Seven Departments: By 2029, the renovation and upgrade tasks for outdated petrochemical and chemical installations confirmed by 2025 in various regions will be fully completed.

Our reporter: Zhang Rui｜Our editor: Xu Shaohang

On April 3, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Action Plan for Accelerating the Upgrade and Renovation of Outdated Refining and Petrochemical Equipment in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry (2026—2029) (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”).

The “Action Plan” proposes that by 2029, the upgrade and renovation tasks for outdated refining and petrochemical equipment that have already been identified by local governments in 2025 will be fully completed; upgrade and renovation tasks identified after 2026 will be advanced according to the plan; and a long-term working system for annual rolling surveys and evaluations and continuous improvement will be further strengthened, while the effects of standards-led guidance and policy coordination will be further leveraged.

(Image: Scene of the press conference, photographed by our reporter Zhang Rui)

On the same day, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a news conference titled “Accelerating the Upgrade and Renovation of Outdated Refining and Petrochemical Equipment in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry to Promote Quality Improvement and Upgrading of the Industry.”

More than 1,000 companies have already completed upgrade and improvement or exited by eliminating outdated units

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

He said that China’s refining and petrochemical industry has more than 27k production enterprises above designated size; some early-built units have relatively low design and construction standards, outdated processes, and not high enough levels of automated control, and face problems such as high safety and environmental risks, irrational layout, and low operating efficiency.

“Accelerating the upgrade and renovation of outdated refining and petrochemical units is an important measure to eliminate safety and environmental risks at the source, and it is also an effective path to improve the industry’s technical and equipment level and cultivate and develop new quality productive forces,” he said.

Chang Guowu said that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, has been actively promoting the relocation and renovation of dangerous chemicals production enterprises in densely populated urban areas, and the “relocate-reform-close” policy for chemical enterprises along the river; more than 1,000 companies have completed the upgrade and improvement of outdated units or exited. But outdated units are a continuously occurring process, and the upgrade and renovation work still faces many difficulties and issues, requiring greater efforts and sustained advancement.

It is against this backdrop that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and seven other departments jointly issued the “Action Plan.” With regard to the objectives, the “Action Plan” sets out six tasks, namely carrying out rolling surveys and assessments, formulating upgrade and renovation plans, promoting quality improvement and upgrading, optimizing project management, doing a good job in acceptance management, and strengthening standards to provide support.

Will coordinate with relevant departments to guide local governments to establish and improve a green channel for approval of upgrade and renovation projects

What are the difficulties in advancing the upgrade and renovation of outdated units? How will the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology push to resolve them?

In response to this question, Chang Guowu said that based on preliminary research, the main difficulties faced by the work of upgrading and renovating outdated units are concentrated in three areas:

Specifically, first, upgrading and renovating outdated units requires a large amount of capital investment. In recent years, competition in the refining and petrochemical industry has intensified in the market; corporate profitability has not been high, and funding pressure is relatively large.

Second, newly built projects overall commonly involve problems such as large construction workload, complex processes, and long approval cycles. Generally, the construction period needs more than 3 years; some projects for upgrade and improvement require a longer period of shutdown, which may have a certain impact on normal production and business operations of enterprises.

Third, certain standard indicators are not high. The development of standards for leading high-quality development, such as green and digital transformation, is generally lagging, and the leading role for enterprises’ upgrade and renovation is not strong.

“Addressing the above issues, the ‘Action Plan’ proposes targeted policy measures,” Chang Guowu said. In terms of increasing funding support, by leveraging existing policy funding channels such as large-scale equipment renewal, science and technology innovation, and relending for technology transformation, support will be provided for the upgrade and renovation of outdated units that meet the requirements.

He said that currently, China has increased the scale of relending for science and technology innovation and technology transformation from 500 billion yuan to 1.2 trillion yuan, and lowered the interest rate from 1.75% to 1.25%. As of the end of November 2025, banks had signed equipment renewal loan contracts with 700 refining and petrochemical enterprises totaling more than 27k yuan, with outstanding loan balances of more than 12k yuan. In addition, efforts will also be made to facilitate matchmaking between banks and enterprises through platforms such as the credit market service platform and the national industry-finance cooperation platform, in order to improve the quality and effectiveness of financial services.

Chang Guowu said that in optimizing project management, when the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology are studying the layout of major refining and petrochemical projects, they will prioritize support for projects for the upgrade and renovation of outdated units. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will, together with relevant departments, guide local governments to establish and improve green channels for the approval of upgrade and renovation projects; strengthen factor support; and optimize the procedures for filing/approval of projects (approval), environmental impact assessment, safety permits, and other processes, to improve review and approval efficiency and accelerate the implementation of projects.

“On strengthening standards-led guidance, an action plan for special campaigns has been formulated, focusing on filling the shortcomings in standards for the upgrade and renovation of outdated units,” he said.

Cover image source: our Economic Daily media database