During the two sessions of the National People’s Congress, a proposal from Zhang Xinghai, deputy to the National People’s Congress, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) founder and honorary chairman of the board, rushed to the top of the hot search.
The theme of this proposal is to encourage young people to be industrial workers and less express delivery as riders, which reflects the current shortage of manufacturing workers.
Having worked hard in China’s manufacturing industry for more than 30 years, Zhang Xinghai is very close to industrial workers. The great changes of this group are also closely related to his career. He has witnessed the time when the high paid people still need to enter the factory in the last century. However, standing on the tide of “made in China 2025”, he believes that it is time to solve the problem of “shortage of people” at the industrial grass-roots level.
At the national two sessions this year, Zhang Xinghai submitted a total of five suggestions, from regional linkage to the “core” color change of the whole industry in the automotive industry, from financial assistance to the “labor shortage” perplexing the whole industry, each of which is related to the upgrading and development of intelligent electric autonomous vehicles.
Behind the five suggestions is the continuation of Zhang Xinghai’s “car making dream” for more than 30 years. The times are developing and the dream is upgrading.
talking about employment: encouraging young people to compete as industrial workers
For more than 30 years in business, Zhang Xinghai has been playing a steady role in the manufacturing industry. Since the 1980s, it has established Baxian Fenghuang electric spring factory to produce seat springs for Chang’an micro cars; Entered the shock absorber industry in 1996 and cooperated with Dongfeng Group in the development and production of micro cars in 2003; Now we have deep cooperation with Huawei in the field of new energy vehicles. He was inspired by the great changes in the industry over the past 30 years, but he was also frustrated by the changes in “people”.
“Fewer and fewer young people are willing to enter the factory as workers.” Zhang Xinghai said that the hollow phenomenon of industrial workers has become more and more prominent in recent years. In 2020, the talent gap in China’s manufacturing industry will reach about 22 million.
A survey conducted by the National Bureau of statistics last year on more than 90000 Industrial Enterprises above Designated Size showed that about 44% of enterprises reported that the difficulty of recruitment was the biggest problem they faced.
In contrast, the current emerging economies such as takeout, e-commerce and webcast attract a large number of young people for employment. Young people who work in cities prefer to deliver takeout rather than go to work in factories.
According to the data, in 2019, the number of express workers in China has exceeded 10 million, and the total number of catering takeout workers has exceeded 7 million. The epidemic since 2020 has exacerbated the inter industry movement of labor force.
“In the past five years, an average of 1.5 million labor force have left the manufacturing industry every year.” Zhang Xinghai said that the manufacturing industry gives the impression of high work intensity, poor working environment and disgraceful work. Today, the workers are mainly the post-90s and post-00s young people. They grew up in the era of China’s economic take-off. They have higher living conditions and education, live a more self-centered life, and are unwilling to stay in factories.
“In fact, manufacturing factories are also upgrading intelligently, which has changed greatly from the traditional impression.” Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) a management person said that Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) a few years ago, there were more than 1000 intelligent Siasun Robot&Automation Co.Ltd(300024) , and the manual processes such as gluing and assembly have been replaced by intelligent Siasun Robot&Automation Co.Ltd(300024) .
Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) disclosed financial report also shows that the proportion of production workers has also declined in recent years. In 2020, the total number of employees of the company’s parent company and main subsidiaries was 13238, including 8654 production personnel, accounting for about 65%; In 2016, when the company was just listed, the total number of on-the-job employees was 9435, and the number of production personnel was 6448, accounting for about 68%.
In the wave of intelligent upgrading of manufacturing industry, the demand for industrial workers also puts forward higher skill requirements. According to the financial report of China Central Television, many students in middle and senior vocational and technical colleges are often competed by major enterprises before graduation Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) of the talent structure, the proportion below senior high school (technical secondary school) also decreased from 53% in 2016 to 47% in 2020.
“The country has vigorously developed vocational and technical education in recent years, which is of great significance for China to move from a manufacturing power to an intelligent manufacturing power.” Zhang Xinghai suggested to further improve the talent cultivation system, focus on cultivating innovative, applied, skilled and scarce talents, and gradually build a manufacturing talent cultivation system suitable for the high-quality development of manufacturing industry and gradient development. Enhance the pertinence and effectiveness of vocational skills training, strengthen employment skills training and entrepreneurship training for key groups, accurately carry out “menu” training, and encourage school enterprise cooperation in “order class” employment.
In addition, in solving the problem of difficult recruitment of industrial workers, efforts can also be made to improve the employment environment of manufacturing industry and increase the employment support of the government.
talk about core shortage: localization + “guiding external investment”
Standing at the forefront of the wave of new energy vehicles, Zhang Xinghai also submitted relevant suggestions on the current “core” color change in the automotive industry.
According to the relevant statistics of IC insights, a well-known research institution, the global shipment of automotive chips reached 52.4 billion in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 30%.
“Although the growth of automobile chip shipments exceeds the historical level, the supply still can not keep up with the market demand.” Zhang Xinghai said that in 2021, due to the shortage of chips, the global automobile production will be reduced by about 10 million and China’s production will be reduced by about 2 million.
The reasons for the global shortage of automotive chips include the wrong judgment of chip enterprises on the demand side market during the epidemic, and the serious shortage of stock volume and capacity allocation. The epidemic further promoted the surge in demand for consumer electronic equipment, seizing the share of auto chip production capacity. In addition, Zhang Xinghai believes that the long production cycle and low investment income of automobile chips lead to the weak willingness of chip manufacturers to expand the production line of automobile chips.
However, Zhang Xinghai believes that the time has come to realize the independent control of vehicle regulation chips. “The problem of supply interruption of vehicle chips is difficult to be effectively adjusted by simply using market means, which needs to be promoted and solved by national forces”.
The “national power” he mentioned mainly refers to two dimensions: first, localization. He suggested that the competent department of automobile chip should be set up at the level of national ministries and commissions to formulate development measures for automobile chip industry, coordinate resources and pave the way for top-level design; It also encourages vehicle enterprises and chip enterprises to join hands in cross-border joint innovation, supplemented by financial support from the government, to accelerate the realization of chip “boarding”.
The second is to “guide external investment”. “The main manufacturing chain of automobile chips is abroad. China does not have a complete production, packaging and testing chain, resulting in poor capacity control and regulation of automobile chip production in China.” Zhang Xinghai said that although the global chip manufacturing capacity has been continuously transferred to Asia in recent years, and China has accounted for 37% of the capacity, there is still a certain mismatch with the world’s largest single semiconductor market.
To this end, he suggested introducing international leading automobile chip manufacturing enterprises to invest in China, promoting the rapid implementation of localization projects of foreign chip production lines from the aspects of policies, funds and supporting facilities, so as to quickly form the production and supporting capacity of vehicle specification chips, and alleviate the current shortage of domestic automobile chips.
talking about car making: it is suggested to optimize financial capital investment
For the investors of Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) , the company’s performance has always been the sword of Damocles hanging in the air. In recent years, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) has been under great operating pressure. From 2018 to 2020, the company’s net profit after deducting non profits continued to suffer losses. According to the previously released performance forecast, the net profit attributable to the shareholders of the listed company is expected to be about – 1.95 billion yuan to – 1.55 billion yuan in 2021; The net profit after deducting non-profit is about – 2.910 billion yuan to – 2.510 billion yuan.
The curse of loss also plagues other independent intelligent electric vehicle enterprises in China. Xiaopeng automobile, Weilai automobile and ideal can not be avoided.
While the curse is hard to break, the upward development momentum of China’s independent electric vehicle enterprises is actually becoming clearer and clearer. In 2021, China’s own brand new energy passenger vehicles sold 2.476 million, accounting for 74.3% of the total sales of new energy passenger vehicles. Among the top 20 global new energy passenger vehicle enterprises, independent vehicle enterprises accounted for nearly half.
In Zhang Xinghai’s view, the current general losses of independent car enterprises are not terrible. “After 10 years of losses, Tesla has achieved today’s scale of one million vehicles… By the end of last year, the total market value of all listed automobile companies in China was only 3 trillion yuan. Tesla has become today’s Tesla precisely because of the long-term support of the capital market.”
Zhang Xinghai believes that China has the world’s largest intelligent electric vehicle R & D, manufacturing and consumption market, but there is no corresponding scale financial capital market, which directly restricts the further development of independent intelligent electric vehicle enterprises.
“For any industrial competition, the essence is the core technology of PK, and the strong financial support is very important.” He said that Tesla once supported 1 million vehicle sales with its market value of trillions of dollars, while China needs at least 10 trillion yuan of financial capital to support the ten million market.
He suggested: on the one hand, continue to optimize the conditions for direct financing and listing, and promote the listing and refinancing of more scientific and technological innovative enterprises; On the other hand, we will introduce policies and specific support measures to encourage massive social capital to invest in scientific and technological innovative enterprises on a large scale on the principle of marketization; In addition, banks and other financial institutions are encouraged to develop financial products to support the development of scientific and technological innovative enterprises.
This is not the first time that Zhang Xinghai has put forward suggestions in the field of financial policy. As early as the two sessions in 2019, he put forward suggestions to enhance the inclusiveness of financial policies and systems and support the high-quality development of innovative enterprises from three aspects: delisting policy, bond financing and refinancing standard adjustment.
The suggestion has been echoed. On December 31, 2020, Shanghai Stock Exchange and Shenzhen Stock Exchange issued the revised delisting rules, canceling the original single indicators of net profit and operating income in terms of financial indicators.
“This is a good thing for independent car enterprises that have lost money due to huge investment in R & D. We can rest assured that we can increase investment in scientific and technological innovation, and the road of independent brand breakthrough will be smoother.” Zhang Xinghai told the reporter of “daily economic news”.
It is worth mentioning that Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) announced the suspension of Hong Kong stock listing at the end of January this year, and announced plans to raise another 7.1 billion yuan to increase the new energy vehicle industry. Last June, the company also successfully raised 2.593 billion yuan through fixed growth. It can be seen that the assistance of the financial market is of great importance to Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) and other independent auto enterprises.
talk about Sichuan Chongqing cooperation: forming the cluster effect of new energy vehicle industry
For Zhang Xinghai, several upgrades of Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) in the development track led by him are related to “cooperation”.
In 2003, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) jumped from an auto parts manufacturer to a complete vehicle manufacturer, behind which is the micro car cooperative development mode with Dongfeng Group. In 2016, Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) stepped into the capital market and started to switch to the new energy vehicle track. From the initial acquisition of foreign advanced technology to the in-depth cooperation with Huawei last year, the company successfully left behind its partners in the same echelon in the traditional automobile era, entered the camp of independent electric intelligent vehicle enterprises and faced the “new forces of vehicle making”.
Zhang Xinghai, who is familiar with the essence of “working together to do great things”, has set his sights on higher-level industrial regional linkage cooperation this time.
In October last year, the CPC Central Committee and the State Council issued the outline of the plan for the construction of Chengdu Chongqing twin city economic circle. It clearly puts forward that “cultivate advanced manufacturing clusters with international competitiveness. Build a high-level automobile industry R & D, production and manufacturing base with intelligent networking and new energy as the main direction”.
Zhang Xinghai believes that automobile is an important pillar industry in Chengdu and Chongqing. At present, the number of automobiles in Chengdu and Chongqing exceeds 5 million, ranking second and third in China. There are 45 automobile enterprises and more than 1600 automobile parts enterprises in Sichuan and Chongqing, with an annual output value of more than 600 billion yuan. In 2021, the output of automobiles in the two places was 2.72 million, accounting for more than 10% in the country.
In his opinion, the automobile industries of Sichuan and Chongqing are highly complementary. Chongqing’s advantage is that it has many vehicle brands, has a manufacturing foundation, and also has a complete supply system including engine, transmission, braking system and so on; Sichuan has industry-leading advantages in intelligent networking and auto parts. It also has rich intellectual and scientific and technological resources such as universities and scientific research institutes. “Especially in the energy (electric energy, battery, hydrogen energy) urgently needed by new energy vehicles, Sichuan has obvious advantages.” He said.
Zhang Xinghai believes that if the new energy vehicle industry in Sichuan and Chongqing is integrated in the industrial chain, core technology R & D and application scenarios in the future, it can achieve the effect of 1 + 1 2 and promote the formation of cluster effect in Sichuan and Chongqing new energy vehicle industry.
In terms of the integration of the new energy vehicle industry chain between the two places, Zhang Xinghai believes that the starting point lies in the energy link. “Under the requirements of the ‘double carbon goal’, new energy vehicles are facing carbon footprint tracking, which requires that the batteries used must be green electricity… And the projects of battery enterprises such as Contemporary Amperex Technology Co.Limited(300750) and honeycomb in Sichuan can meet the requirements of green electricity. In addition, we support the preferential consumption of clean energy in the ‘Shuangcheng economic circle’.” Zhang Xinghai wrote in his proposal.
The great wheel of the times has pushed Chongqing Sokon Industry Group Stock Co.Ltd(601127) led by Zhang Xinghai to continuously upgrade their dreams, from “creating the car Lbx Pharmacy Chain Joint Stock Company(603883) needs” in the earliest stage to “making a Chinese voice in the global new energy vehicle market” and now to “becoming a global smart car brand enterprise”. This dream upgrade line is also the epitome of the whole Chinese automobile industry.
The dream of raising the file looks forward to the escort of the policy.
reporter’s notes: new energy vehicles “overtaking in corners” need to be promoted by “joint efforts”
Since 2016, when it was determined to switch the track from traditional fuel vehicles to new energy vehicles, Zhang Xinghai’s vision of “car making dream” has expanded from China to the world. It is the common dream of China’s major car enterprises to realize “overtaking on Curves” in this new field.
In order to achieve “overtaking on corners”, in addition to the courage and accurate judgment of players in the field of new energy vehicles, the control of core technologies and policy assistance are particularly critical. As a deputy to the National People’s Congress, Zhang Xinghai paid attention to the practical problems faced by the manufacturing industry dominated by new energy vehicles, the insufficient supply of grass-roots talents and the constraints of core technology links.
The rise of a brand and an industry in the world depends not on fighting alone, but on joint efforts. It includes not only the players’ own efforts, but also the support and cooperation of all links upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, such as the technical training guarantee at the talent end, the financial “green light” at the capital end, the sufficient supply of core parts, and so on.
In the past few years, China Shanxi Guoxin Energy Corporation Limited(600617) automobile industry has occupied an important position in the global market through its own efforts, and the road to the future will continue step by step.
Players’ dreams are worth looking forward to.
