Seven Departments: By 2029, the renovation and upgrade tasks for outdated petrochemical and chemical installations confirmed by 2025 in various regions will be fully completed.

Everyday News reporter | Zhang Rui    Everyday News editor | Xu Shaohang

On April 3, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the “Action Plan to Further Accelerate the Renewal and Retrofit of Outdated Petrochemical and Chemical Industry Facilities (2026—2029)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”).

The “Action Plan” proposes that by 2029, all renewal and retrofit tasks for outdated petrochemical and chemical facilities that were already identified in 2025 in each locality will be fully completed; after 2026, newly identified renewal and retrofit tasks will be advanced according to plan; and a long-term working system for annual rolling surveys, assessments, and continuous improvement will be continuously strengthened, with the effects of standards-led guidance and policy coordination further enhanced.

(Picture: Scene at the press conference, photographed by Every Daily News reporter Zhang Rui)

On the same day, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference titled “Accelerating the Renewal and Retrofit of Outdated Facilities in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry to Promote the Industry’s Quality Improvement and Upgrading.”

More than one thousand companies have already completed upgrades of outdated facilities or exited through elimination

At the press conference, Chang Guowu, head of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that the petrochemical and chemical industry has a large economic scale and a high degree of industrial interconnection. It plays an important role in stabilizing economic growth, ensuring energy security, and safeguarding the safety of industrial chains and supply chains.

He noted that China’s petrochemical and chemical industry has more than 27k production enterprises above a designated size. Some early-built facilities have relatively low design and construction standards, outdated processes, and insufficient automation control levels, resulting in problems such as high safety and environmental risks, improper layout, and low operating efficiency.

“Accelerating the renewal and retrofit of outdated facilities in the petrochemical and chemical industry is an important measure to eliminate safety and environmental risks at the root, and it is also an effective path to improve the industry’s technology and equipment level and to cultivate and develop new quality productive forces,” he said.

Chang Guowu said that since the 18th CPC National Congress, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, has been actively promoting relocation and retrofit of dangerous chemicals production enterprises in densely populated urban areas and “relocation, renovation, and shutdown” of chemical enterprises along the rivers. More than one thousand companies have completed upgrades of outdated facilities or exited through elimination. However, outdated facilities are a process that continues to generate problems, and renewal and retrofit work still faces many difficulties, requiring greater effort and sustained advancement.

It is against this background that seven departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, jointly issued the “Action Plan.” Around the targets, the “Action Plan” proposes six tasks: carrying out rolling surveys and assessments, formulating renewal and retrofit plans, promoting quality improvement and upgrading, optimizing project management, doing well with acceptance management, and strengthening standards-led support and guidance.

Will work with relevant departments to guide local authorities to establish and improve green approval fast-track channels for renewal and retrofit projects

What are the difficulties in advancing the renewal and retrofit of outdated facilities? How will the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology promote solutions?

In response to this question, Chang Guowu said that based on preliminary investigations, the key difficulties faced in the renewal and retrofit work for outdated facilities mainly fall into three areas:

Specifically, first, the renewal and retrofit of outdated facilities requires large capital investment. In recent years, competition in the petrochemical and chemical industry market has intensified, and companies’ profitability has not been high, leading to significant capital pressures.

Second, there are generally issues in newly built projects, such as large construction volumes, complex processes, and long approval cycles. Typically, a construction period of more than three years is required; some retrofit and upgrade projects require long shutdowns, which may have a certain impact on normal production and business operations of enterprises.

Third, some standard indicators have relatively low requirements. The development of standards that lead high-quality development—such as green and digital transformation—lags overall, and their leading role in guiding enterprises’ renewal and retrofit work is not strong.

“针对上述问题，《方案》提出了针对性的政策措施。”常国武说，在加大资金支持方面，利用大规模设备更新、科技创新和技术改造再贷款等现有政策资金渠道，支持符合条件的老旧装置更新改造。

He said that currently, the country has increased the scale of technology innovation and technical retrofit relending from 500 billion yuan to 1.2 trillion yuan, and reduced the interest rate 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 totaling more than 27k yuan, with an outstanding loan balance of more than 12k yuan. In addition, efforts will be made to facilitate matchmaking between banks and enterprises through platforms such as the credit market service platform and the national production-finance cooperation platform, improving the quality and effectiveness of financial services.

Chang Guowu said that in terms of optimizing project management, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, when studying the layout of major petrochemical projects, will prioritize support for renewal and retrofit projects for outdated facilities. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will, together with relevant departments, guide local authorities to establish and improve green approval fast-track channels for renewal and retrofit projects, strengthen support for factor guarantees, optimize procedures for handling matters such as project filing (approval), environmental impact assessment, and safety permits, improve the efficiency of review and approvals, and accelerate the implementation of projects.

“In strengthening standards-led guidance, a special action plan has been formulated, focusing on addressing weaknesses in standards for renewing and retrofitting outdated facilities,” he said.

Cover image source: Every Daily News media database