News Information

The 2024 Work Mobilization Conference of the China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation was held in Beijing. Li  Shousheng, President of the Petrochemical Federation,  introduced the overall development of the petroleum and chemical industry in 2023,  analyzed the situation and challenges faced by the industry in 2024,  and deployed six key tasks for the industry to make steady progress in 2024.

Looking back at the just passed year of 2023, Li Shousheng summarized it in three words:  extremely difficult, extremely hardworking, and extremely unforgettable.

Li Shousheng stated that 2023 will be an extremely difficult year for the development environment of the entire  industry. The industry has encountered rare high inflation shocks in history,  posing significant challenges to profit levels;  The US containment policy towards China has had a profound impact on the global supply chain and trade landscape;  The conflict between Russia-Ukraine conflict and the geopolitical conflict intensified,  bringing huge "spillover" effects to industry imports and exports and energy prices;  The insufficient domestic market demand has also brought enormous pressure to the economic operation of the entire  industry.

 The vast number of cadres and employees of the professional associations and public institutions of the petrochemical federation system have made extremely memorable achievements with extremely desperate efforts." Li Shousheng said that in 2023, the petrochemical industry has made new achievements in energy security, made new breakthroughs in scientific and technological innovation, made new progress in transformation and upgrading, and entered a new stage of green and low-carbon, contributing a hard-won "industry answer sheet".

Talking about the situation and challenges facing 2024, Li Shousheng believes that from the perspective of the development status of the industry, the current economic operation of China's petroleum and chemical industry is in a critical period of stabilization and recovery, power transformation, climbing over obstacles and high-quality development to build a solid foundation, and the four major contradictions are very prominent: first, the contradiction of insufficient market demand; Second, the serious problem of overcapacity; Third, the contradiction of weak innovation ability; Fourth, the contradiction of lagging green and low-carbon development.

 "In the above four contradictions, the whole industry should pay special attention to the contradiction of overcapacity." The Central Economic Work Conference made it clear that we must persist in deepening supply-side structural reform and focus on expanding the coordinated development of effective demand. Only by adhering to the concept of the system, better coordinating the supply side and the demand side, constantly cultivating and developing new quality productivity, promoting the expansion of domestic demand and optimizing supply, and opening up the breakpoints, blocked points, and stuck points of the combination of the two can we promote the high-quality adjustment of the industrial structure, and promote the sustained recovery of the industry economy and long-term good." Li Shousheng said.

 Li Shousheng pointed out that while seeing the risks and challenges, we must also clearly understand the basis of China's economic development opportunities than challenges. 

"2024 marks the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China. It is a key year for achieving the goals and tasks of the 14th Five-Year Plan. It is a year full of challenges, hopes and opportunities for innovation." Li Shousheng stressed that this year, the petroleum and chemical industry should take the supply-side structural reform as the main line and go all out to do six key work:

 First, make every effort to enhance the industry's high-quality supply capacity. It is necessary to give full play to the advantages of the domestic petrochemical industry with complete categories and solid foundation, face the development of strategic emerging industries, rural revitalization, new and major infrastructure construction, green and low-carbon consumption transformation, and downstream industry demand, continue to promote the supply-side structural reform, consolidate the need for the market, open up the high-end market, optimize the supporting market, and reserve the future market.

Second, we will accelerate innovation-driven development in science and technology. It is necessary to strengthen the leadership of industry innovation, focus on major key technologies with "market demand, research and development foundation, and breakthrough possibility", and concentrate on collaborative research to provide strong support for the high-quality development of the industry; It is necessary to build an industry innovation platform to provide fresh soil for breaking through the key technologies of industry development and transformation and upgrading; It is necessary to cultivate leading enterprises and talents in science and technology, grasp trends and opportunities with excellent strategic vision, and win the initiative in science and technology competition.

 Third, we will take solid steps to resolve the problem of overcapacity. "We must not use today's investments to create tomorrow's disasters." Li Shousheng said that the petrochemical industry should guide the increment, expand effective investment, and invest valuable funds in high-end fields, differentiated fields, green chemistry fields, intelligent big data fields and future frontier fields; To optimize the stock, promote the improvement of quality and efficiency, while optimizing the structure of the basic chemical industry, it is also necessary to focus on the demand for chemical materials in strategic emerging industries such as new energy vehicles, new generation information technology, aerospace, rail transit, energy conservation and environmental protection, and large health, accelerate the transformation and upgrading of advanced and applicable technologies, and increase the intensity of chain extension, chain reinforcement and strong chain. Improve the level of product refinement, specialization and serialization; To do a good job in reducing production and eliminating backward production capacity, we should take the opportunity of the introduction of the "Industrial Structure Adjustment Guidance Catalog (2024)", cooperate with the National Development and Reform Commission and other government departments to do a good job in tracking and sorting out backward products and backward production capacity, do a good job in verification, and resolutely eliminate a number of backward production capacity.

Fourth, we will strive to cultivate new quality productive forces. New quality productivity is the competitive productivity for the future, the petrochemical industry must speed up the cultivation, and continue to grow, the specific measures include cultivating a number of world-class enterprises, bold exploration of cross-border integration and development, to ensure the safety of the industrial chain and supply chain.

 Fifth, accelerate the transition to green and low-carbon development. The Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and The State Council on Comprehensively Promoting the Construction of a Beautiful China put forward three stages of goals, requiring transformation in all fields, all-round improvement, regional construction, and social action. This year, the petrochemical industry should have solid measures and hard measures to create a new situation of green and low-carbon circular development, including improving the green and low-carbon standard system, promoting the green transformation of data intelligence, and highlighting safety and environmental protection issues.

Sixth, we will accelerate the improvement of our service capabilities. It is necessary to organize the economic operation of the whole industry to get off to a good start; Organize industry-wide research on supply-side structural reform; Comprehensively enhance the organization and promotion ability of the Federation to promote supply-side structural reform.