China's top economic policy-making agency is planning to limit
imports of petrochemical equipment to secure local machinery
producers a larger market share.
According to a proposal by the National Development and Reform
Commission (NDRC), no less than 75 percent of the equipment used in
the petrochemical industry should be sourced from domestic
producers by the end of the 11th Five-year Plan period (2006-2010), the
Shanghai Securities News reported Friday.
The NDRC is soliciting advice from local petrochemical companies
including the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and the
China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation.
The proposal may bring 75 billion yuan worth of orders for
domestic machinery producers as the petrochemical industry spends
around 100 billion yuan in equipment procurement annually, an
official with the CNPC said, declining to give his name.
The proposal on further promoting home-made large-scale
petrochemical equipment requires petrochemical firms to submit a
list of equipment they plan to buy for new projects.
It said China will ban the import of equipment that can be made
by domestic producers and is already widely used, while limiting
those that can be made in China but are not widely used, with tax
policies.
On the banned list are hydrocrackers with an annual production
capacity ranging from 800,000 tons to 2 million tons,
700,000-ton-charge gas compressors, and 300,000-ton-propylene
compressors.
Also on the restriction list are one-million-ton-charge gas
compressors and 600,000-ton-PTA air compressors.
Chinese manufacturers have the ability to produce world-class
petrochemical equipments, said an unnamed expert who participated
in the formulation of the proposal, adding the petrochemical
industry lags behind the power, metallurgy and steel industries in
buying domestic-made production facilities.
China has imported 18 large-scale items of equipment for
ethylene projects and PTA projects in the past 20 years. Currently
most of the equipment for the ethylene projects with a production
capacity of more than one million tons comes from imports, the
expert added.
(Xinhua News Agency July 28, 2007)
