High-end equipment manufacturing, on a larger scale, symbolizes a country's core competitiveness and is related to the country's economy and national defense security. On a smaller scale, it is related to the survival and development of many industries and enterprises. Wang Jinfu, the general manager of Chery Heavy Industry Co., LTD., and other professionals in the equipment manufacturing industry said in a recent interview that over the past decade, China's machinery industry has developed rapidly. China has truly become a major equipment manufacturing country, but it is not yet a powerful one. To realize the dream of "going from big to strong", it is necessary to enhance independent innovation capabilities. Accelerate the cultivation and promotion of the development of independent high-end equipment manufacturing industry.

Wang Jinfu said, "When assessing whether a country's machinery industry is powerful, people pay more attention to several aspects of its performance - whether it has mastered core technologies with independent intellectual property rights, whether it has strong technical capabilities for major equipment, whether it has a high market share of high-end equipment, and whether the quality of its mainstream technical equipment varieties is at the world's leading position." In fact, it all depends on how well the high-end equipment manufacturing industry develops.

In recent years, driven by the state's vigorous efforts to boost domestic demand and a number of encouraging policies, China's machinery and equipment manufacturing industry has achieved strong growth in scale. Wang Jinfu said, "However, the core competitiveness of China's self-owned brand manufacturing industry is generally not strong. There is an overcapacity in the mid-to-low end and the competition is particularly fierce. Many high-end links in industries are firmly controlled by foreign brands." Meanwhile, in terms of key components and core technologies, it has long been "strangled" by foreign brands.

Wang Ruixiang, the president of the China Machinery Industry Federation, believes that China has become a major equipment manufacturing country in the world, but it is an undeniable fact that it is "big but not strong". Especially under the influence of the international financial crisis and the European debt crisis, China's equipment manufacturing industry is facing a severe situation of being blocked in front and pursued from behind. Especially in the field of high-end equipment, developed countries such as the United States and the European Union have begun to gradually bring back the production and processing manufacturing industries of high-tech and high-value-added equipment products from overseas to their home countries, and have adopted many encouraging policies, such as tax reduction and exemption, subsidies and rewards, to encourage investors and manufacturers to return to their home countries.

Wang Ruixiang said that at present, the harsh reality faced by China's equipment manufacturing industry is that advanced technologies rely on imports and high-end products on imports. High-end machine tools, high-end engines, high-end instruments and meters as well as control systems all need to be imported from abroad. Among them, 90% of high-end CNC machine tools are imported, 95% of CNC systems are imported, and 70% of instruments and meters are imported. In the field of basic components, 70% of the high-end functional parts for high-end CNC machine tools need to be imported, and all hydraulic parts with a pressure of over 30MPA required for large-scale construction machinery are imported. Gearboxes with a speed of over 200 kilometers per hour, gearboxes for wind power with a capacity of over 2.5MW, gearboxes for large coal mining machinery, brakes for high-speed trains, and electric-hydraulic drive devices for large shield machines are almost all imported. Although China has carried out joint ventures and cooperative production of Marine diesel engines with advanced foreign enterprises, the key core technologies and brands are still in the hands of foreign enterprises. China has not yet shaken off the status of "working for others" in processing and manufacturing.

Wang Ruixiang emphasized that for China's equipment manufacturing industry, the most crucial thing is still to accelerate the construction of independent research and development capabilities. The state should find ways to provide policy support on the one hand and integrate resources and organize technological breakthroughs on the other. At present, the strength of research institutes in our country is still very scattered. We should find ways to integrate and concentrate them, and colleges and universities should also consider how to get involved. I believe that when the forces of several aspects are combined, our country will surely be able to gradually break through the technological bottlenecks, break the current situation where the high-end equipment market is monopolized by foreign enterprises, and gradually form a high-end equipment manufacturing industry led by high and new technologies, located at the high end of the value chain and the core link of the industrial chain, which can enhance the core competitiveness of the entire industry.

Ren Hongbin, the chairman of Sinomach Group Co., LTD., said that the high-end equipment manufacturing industry is a concentrated reflection of the level of the equipment manufacturing industry and also an important symbol of a country's national strength. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The State Council have clearly included it in the strategic emerging industries to be accelerated to cultivate and develop during the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

To make good use of domestic market demand resources, accelerate the development of China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry, and promote the upgrading of the equipment manufacturing industry, Ren Hongbin and others suggest: First, take domestic market demand as a bargaining chip, operate in accordance with market rules, force developed countries to transfer technology to China, relax export controls on China's high-end equipment, and abandon import restrictions on China's medium and low-end products; Second, formulate procurement policies for high-end equipment that are conducive to independent innovation, and make it clear that key national projects have the obligation to serve as the supporting projects for the localization of high-end equipment. When bidding for project equipment procurement, domestic equipment must be given priority. Quotations to foreign investors should be calculated based on their actual transaction prices in the Chinese market 3 to 5 years ago to prevent them from maliciously lowering prices and suppressing new domestic-funded enterprises entering this field in China.

(Source: Internet)