"Triple Door" Blocks Private Enterprises in Wenzhou from Breaking "Mysterious Industry"

Since the beginning of the new century, in order to cope with the energy crisis and reduce environmental pollution, various countries have adjusted their energy structures one after another. The development and utilization of nuclear energy has received increasing attention. According to recent data from the Energy Development Bureau of Zhejiang Province Development and Reform Commission and the Provincial Nuclear Society, it shows:

The United States has already established more than 40 nuclear power plants to be built; Russia plans to build 40 nuclear power plants by 2020; Asia is building 18 reactors in 11 countries, accounting for about 70% of the world’s total number of reactors under construction, and another 77 reactors. It is being prepared or proposed, but up to now, the world's nuclear power generation capacity is less than 17% of the total.

In 2020, China's installed nuclear power capacity will reach 80 million kilowatts, 50 million kilowatts will be under construction, and the cumulative investment in nuclear power plants will exceed 1 trillion yuan, plus an annual operation and maintenance investment of nearly 100 units, and a steady expansion of the international market. Large-scale equipment manufacturing industry, cross-industry of Zhejiang nuclear power-related industries and high-end equipment manufacturing industry - nuclear power equipment manufacturing industry ushered in the opportunities for rapid development.

However, behind the huge growth space, it is not smooth sailing. Many private enterprises in Zhejiang that have taken the lead in entering the nuclear power equipment manufacturing industry are under pressure from the “triple door”. A series of practical problems have become the bottleneck restricting their development. In the face of the huge "cake" of the interests of the industry, their not a smooth development process may be able to find the key to unlock the "mysterious industry" for the vast number of private enterprises in Zhejiang.

Open the first door of "mysterious industry"

Really high threshold, access to qualification lasts at least 2 years and costs 5 million yuan

"If it were not for the chairman's confidence in the prospects of nuclear-related industries, it would be very difficult for us to stick to it." This is the opening remark of Jiangnan Valve Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Jiangnan") assistant Ding Weimin when interviewed by the reporter.

It is understood that Zhejiang is a large valve province, only Wenzhou valve sales accounted for 1/3 of the country, and this company is the leader in the Wenzhou valve industry. Its parent company China Jiangnan Holdings Group is a non-regional cross-industry group. A total of 15 subsidiaries, total assets of 820 million yuan, annual output value of 2.5 billion yuan, more than 2,000 employees, involving valves, leather, real estate, mining, logistics and other five major industries. The company's innovatively manufactured valve has twenty-five series of patented new products, filling a number of valve industry blanks.

Regarding the question of why the company must take the lead in the entire province into the “mysterious industry”, Ding Weimin and the company’s leaders have a clear abacus:

At present, China's nuclear power accounts for only 2% of the total installed capacity, which is far from 75% of developed countries such as France. After the country attaches great importance to the nuclear power industry, its installed capacity in 2020 will reach more than 7%.

Zhejiang has the first domestically designed Qinshan nuclear power station, and has successively launched the world's latest AP1000 nuclear power plant project, such as “Sanmen”. Zhejiang has an advantage in developing the nuclear power industry.

Valves are indispensable equipment for the construction and operation of nuclear power plants. The investment required for a new nuclear power plant requires about 2% of the total investment. Two million-kilowatt units require tens of thousands of valves, and half of the valves in the daily equipment maintenance cost after being put into production. This is a strong demand for machinery manufacturing.

Seeing the huge business opportunities behind the nuclear power industry, this powerful private enterprise started to join the industry. This is the first level to enter the industry.

“Before this first gate, a group of companies with insufficient fund strength have been kept out.” Ding Weimin believes that the requirements for safety are almost harsh, and the nuclear power industry has a high threshold of veritable value.

According to State Council Decree No. 500, a permit system for nuclear power related industries, the entity that applies for the design of civil nuclear safety equipment and the manufacturing license must first be qualified as a legal person; it must have 5 or more years of relevant or similar work performance; Qualified professional and technical personnel, professional technicians of special types of work shall obtain corresponding qualification certificates; have appropriate workplaces, facilities and equipment; have sound management systems and perfect quality assurance systems, and quality assurance programs that meet the requirements of nuclear safety regulations. A representative simulation part shall also be produced for inspection; during the review process, experts shall be organized to conduct technical assessments, and the opinions of the competent department of the nuclear industry under the State Council and other relevant departments shall be solicited for the issuance of a permit.

“On the surface, there are only seven major requirements, but the actual work is arduous. It is necessary to train technical personnel who account for more than 10% of the total number of people. There is an independent factory building and a complete quality assurance system is established. The prototype must undergo earthquakes, vibrations, and longevity. For the trial, the experts are invited to the site for review. In short, to obtain the qualification, the company has invested more than RMB 5 million at a time, of which 8 trials for the two prototypes will not be less than RMB 1 million.” August 6, 2007 It was on the day that Jiangnan obtained two permits from the National Nuclear Safety Administration to issue civil nuclear pressure design and manufacturing qualifications. Ding Weimin blurted out in an interview. He said that after applying for a permit to obtain qualifications in 2005, the company spent a full two years or more. In time, he has a deep memory.

The same strength company in Wenzhou, Shenjiang Valve Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chenjiang") established in the 1970s is one of the leading valve manufacturers in China. After success in the fields of petroleum, petrochemical, natural gas, hydropower, thermal power, and other valves (with a production value of more than 500 million yuan last year), at the same time as Jiangnan, Shenjiang also targeted nuclear power valves. Just 25 days earlier than “Jiangnan”, “Jianjiang” obtained the civil nuclear pressure equipment design and manufacturing license on July 12, 2007. "From the application to the standard, the process of obtaining evidence is not less than two years." Yin Lianbo, deputy general manager of the company, told the reporter.

As early as December 2005, Global Valve Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as “Global”), which is also located in Wenzhou, was the first company in the province to get the design and manufacturing qualification of civil nuclear pressure equipment. Wu Guangzhong, general manager of Global, said that his company has also prepared more than two years for this purpose. In order to improve the approval progress and improve the requirements, the company also specifically formed a nuclear valve project group. Due to the relatively abundance of factory buildings at the time, there was no need to re-construct and save a lot of funds, but they went down one by one according to the prescribed procedures, and they also invested not less than 2 million yuan.

“Acquisition of evidence is only a basis for entering the nuclear industry. There can be no profit for the past two years. This is a huge obstacle to many companies with relatively short funds.” Wu Guangzhong said.

It takes a long time and one-time investment. As of now, of the more than 2,500 valve companies in the province, only four have passed the “first door”. In addition to Jiangnan, Shenjiang and Universal, Zhejiang Sanfang Group Co., Ltd. (herein referred to as “three parties”) is located in Hangzhou. Although the time for obtaining evidence was slightly later than “Global”, in fact, “Three Parties” began to manufacture nuclear-related valves as early as 1989, and provided special valve devices for the first phase of Qinshan Nuclear Power. In order to step into the "mysterious industry" threshold, they have invested a lot of energy and financial resources.

Running through the "second door"

Far from the order, 4 million went in

“I have worked hard to obtain a permit, but it is still far from profitability!” Ding Weimin, who has been continuously pursuing for three consecutive years after obtaining evidence, was very impressed that he had obtained nuclear equipment design and manufacturing licenses, only indicating that the company is qualified to enter this industry, but To get orders from power generation companies, it is necessary to first enter the equipment supply network of domestic nuclear power plant owners, and obtain their supply permit.

"This is another process that consumes a lot of energy, manpower and financial resources." Due to the different production requirements of the owners of nuclear power plants, companies in the Nuclear Power Group, Qinshan Nuclear Power Station and subordinate units, and China Nuclear Power Nuclear Power Corporation must be invited to visit the company to check whether the products meet their production requirements. Constantly run around the major power generation companies in the country, discuss and communicate with them until they meet their needs. After three years of running after obtaining a permit, “Jiangnan” has basically obtained equipment access permits for several major nuclear power projects in China.

In order to increase the production conditions and meet the needs of the owners, the company then added manufacturing, inspection and inspection equipment. “In order to step into this 'second door', the company has continuously invested 4 million yuan in succession. Almost 10 million yuan has been invested in the industry so far, but the return on investment at this stage is still zero.” Yin Lianbo said, this is not The unique phenomenon of “Jiangnan” and “Compensation Jiang”, which has similar strengths, actually experienced a similar process to Jiangnan. If it is not powerful, the "two doors" in front of it will be enough to reject them.

Although it is currently a market economy, nuclear power with a mysterious color is still a relatively monopolistic industry. In order to win the trust and attention of nuclear power companies, after acquiring two licenses for nuclear power qualification in the province, “Global” has been from 2005. They began to roam non-stop between major nuclear power companies and "continuously promoted their own businesses so that they could give themselves a chance to become their suppliers. But in the blink of an eye five years have passed, the results have been very small."

Wu Guangzhong believes that the reasons are various, including the scale of the company, the nature of the company, and the geographical factors. Many power generation companies do not trust Wenzhou’s private enterprises. In their subconscious mind, “Made in Wenzhou” is synonymous with low quality. Regardless of whether you have obtained nuclear qualifications, you do not give access permits. The area that the enterprise could not change became a difficult problem that he could not imagine at the time. This kind of consequences continues to the present day, “Global” is now supplying only 2 million yuan to nuclear power plants each year, while the profits of other ordinary valves are more than 200 million yuan, which is a big difference between the two. The license did not bring estimated profits to the company.

Hard to cross the "third door"

After 3 months, the license expired.

After crossing the front two doors, it is not an order that greets the company, but an increasingly close license expiration time limit.

“If a nuclear equipment order is not received within three months, the license that was acquired at a high price would be expired.” Wu Guangzhong, who was the first to obtain the civil nuclear pressure equipment design and manufacturing license in the province, is also currently One faced this problem.

The company wanted to realize the leap-forward development of the company through the rapid development of the core-related industry in the province. However, despite the efforts made after obtaining the evidence, it has been negotiating orders with the owners of nuclear power plants across the country, but because the nuclear power company complied with the State Council's Order No. 500 The company's performance was placed in a very important position. After the new company entered, there was no performance accumulation, causing it to run into a wall.

Up to now, it has been nearly 5 years since it applied for a license, but it has not received a nuclear-level order. In three months, the permit expired. This is equivalent to investing more than 2 million yuan. Wu Guangzhong, who was interviewed, was somewhat helpless. The only good news was that the non-nuclear valve business with an annual output value of about 200 million yuan was booming. “Global” operations are still in good condition.

After “Global”, it is “Jiangnan” and “Shenjiang”. Their license expiration time is only 25 days.

“It is not that our production capacity is not good. With our technology, we can fully accept the valve manufacturing at the core of the reactor. The problem is that we are not even qualified to enter the bidding list for nuclear equipment. The fundamental reason is that we have no accumulated performance. Yin Lianbo told the reporter that as a new enterprise that newly obtained a nuclear equipment license, it did not have the opportunity to enter bids and bids to accumulate performance. The less performance there was, the less qualified it was to bid, and no bidder qualification would be possible. Performance, as the leader of the valve industry in the province, they are in a vicious cycle.

"What's worse is that according to the regulations, if there is no single-nuclear equipment's performance accumulating within five years, according to regulations, the license will also face the renewal difficulties after it expires, which means that we will be excluded from the nuclear power equipment manufacturing industry. Outside." In non-nuclear-class conventional islands, “Jiangnan” had many orders for nuclear power plants in Liaoning Hongyanhe, Guangdong Ningde, and Shandong Haiyang. Last year, the two orders reached more than 50 million yuan, and the owner’s evaluation was also quite good. However, there were no nuclear-grade orders for three years, and there was no accumulation of achievements. Even if CGNPC conducts many nuclear-grade equipment biddings each year, “Jiangnan” can only watch and run away one by one.

Now that the permit period is less than two years, the anxious “Jiangnan” prepares to expand the original two licensed products to six, “this may have a little more opportunity”. However, Ding Weimin, who has just returned from Beijing to discuss the issue of expansion, is disappointed. Said that because the existing nuclear qualifications do not have a single performance, according to the regulations can not apply for other product qualifications.

"If only the maintenance of a reactor unit is an opportunity to accumulate performance," Yin Lianbo and Ding Weimin are all in a position to perform urgently.

The status quo of pre-certification companies also worried about the relevant person in charge of the Hangzhou Boiler Group, which is preparing for the certification process. As early as 10 years ago, as a leader in the nation's second-tier equipment manufacturing industry, a French nuclear power plant took the initiative to seek nuclear power equipment processing, which led to the start of nuclear related industries. However, over the past 10 years, the Hangguo has been manufacturing on conventional island equipment outside nuclear power and has never really entered the nuclear island. “As far as Zhejiang is concerned, there are very few companies that have entered the nuclear island equipment. The core equipment of the nuclear power plant depends on imports or state-owned enterprises from other provinces. This is undoubtedly the biggest regret for Zhejiang enterprises.” The responsible person said that the cost of starting the industry Huge, long investment time, and finally if there is no return on orders, it seems that the industrial growth space is very attractive "cake" has become a "painting cake", corporate frustration is not conducive to the promotion of the province's industry.

Inability to get out of the trap "Three Doors"

All parties look to the government for solutions

Faced with this dilemma, Ding Weimin believes that domestic nuclear power plants were originally imported valves, and now if they are to be replaced with equipment from domestic private enterprises, they are risking. The private power companies are very understanding of the safety requirements of nuclear power plants. However, the company now has the nuclear level requirements for equipment, technology, etc. As long as they are willing to give opportunities, they will have confidence in doing a good job. At present, the communication between enterprises and nuclear power plants basically depends on one's own actions and one's strength. The effect is obviously not obvious.

The stalemate companies now facing are no longer able to solve the problem. Therefore, it is particularly hoped that the government agencies will establish a communication and cooperation mechanism between nuclear power companies and equipment manufacturing companies, organize regular meetings from time to time on two sides, hold companies together, and enhance information understanding. , enter the market directionally.

Wu Guangzhong believes that his company has only three months left before the license expires, and it may not be possible to find an opportunity. Because the company's leading products are the valves of the thermal power industry, and even the companies are well-known in the industry, can they participate in nuclear power based on the accumulated performance of thermal power? Or if the government can set up a stage for a company to find nuclear power plant inventory orders or maintenance orders, even if it is not a very important nuclear valve maintenance, it is also a way out.

The person in charge of the Hangguo Group, who declined to be named, believes that since the province is to promote the development of the industry, can the government guide enterprises to have some incentives for entering the industry when they have a one-time high investment and a long return period? Provincial and state-owned enterprise loans are much stronger than private enterprises; Sanmen and Fangjiashan are provincial projects. Under the same conditions, whether the government can communicate with the owners and give preferential access to enterprises in this province, so that the province’s equipment manufacturing industry can It has been upgraded; China's three nuclear power equipment highlands such as Shanghai, Harbin, and Sichuan all have a special provincial-level organization. A nuclear power leading group led by the vice governor is established. Whenever there is a large target, the provincial leaders go to work in person. France When the U.S. President visited China, he always came with a team of several hundred entrepreneurs. His purpose was self-evident. At present, the status quo of enterprises in the province is that when the project bids, the companies themselves put themselves on the battlefield, and there is no competent department to help them. Even if the bid price is lower than that of the enterprises outside the province, they still fail to vote for the project.

At noon on September 5th, Zhao Zhide, minister of technology of Qinshan Nuclear Power Company, accepted the reporter’s interview that he was qualified but could not receive a list, which is indeed a practical problem in the nuclear-related industry. However, it is not entirely because of this reason. When nuclear power companies do “bidding packages” in bidding, they generally bundle multiple product varieties in one package. This requires enterprises to have more product qualifications to qualify for bids, while the province’s newly-taken certificates are relatively single-product products. Often because of insufficient coverage of forensics and not meeting the corresponding tender conditions, there is no financial strength to take over the big list is also a problem. In order to keep the qualifications that are not easy to obtain, it is possible to look for opportunities when the nuclear power plant is replaced or renovated, or when the government department coordinates the nuclear power plants to favor Zhejiang private enterprises. Even if it is only a unit, it is also the accumulation of performance.

Xu stepper, chairman of the Zhejiang Nuclear Society, also believes that the dilemma of nuclear societies or companies unilaterally has been difficult to solve. It is not entirely a matter of market operation. The current nature of the nuclear power program requires government agencies to have a clear attitude if the company does not If you break the first pass, you will never get in. Can we seek flexible ways without destroying the national laws and regulations? For example, the provincial government has signed a framework agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation (CGNPC) and how it tends to favor private enterprises.

Xia Yuanchu, secretary-general of the Provincial Nuclear Society, believes that in the future adjustment of the country’s energy structure, it cannot be denied that this “cake” is huge. It is an appropriate investment for enterprises. In the process of obtaining nuclear licenses, the company’s product equipment and quality assurance After the system is perfect, it will bring positive effects, such as positive effects on corporate reputation, sales of other products, team stability and product transformation. However, how to truly enter the core of nuclear related industries and create the competitiveness of Zhejiang enterprises, the role of government guidance can not be ignored.

Government echo

Leave office phone number, business has difficulty to immediately reflect

On the afternoon of September 5, the reporter first contacted Xu Qijin, Deputy Director of the Department of Power and New Energy of the Provincial Energy Administration of the Zhejiang Provincial Development and Reform Commission.

After understanding the current difficulties faced by Zhejiang's valve companies, Xu Qijin immediately entrusted the author of the report to leave his office phone number to the heads of several companies, so that they can quickly connect with the Energy Bureau of the Provincial Development and Reform Commission and reflect the situation.

"The newly qualified companies are all developed step by step from scratch. If the problem does exist, it is necessary to formulate a feasible plan and put forward a solution to the issue when it comes to interfacing with CNNC." Xu Qijin hopes that the author's report to the enterprise feedback, the government attaches great importance to how to better develop nuclear affiliated industries, is very optimistic about the prospects for development, and now is also a strategic opportunity for rush into the industry. If the loop of the industrial chain is closed, it is very difficult for Zhejiang enterprises to enter. Therefore, it is necessary to strive for development and seize opportunities. This is one of the reasons why the provincial government has listed it as one of the nine strategic emerging industries. Therefore, enterprises are welcomed to actively communicate. The government will try to build a platform to guide and connect.

The Zhejiang Provincial Government itself is developing this work. The province also pays attention to the cooperation between Zhejiang enterprises and central enterprises. This is a win-win process. On the one hand, it helps Zhejiang enterprises to increase market share and strive for qualifications. On the other hand, it also provides stable for central enterprises. Equipment manufacturer.

Thanks to the platform set up by the provincial government, many companies have already achieved significant results. Several companies such as Binjiang and Haiyan have successfully connected with related nuclear power companies. Last year, the provincial government promoted China Guangdong Nuclear Power to sign a long-term cooperation agreement with more than 30 enterprises in Zhejiang. This year, the provincial government and China Guangdong Nuclear Power Corporation once again held talks. It is expected that more than 50 companies will sign a cooperation agreement with China Guangdong Nuclear Power after October.