Seven Departments: By 2029, the renovation and upgrade tasks for outdated petrochemical and chemical installations confirmed by 2025 in various regions will be fully completed.

Every Daily Reporter | Zhang Rui　Every Daily 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of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the 《Action Plan for Accelerating the Upgrade and Renovation of Outdated Units in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry (2026—2029)》 (hereinafter referred to as the 《Plan》).

The 《Plan》 proposes that by 2029, the upgrade and renovation tasks for outdated petrochemical and chemical units that were already identified by each locality in 2025 will be fully completed. After 2026, newly identified upgrade and renovation tasks will be advanced as scheduled. A long-term working system of annual rolling inventory checks and assessments, along with continuous renovation and improvement, will be steadily improved. The effects of standards-led guidance and policy coordination will be further enhanced.

（Photo: Zhang Rui, Every Daily reporter (at the press conference), photo credit)

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of Industry and Information Technology held a press conference titled “Accelerating the Upgrade and Renovation of Outdated Units in the Petrochemical and Chemical Industry to Promote High-Quality Upgrading and Improvement in the Industry.”

More than 1,000 enterprises have already completed the upgrade and improvement of outdated units or exited after elimination

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

He added that China’s petrochemical and chemical industry includes more than 27k above-scale production enterprises. Some early-built units have relatively low design and construction standards, outdated technology, and not-high levels of automated control. There are problems such as high risks to safety and the environment, irrational layout, and low operating efficiency.

“Accelerating the upgrade and renovation of outdated units in the petrochemical and chemical industry is an important measure to eliminate safety and environmental risks from the root. It is also an effective path to improve the industry’s technological 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 actively promoted the relocation and renovation of hazardous chemicals production enterprises in densely populated urban areas and the “move-renovate-close” of chemical enterprises along the rivers. More than 1,000 enterprises have completed the upgrade and improvement of outdated units or exited after elimination. However, outdated units are a continuously occurring process, and the upgrade and renovation work still faces many difficulties and problems that require greater efforts and sustained advancement.

It is against this backdrop that seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the 《Plan》. Focusing on the goals, the 《Plan》 proposes six tasks: conducting rolling surveys and assessments, formulating upgrade and renovation plans, promoting quality and efficiency improvement, optimizing project management, doing a good job in acceptance management, and strengthening standards-led support.

Will coordinate with relevant departments to guide localities in establishing and improving green channels for approval of upgrade and renovation projects

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

In response, Chang Guowu said that based on preliminary research, the difficulties in the upgrade and renovation of outdated units mainly fall into three areas:

Specifically, first, the upgrade and renovation of outdated units requires a large amount of capital investment. In recent years, competition in the petrochemical and chemical industry’s market has intensified, enterprises’ profitability has not been high, and they face significant funding pressure.

Second, newly constructed category projects generally involve large construction workloads, complex processes, and long approval cycles. Typically, construction periods require more than three years; some upgrade and improvement category projects require longer plant shutdowns, which may have a certain impact on enterprises’ normal production and business operations.

Third, some standard indicators have relatively low requirements. The overall development of standards supporting high-quality development—such as initiatives for greening and digital transformation—lags behind, and the guiding role of standards for enterprises’ upgrade and renovation is not strong.

“In response to the above issues, the 《Plan》 proposes targeted policy measures,” Chang Guowu said. “In increasing financial support, by leveraging existing policy funding channels such as large-scale equipment updates, technology innovation and technology retrofitting re-loans, we will support eligible upgrades and renovations of outdated units.”

He added that currently, the country has increased the scale of technology innovation and technology retrofitting re-loans from RMB 500 billion to RMB 1.2 trillion, and reduced the interest rate from 1.75% to 1.25%. As of the end of November 2025, banks have signed equipment update loan contracts with 700 petrochemical and chemical enterprises totaling more than RMB 8B, with an outstanding loan balance of more than RMB 27k. In addition, by advancing business-to-bank and enterprise-bank matchmaking through platforms such as the credit market service platform and the national industry-finance cooperation platform, financial service quality and effectiveness will be improved.

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 give priority to projects for the upgrade and renovation of outdated units. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will, together with relevant departments, guide localities in establishing and improving green channels for the approval of upgrade and renovation projects, strengthen factor support, and optimize procedures for handling project record-filing (approval), EIA, safety permitting, and other matters. This will improve review and approval efficiency and accelerate project implementation.

“In terms of strengthening standards-led guidance, a special action plan has been formulated, focusing on addressing shortcomings in the standards for upgrading and renovating outdated units,” he said.

Source of cover image: Every Daily Media Resource Library