Chongqing has these measures to exchange old consumer goods for new ones.

In 2024, the word "trade-in" has received unprecedented attention.

At this year’s National People’s Congress, the government work report stated this year’s tasks: stabilize and expand traditional consumption, encourage and promote the trade-in of consumer goods, and boost the mass consumption of intelligent networked new energy vehicles and electronic products.

This is the third time recently that the Central Committee has mentioned trade-in at a heavy meeting.

The reporter interviewed relevant departments, enterprises and experts in Chongqing, all of whom were eagerly awaiting this round of trade-in, hoping that the national policy would be more powerful and targeted.

But this time it’s obviously different. First, the scope of this trade-in is wider. As can be seen from the contents of the central meeting, it covers household appliances, automobiles and industrial and agricultural equipment updates. Second, the supporting role of current consumption in economic development has become more prominent, which means that more funds and resources will be invested in this round of trade-in. According to the data of the Ministry of Commerce, the contribution rate of consumption to economic growth reached 82.5% in 2023, while the average annual contribution rate of final consumption expenditure to economic growth in China in the past 10 years was 50.4%. It is not difficult to see behind the digital changes that this round of trade-in of consumer goods will be expected to be higher. Third, related consumer goods have entered a window period of upgrading. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, introduced at the economic theme press conference held at the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress that there are more than 16 million passenger cars in use in China, of which more than 7 million are over 15 years old. On average, about 270 million household appliances exceed the safe service life every year. Wang Wentao judged that the potential renewal demand of consumer goods has entered a concentrated release period. According to the estimation of Pacific Securities Research Report, according to the average selling price of new cars of 170,000 yuan, the replacement of old vehicles is expected to bring about 1.3 trillion yuan of consumption scale increase in 2024.

Lang Xuehong, Deputy Secretary-General of china automobile dealers association, said in an interview with the media that by the end of 2023, there were about 340 million cars in China, but only 20 million new energy vehicles, accounting for only about 6% of the total number of cars. The replacement cycle of traditional fuel vehicles is about 6 to 8 years, and that of new energy vehicles is about 3 to 5 years. "From the perspective of the whole society, 40% of the increase in new car consumption this year will come from trade-in." Combined with the consumption of about 25 million new cars in China last year, Lang Xuehong judged that the market size of trade-in was about 10 million.

And the scale of equipment renewal is even larger. At the economic theme press conference of the Second Session of the 14th National People’s Congress, Zheng Shanjie, director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, studied and formulated the Action Plan for Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in of Consumer Goods, focusing on the implementation of the "four major actions" of equipment renewal, trade-in of consumer goods, recycling and standard improvement. Taking equipment renewal as an example, the focus will be on seven fields: industry, agriculture, construction, transportation, education, cultural tourism and medical care. With the deepening of high-quality development, the demand for equipment renewal will continue to expand, and it is estimated that it will be a huge market with an annual scale of more than 5 trillion yuan.

Mo Xin, vice president of Suzhou Institute of Environmental Innovation in Tsinghua, once participated in the research and formulation of the "trade-in" policy for automobiles and household appliances in 2009. He said that the new round of large-scale equipment renewal and trade-in of consumer goods are greatly different from the past in terms of implementation areas and subsidy standards, and are expected to be broader and higher.

The reporter learned from the Municipal Commission of Commerce that the 2024 "Aishang Chongqing" green smart home appliances promotion campaign to enter towns, streets and communities was launched on the 8th. Various home appliance enterprises will take home appliances to the countryside, trade-in subsidies, full reduction and discount, etc., and carry out various forms of green smart home appliances trade-in to benefit the people. Enterprises participating in the activities will give consumers who meet the scope of trade-in subsidies a maximum subsidy of 10%, and consumers will write off subsidies or deduct the actual price according to the corresponding standards when paying and settling accounts.

For example, Chongbai Trading Co., Ltd. will organize its 41 stores to carry out the promotion activities of "315 billion yuan subsidy" to benefit the people. Suning carried out activities such as trade-in and high subsidy of 10%; JD.COM will carry out the 315 Home Appliances Life Festival, and trade in the old for the new to make up for the 1000 yuan and other promotional activities; Midea Electric has carried out activities such as trade-in of all its categories and subsidizing 1000 yuan.

The "Smart Home Dishwasher Festival" was also launched on the same day. Citizens can enjoy the subsidy of the Supreme 1000 yuan Association when buying dishwashers, and can recycle old household appliances for free, and enjoy the recycling subsidy of the Supreme 300 yuan.

On March 9th, Chongqing Custom Home Furnishing Association and Chongqing Household Electrical Appliances Service Federation will organize more than 100 brands of various types to hold "315" home industry promotion activities at the main venue of Guanyinqiao Business Circle, launch "home trade-in start-up activities, and launch welfare packages such as full subsidy coupons and discount for old goods evaluation". According to reports, the Municipal Commission of Commerce will provide special funds to support the "Aishang Chongqing" Green Home (Spring) Huimin Expo, which started on March 7, and support key enterprises to trade in old smart home appliances.

Liu Yi, vice chairman and president of Chongqing Akita Gear Co., Ltd., told the reporter, "We are also waiting for this policy to come out. It can be said that we have been waiting for a long time." Liu Yi said that Akita Gear spends more than 100 million yuan on equipment upgrading every year, mainly for technical transformation and expansion of production capacity, and both domestic and foreign equipment are being purchased. In 2023, Akita Gear spent 160 million yuan to update high-end motorcycle gear processing equipment and new energy vehicle gear processing equipment. Liu Yi believes that the demand for equipment renewal in Chongqing’s manufacturing industry is considerable, and the new round of policies will accelerate the overall upgrading of Chongqing’s manufacturing industry.

The reporter then interviewed Yang Qiang, the equipment supervisor of the assembly workshop of Changan Automobile Liangjiang Factory. He told reporters that with the explosion of sales of Changan Automobile, there are three kinds of equipment to be upgraded in this year’s workshop: one is adaptive cruise and panoramic image calibration equipment, the other is initialization and ECU comprehensive electrical inspection equipment, and the third is antifreeze filling machine, all of which are used for the manufacture of intelligent networked new energy vehicles.

Chen Jiawei, head of marketing planning of Chongbai Electric Strategy Department, told the reporter, "We are very much looking forward to the introduction of this trade-in policy. Now our sales platform and manufacturers are jointly doing trade-in. It is not enough to rely on our strength. The country and the government will pull it together and the strength will be even greater. " Chen Jiawei said that Chongbai Electric has paid more attention to the stock market and put it on the old-for-new, and is very much looking forward to this policy. "Not only us, but almost all electrical appliance sales platforms, Suning and JD.COM, have great expectations for this policy, hoping to set off a wave of trends. Judging from our exchanges with electrical appliance manufacturers, regardless of Haier, Midea, Gree and Changhong, they are vigorously promoting trade-in this year, which is their focus this year. " Chen Jiawei believes that now everyone has paid more attention to health. From the sales situation, green smart home appliances are now attracting more attention from consumers, such as fresh air conditioners, dishwashers and dryers in air conditioners, which bring great convenience to life.

Hu Yangji said that in 2023, Chongqing Zhongtian Electronic Waste Treatment Co., Ltd. and Chongqing Zhongjia Environmental Protection Engineering Co., Ltd., the two largest recycling enterprises of old household appliances in Chongqing, recycled 2.32 million sets of old electrical appliances. From this, he speculated that the current actual renewal in Chongqing is 4 million sets per year. If we calculate according to the life cycle of general household appliances of 8-10 years, this round of old-for-new trade-in may bring 10 million sets of replacement to Chongqing market every year.

Hu Yangji believes that last year, the municipal government invested 10 million yuan in financial subsidies, which were used up in a few days, thus boosting sales by more than 400% year-on-year. "This round of central policies has not yet come out, but we are looking forward to it. The activities organized at the government level have stronger credibility and better results than those organized by the merchants themselves. " Hu Yangji hopes that compared with last year’s subsidy of 200 million yuan in Jiangsu and 100 million yuan in Shanghai, from the perspective of Chongqing’s market size, it should at least catch up with Shanghai’s subsidy level and reach 100 million yuan.

Mo Yuanming, a researcher at the chongqing technology and business university Chengdu-Chongqing Shuangcheng Economic Circle Collaborative Development Center, believes that in recent years, both the Central Financial and Economic Committee meeting and the the State Council executive meeting have emphasized the trade-in of old products and accelerated the upgrading of products, resulting in the scale effect of upgrading. This government work report proposes to encourage and promote the trade-in of consumer goods and boost the mass consumption of intelligent networked new energy vehicles and electronic products, which is in line with the spirit of the above meeting. This series of policy measures shows that "trade-in" has become the key measure to promote the steady growth of consumption this year.

On the other hand, boosting consumption needs intelligent networking, new energy vehicles, electronic products and other large-scale consumption to drive. This means that mass consumption of intelligent networked new energy vehicles and electronic products is becoming an important thrust to stimulate consumption and expand domestic demand, and also an important engine to stimulate economic growth.