The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and six other departments jointly issued the "Action Plan for Accelerating the Renovation and Transformation of Old Equipment in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry (2026-2029)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") recently, which clearly states that by 2029, the task of renovating and transforming old equipment determined in 2025 will be fully completed, and at the same time, a long-term working system of rolling investigation and continuous transformation will be established.
As an important pillar industry of the national economy, the added value of the petrochemical industry in 2025 has accounted for 13.7% of the total added value of China's industry, and the production capacity of more than 20 basic chemical products such as refining and ethylene is at the forefront of the world. However, at present, the petrochemical production system is being "hampered" by a large number of old equipment, and after the issuance of the "Action Plan", the "renovation" related to safety and competitiveness will be carried out step by step.
■■ A trillion yuan of capital "blood transfusion" transformation
"More than 27,000 large-scale petrochemical and chemical production enterprises have been built in China, some of which were built in the early days with low design and construction standards, backward processes, and low levels of automation control, posing significant safety and environmental risks, having unreasonable layouts, and operating efficiently." At a press conference held recently, Chang Guowu, director of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that accelerating the renovation and upgrading of old equipment in the petrochemical and chemical industry is an important measure to eliminate safety and environmental risks at the source and is also an effective way to improve the technical equipment level of the industry and cultivate new productive forces for development.
However, the huge capital investment, the long construction period of new projects, and the complex approval process, as well as the lagging standard system, have become three major obstacles to the transformation of old equipment in the industry. The biggest constraint comes from the capital, and this policy also focuses on the capital support. It is reported that the state has increased the scale of innovation and technology reform rediscounting to 1.2 trillion yuan from 500 billion yuan, and the interest rate has been reduced from 1.75% to 1.25%. As of the end of November 2025, banks have signed equipment renewal loan contracts with 700 petrochemical and chemical enterprises, with a total amount of more than 330 billion yuan, and the loan balance has exceeded 140 billion yuan.
The funds are in place, but it does not guarantee that the project can start immediately. "Just the approval processes such as project filing, environmental assessment, and safety permits may take a year or so. It is not uncommon for funds to be idle on the books while there is no activity on the construction site, and 'money waiting for people' is a common situation," admitted the head of a petrochemical enterprise.
To this end, the Action Plan has not only mobilized the flow of capital, but is also working to break through the bottlenecks in the approval process. The NDRC and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have made it clear that, in studying the layout of major petrochemical projects, priority will be given to supporting the upgrading and transformation of old equipment, and guiding local governments to establish green channels for approval, and optimize the procedures for project filing, environmental assessment, and safety permits.
"If funds are the blood, then the efficiency of approval is the blood vessels that allow the blood to circulate, and both are indispensable," the person in charge emphasized.
■■ Rolling grassroots investigation and normalization of "one enterprise, one policy"
"The past approach to upgrading old equipment has often been 'one-size-fits-all', with a round of inspections lasting for several years and a batch of updates considered as a cycle. The introduction of the 'Action Plan' should help to change this situation," said the person in charge of the above petrochemical enterprise.
Chang Guowu said that in order to understand the situation of old equipment, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the National Development and Reform Commission and other departments, issued a notice in 2025, organizing local governments to carry out a comprehensive survey and assessment of old equipment in the petrochemical industry that has been in operation for more than 20 years. At present, the comprehensive survey and assessment work of all local governments has been completed, with more than 1,600 sets of old equipment reported, and more than 600 sets of equipment need to be updated and renovated, mainly in the traditional chemical industry.
Zheng Baoshan, vice president of the Planning Institute of the Petroleum and Chemical Industry, said the units involved cover a wide range of sub-sectors, including refining, ethylene, synthetic ammonia, and urea, with nearly 90% being hazardous chemical enterprises. Moreover, it is expected that more sub-sectors, enterprises, and units will be included in the scope of old units over time.
Faced with such a large stock, the Action Plan adopts a three-in-one approach of "list + ledger + rolling assessment": all production facilities that have been in actual production and operation for more than 20 years are registered and accounted for one by one, and enterprises need to develop an implementation plan for upgrading and transformation with "one enterprise, one strategy", and the completion time is generally not more than 5 years. Starting from 2027, each local area will conduct a rolling survey every year, and for the old facilities that do not need to be renovated, a review will be conducted every 3 years. For the facilities that have implemented the renovation, the first review can be postponed to the 6th year after the completion of the renovation.
Over the next four years, this normalized mechanism of "rolling grassroots survey and one policy for each enterprise" will be fully implemented in all petrochemical and chemical enterprises nationwide. From safety and environmental risk investigation to the improvement of intelligent and green levels, each link corresponds to clear acceptance standards. For the petrochemical and chemical industry, which accounts for nearly 14% of the industrial added value, this top-down "health check" and "upgrade" of equipment has become a compulsory question that the industry must face.
■■ Transformation to green and smart
Safety accidents in the petrochemical industry serve as a warning. "The old equipment in the industry not only brings about equipment depreciation, but also the cost of lives and the environment," said a relevant person in charge of a petrochemical enterprise.
If ensuring safety is the "passing line" of this renovation, then transforming towards greening and intelligence is the real "bonус item" that truly widens the gap in the industry. Currently, the structural contradiction of "excessive basic refining capacity and insufficient supply of high-end fine chemicals" is prominent, and the urgent need to transform and upgrade to the mid- and high-end of the industrial chain is pressing. From eliminating the backward to cultivating new productive forces, this renovation carries much more than just the logic of safety; it is a comprehensive reshaping related to the competitiveness of the industry.
To this end, the Action Plan puts forward higher requirements for industry development. In terms of greening, the Action Plan encourages enterprises to promote the green upgrading of production processes, strengthen the synergistic governance of pollution reduction and carbon reduction throughout the whole process, and promote low-carbon transformation from the source. In terms of intelligence, enterprises are encouraged to benchmark the advanced level of the industry, accelerate the promotion and application of advanced technologies, and update and replace industrial software and industrial control systems. For example, China National Petroleum Corporation Lanzhou Petrochemical Company Yulin Branch, as the first ethylene full-business chain intelligent chemical plant in China, has a deeply integrated physical factory and digital factory, forming a massive data lake of more than 200 million pieces of data, and the data processing capacity per minute can reach 30,000 pieces.
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