Source: Economic Daily

　      The scale of manufacturing industry has ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years

          According to data recently released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in 2022, the added value of China's manufacturing industry will account for nearly 30% of the world, and the scale of manufacturing has ranked first in the world for 13 consecutive years. "The bigger the bigger", what does China's manufacturing industry rely on to form such a scale advantage? How to find new advantages? With these questions in mind, the reporter interviewed relevant experts.

　　 The "two-wheel" drive boosting both quantity and quality

　　According to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics, from January to February this year, the added value of China's manufacturing industry increased by 2.1% year-on-year. Among them, the chemical raw materials and chemical products manufacturing industry increased by 7.8%, the railway, shipbuilding, aerospace and other transportation equipment manufacturing industry increased by 9.7%, and the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry increased by 13.9%, which performed well.

Some subdivided industries have accelerated scale expansion and quality improvement, supporting China's manufacturing scale to rank first in the world for 13 consecutive years. According to statistics, the added value of traditional industries such as chemical products, non-metallic mineral products, and metal products accounted for 28.8% of the total manufacturing industry from 23.5% in 2010 to 28.8% in 2020. The added value of communication equipment, computers and other electronic equipment representing emerging industries increased from 6.5% in 2010 to 7.6% in 2021, and the performance of general and special equipment manufacturing, electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing, transportation equipment manufacturing and other indu

stries was relatively stable.

"The improvement of the competitiveness of traditional industries and the accelerated rise of emerging industries jointly support the continuous expansion of China's manufacturing scale and always maintain the status of the world's largest manufacturing country." Guan Bing, director of the Industrial Economics Research Institute of the CCID Research Institute, said.

At the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2023, there was a lot of discussion about whether China is still the "world's factory". Over the years, the productivity level of China's manufacturing industry has been continuously improved, and enterprises have low production costs and high production efficiency in building factories in China, attracting all kinds of capital to invest in building factories, forming a scale advantage in China's manufacturing industry in terms of production capacity and output.

Zhao Gang, president of Saizhi Industry Research Institute, believes that China has experienced two great transformations to become the "world factory", the first is to rely on huge market advantages, labor advantages, raw materials, land and energy advantages, reform and opening up preferential policy advantages, etc., attracting global manufacturing enterprises to invest in building factories, realizing the global manufacturing industry chain of the low-end manufacturing links to our country gradient transfer, manufacturing enterprises are mainly engaged in the manufacture of products for the Chinese market and the "three to one supplement" for the global market and other product manufacturing. Enterprises pay more attention to the cost advantage of China's factories.

The second time is to rely on the advantages of industrial chain clusters, logistics supply chains, production technology, industrial workers, industrial supporting environment and policy advantages, etc., to achieve the overall layout of the global manufacturing industry chain in China, the company's product manufacturing is both oriented to the Chinese market and the global market, and China's factories have the dual advantages of high production efficiency and low production costs.

At present, from a regional point of view, all localities are actively developing manufacturing. The eastern region has accelerated its transformation and upgrading, taken the lead in cultivating a number of emerging industries, and continued to consolidate the status of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Shandong, Zhejiang and other advantageous provinces, playing the role of "picking the big beam"; The central region and some western regions have risen rapidly, and the proportion of Sichuan, Anhui and Jiangxi in the national manufacturing industry has continued to rise, becoming a "rising star" for continuous industrial growth. "From a regional point of view, several economic growth poles such as the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta, and Chengdu-Chongqing are taking shape, becoming important growth poles driving the development of the manufacturing industry." Guan Bing said.

　　Understanding "big" and "strong" Dialectically

　In 2022, the added value of China's manufacturing industry will account for 27.7% of GDP. Among the world's 500 major industrial products, the output of more than 40% of China's products ranks first in the world. 65 manufacturing enterprises were shortlisted for the list of the world's top 500 enterprises in 2022, and more than 70,000 specialized and special new small and medium-sized enterprises were cultivated. According to the classification of national economic statistics, China's manufacturing industry has 31 categories, 179 middle categories and 609 subcategories, which is the manufacturing industry with the most complete industrial categories and the most complete industrial system in the world.

The industry often says that China's manufacturing industry is large but not strong, so many people think that the scale advantage is not of much use. In this regard, Xu Zhaoyuan, deputy director of the Industry Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the technological progress of the manufacturing industry has a very important "learning by doing" effect, and the larger the production scale of many products, the easier it is to improve technology, improve product quality, and improve production efficiency in production. China's manufacturing scale continues to increase, and the advantages of production efficiency in the core competitiveness of manufacturing industry have an important foundation, including industrial supporting advantages, industrial scale advantages, etc., which can significantly reduce costs.

The "big" of China's manufacturing industry provides a solid foundation for "strong". Zhao Gang believes that "large" has made China's manufacturing industry form economies of scale, many product orders can only achieve large-scale, high-efficiency, high-quality, low-cost production in China, for example, the same electromechanical or equipment products are manufactured in China, raw materials are sufficient, abrasives can be nearby, and the whole machine can achieve mass production.

"Big" can provide more funds, talents and application scenarios for the technological progress of the manufacturing industry, promote China's manufacturing industry to accelerate investment in technology research and development, improve product R & D design, high-end production equipment, advanced process design, advanced basic materials level, and realize the high-end, intelligent and green transformation of the manufacturing industry.

"Big" can also provide more strong support for the rise of Chinese brands. In recent years, Made in China is becoming synonymous with high quality, high efficiency and high cost performance, laying a good foundation for Chinese local brands to become bigger and stronger and form a global influence.

China's manufacturing industry is large-scale and complete, which to a certain extent ensures that the manufacturing industry has strong resilience, large room for maneuver and strong ability to resist risks, which has previously been reflected in the response to the sudden epidemic and the resumption of work and production. In addition, "the new field and new track are largely an extension of the extended chain on the basis of the existing manufacturing industry, or the new application, new format and new model derived from digital empowerment on the basis of the existing industry, and the sound manufacturing system provides more space for the selection and cultivation of China's future industries." Guan Bing said.

Experts believe that China's manufacturing industry "big but not strong" mainly refers to the production capacity and output of China's manufacturing industry, but there are still many shortcomings in product development and design, high-end production equipment, advanced process design, advanced basic materials, high-end brands, etc., compared with the United States, Germany, etc., China is not yet a manufacturing power. China's manufacturing industry from bigger to stronger, from quantitative change to qualitative change, the key two factors are technological progress and enterprise brand building, so that China's manufacturing enterprises have stronger competitiveness at both ends of the "smile curve".

　　Create a new competitive advantage

　Thanks to the application of the digital platform of Inspur Haiyue enterprises, Shandong Dongyuan Group has reduced labor by about 40%, reduced production costs by more than 30%, increased production efficiency by 60%, and significantly improved product quality consistency, becoming the first benchmark bridge and tunnel equipment manufacturing intelligent factory in Jinan's new and old kinetic energy conversion starting area.

At present, the advantages of high production efficiency in China's manufacturing industry are more prominent, and it still has the advantages of industrial chain clusters, logistics supply chains, production technology, high-quality industrial workers, domestic market, industrial supporting environment and industrial policies, etc., and further positively enhances the advantages of economies of scale, but the comparative advantages in production costs are gradually weakening. China's new manufacturing advantages rely on high-end, intelligent and green, enhance the comparative advantages in production efficiency, production costs and green manufacturing, and attract global manufacturing enterprises to continue to expand investment and build factories.

Zhao Gang believes that in terms of high-end, it is necessary to give full play to China's advantages in brand, technology research and development and machine manufacturing in the fields of clean energy, nuclear energy, electric vehicles, new transportation, ships, equipment manufacturing, electronic home appliances, mobile communications, etc., and attract upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain to form industrial chain clusters in China. In terms of intelligence, we should give full play to China's first-mover advantage in the field of digital economy, accelerate the digital transformation of manufacturing, build smart factories and "lighthouse factories", develop industrial Internet and consumer Internet, and use digital technology to improve the large-scale customization, flexible production and network collaboration capabilities of China's manufacturing enterprises, further improve production efficiency, supply chain coordination efficiency, reduce production costs, and form a more competitive efficiency and cost advantage in China's manufacturing industry.

　　Traditional industries account for 80% of the manufacturing industry and are the key to building a manufacturing power. But at present, all localities are paying more attention to emerging industries. In this regard, Guan Bing said that the emerging industry as a whole is still in the development stage, it is still difficult to fill the gap of traditional industries in the short term, and the development of manufacturing industry should walk on "two legs", on the one hand, pay close attention to the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, promote the high-end intelligent and green development of traditional manufacturing, cultivate advanced manufacturing industry clusters, and consolidate and enhance traditional advantageous industries; On the other hand, combined with the advantages of local resource endowments, cultivate a number of emerging industries and future industries, create a new engine to lead future growth, build a modern industrial system, and promote the stability and long-term development of China's economy.

China's manufacturing industry consolidates existing advantages, finds new advantages, the primary task is high-quality development, the key path is technological progress, improve total factor productivity, and build a solid comparative advantage of China's manufacturing industry in global competition. "First, 'upright', we must continue to enhance the competitiveness of China's industrial chain clusters, supply chain efficiency, industrial worker skills and brand influence, and maintain the combined advantages of high production efficiency and low production cost in China's manufacturing industry." The second is 'innovation', we must focus on building an innovation chain, improve the high-end, intelligent and green level of manufacturing, build a world-renowned brand, and form a new competitive advantage in the manufacturing industry. Zhao Gang said. (Huang Xin).