(Economic Observation) China’s promotion of a new round of "trade-in" will bring many benefits.
China news agency, Beijing, March 1 ST: China’s promotion of a new round of "trade-in" will bring many benefits
China News Service reporter Liu Liang
The fourth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Committee held recently proposed to encourage and guide a new round of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods, and make detailed arrangements for this. According to industry analysts, accelerating product upgrading is an important measure to promote high-quality development, which will not only help promote investment and consumption growth, but also bring many benefits.
Realistic consideration of "trade-in"
A new round of "trade-in" has long been a policy deployment. At the end of 2023, the Central Economic Work Conference proposed to promote large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods by improving standards such as technology, energy consumption and emissions. The fourth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Committee will further clarify the deployment.
Ma Mao, Vice Chairman of the Presidium of the Board of Directors of China Household Electrical Appliances Service and Maintenance Association, said that a new round of "trade-in" is a realistic need to stimulate investment and consumption. At present, China’s macro-economy is generally in the recovery period after the epidemic, and the trend of recovery has not changed. However, the home appliance industry generally faces some difficulties and challenges, especially the lack of effective demand and the weak willingness of residents to consume and invest in enterprises. Promoting a new round of "trade-in" will help to expand the scale of consumption, improve investment expectations and drive long-term investment growth of enterprises.
Promoting the trade-in of the old consumer market and industrial transformation and upgrading complement each other. Wan Zhe, a professor at Beijing Normal University and executive director of China Modern Finance Society, said that at present, China’s new energy industry is developing rapidly, and it is in the forefront of the world in many technologies, products, talents, management and brands. The market share of green, digital and intelligent products and equipment is increasing day by day, which has its own market rules. At this time, it is also in line with the logic of economic development to propose equipment renewal.
Multi-point deployment of "trade-in"
The meeting made detailed arrangements for the new round of "trade-in". The meeting proposed to adhere to the market-oriented, government guidance, encourage the advanced, eliminate the backward, adhere to the standard guidance, and improve in an orderly manner. In Wan Zhe’s view, the previous trade-in was mostly government-led and financial support, but this time it was carried out in a government-led and enterprise-led way, and the market-oriented tone of letting enterprises "play the leading role" can make the docking between supply and demand more efficient.
The meeting also gave "guidance" in specific areas and links, such as promoting the upgrading and technological transformation of various production equipment and service equipment, encouraging the trade-in of traditional consumer goods such as automobiles and household appliances, and promoting the trade-in of durable consumer goods. Promote large-scale recycling, and strengthen the development of "trade-in+recycling" logistics system and new models.
Ma Mao pointed out that promoting large-scale recycling and strengthening the development of "trade-in+recycling" logistics system and new model is a very important part of the trade-in work. In recent years, consumers have a certain understanding of trade-in, but there are also some problems, such as not bad, inconvenient and unreasonable depreciation price. Only by unblocking the recycling channels, solving the difficult points in recycling and solving the inconvenience of consumers to "send the old" can we better promote the "replacement".
Many advantages of "trade-in"
Promoting a new round of "trade-in" will bring many benefits.
From the consumer’s point of view, Ma Mao believes that by exchanging old products for new ones, the safety hazards caused by products that have been in service for extended periods can be eliminated for consumers. At the same time, providing consumers with green, intelligent, new technologies and experienced products and services will meet their needs for high-quality life. Furthermore, with the financial support provided by the central finance, local governments and enterprises, consumers will get more consumption benefits.
From an industry perspective, the market potential behind it is worthy of attention. Many industry research reports pointed out that "trade-in" will benefit the release of demand for home appliances. For example, according to the Capital Securities Research Report, the number of air conditioners and range hoods in rural areas is much lower than that in urban households. It is expected that a new round of household appliances "trade-in" will promote the implementation of the consumption policy, which will accelerate the increase of the number of range hoods, air conditioners and other categories in rural areas while upgrading the old household appliances. Guotai Junan Research Report predicts that this trade-in policy is expected to promote the valuation of home appliance enterprises.
In Ma’s view, a new round of "trade-in" will help enterprises to increase technology investment, eliminate product lines with backward production capacity, and develop more products with new technologies. At the same time, the government policy focuses on guiding and solving the problems encountered by enterprises in the trade-in process, which will facilitate enterprises to better promote trade-in and recycling, and help the country achieve the goal of "double carbon" in the long run. (End)