and losses have expanded. The development of China's light industry has entered a most difficult moment.

On February 19, 2009, the executive meeting of the State Council reviewed and approved in principle the Plan for the Adjustment and Revitalization of Light Industry, and issued the Investment Direction for Technological Progress and Technological Transformation of Light Industry (2009-2011) at the same time. The meeting of the State Council pointed out that under the situation that the continuous spread of the international financial crisis had increasingly deepened the impact on China's real economy, the implementation of the Plan would certainly help light industry to strengthen confidence, accelerate structural adjustment, strengthen independent innovation, strive to open up markets, and maintain steady and rapid development of the industry.

On April 6, 2010, the General Office of the State Council issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Work of Eliminating Backward Production Capacities, requiring that the fundamental role of the market in allocating resources be further played, the binding role of laws and regulations and the threshold role of technical standards be fully played, and the elimination of backward production capacities in various industries be accelerated. The Notice also specified the task of eliminating backward production capacity of light industry by the end of 2011: by the end of 2011, eliminate straw pulp production plants with an annual output of less than 34000 tons, chemical pulp production lines with an annual output of less than 17000 tons, and eliminate paper production lines with an annual output of less than 10000 tons using waste paper as raw materials; Eliminate backward alcohol production processes and alcohol production enterprises with an annual output of less than 30000 tons (except for alcohol production from waste molasses); Eliminate monosodium glutamate production facilities with an annual output of less than 30000 tons; Eliminate citric acid production plants that fail to meet environmental standards; Eliminate tanning production lines with annual processing capacity of less than 30000 standard sheets.

Paper industry is one of the most polluted industries in light industry. If the waste water produced by the paper industry is not treated up to the standard, it will be discharged into rivers. The organic substances in the waste water will cause anoxic death of aquatic organisms such as fish and shellfish; The waste gas, smoke and dust generated in the production process and the noise of machinery also affect the health of workers and nearby residents. At present, the capacity expansion of the paper industry has slowed down, and environmental protection has become stricter, accelerating the clearing of backward capacity. Leading enterprises are expected to drive the rapid development of the industry by virtue of cost, scale and other advantages.

Plastic industry is also one of the industries with serious pollution in light industry. As China's efforts to eliminate backward production capacity continue to strengthen, some plastic enterprises have actively eliminated backward production capacity, improved production equipment and process flow, and met China's environmental requirements. Some enterprises go to Malaysia, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries to invest and build factories. As the economic level of these regions is relatively backward, the government has relatively loose requirements on various standards for enterprises, and Vietnam has implemented low tax rates, various preferential policies have enabled these plastic enterprises to regenerate.

Information from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that the task of eliminating backward production capacity in some key industries in China has been basically completed. According to the data, from 2011 to 2014, 19 industries and more than 8000 enterprises including steel, building materials, light industry and food industries were involved in the elimination of backward production capacity in the industrial field, and 77 million tons of backward iron making capacity, 77 million tons of steel making capacity, 600 million tons of cement, 1.6 million tons of electrolytic aluminum and 29 million tons of paper making capacity were eliminated accumulatively, which not only completed the original "12th Five Year Plan" task one year ahead of schedule, but also completed additional tasks.

"Smart light industry" boosts "industrial upgrading"

For China's light industry, 2016 is a turning year. In this year, China's light industry vigorously implemented the "Made in China 2025", "Three Product" special action plan, "Consumer Product Standards and Quality Improvement Plan" and other national strategies, guided by consumption upgrading, driven by innovative development, actively implemented the supply side structural reform, and achieved a good start to the "13th Five Year Plan".

In particular, driven by China's "Belt and Road" initiative, "Internet+" and other national strategies and industrial policies, the light industry system with the main goal of providing consumer goods has begun to enter a new stage of intelligent transformation and upgrading.

On June 20, 2017, the China National Light Industry Federation released the honorary list of "2016 China's Top 100 Light Industry Enterprises", and Haier Group, Wahaha Group, Fenjiu Group and other 100 light industry enterprises were shortlisted.

Public information shows that among the top 100 enterprises selected this time, the most obvious feature is that the pace of intelligent upgrading is significantly accelerated. Haier Group, which tops the list, has explored an intelligent manufacturing model with interconnected factories as the core in recent years. The transformation of this model has brought obvious economic benefits to Haier Group: the operating cost has been reduced by 20%, the product development cycle has been shortened by 20%, the product launch cycle has been shortened by 15%, the product production efficiency has been improved by 20%, the defective product rate has been reduced by 10%, and the annual output value has increased by 10%.

This shows that, as China's light industry adheres to the general tone of seeking progress while maintaining stability, grasping the major opportunity of consumption upgrading, and through strengthening scientific and technological innovation, promoting "integration of industrialization and industrialization", building "smart light industry" and other measures, it has achieved remarkable results in "increasing varieties, improving quality, and building brands", especially the strong development of leading backbone enterprises, which has driven the industry to a high level and a rapid leap forward.

At the same time, China's light industrial products are widely used in various industries. With the development of various industries, the market scale of light manufacturing industry has also expanded rapidly. The in-depth application of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence in the manufacturing field has promoted the growth of the overall benefits of the industry in the process of promoting the production efficiency of the light manufacturing industry.

According to the information released by the China National Light Industry Federation in 2018, by the end of 2017, there were 115256 enterprises above the designated size in China's light industry, with a total revenue of 24.3 trillion yuan from main business, accounting for 20.8% of the national industries above designated size, up 8.3% year on year. The export of China's light industry ended the negative growth for 17 consecutive months and grew rapidly. The total export volume of light industry was 599.84 billion US dollars, up 8.7% year on year, 0.8 percentage points higher than the growth rate of the total export volume of the country. The total export volume of the whole industry accounts for 26.5% of the total export volume of the country, and the trade surplus is 1.03 times of the national trade surplus.

It is understood that China's light industrial commodity exports are mainly concentrated in the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, South Korea, the Netherlands, the Russian Federation, Vietnam, Australia and other countries and regions. Five industries, including leather, fur products and footwear products, household appliances, plastic products, cultural, educational and sports goods, and furniture manufacturing, all have exports of more than 50 billion dollars. ?