In the long industrial chain of automobiles, it is a special and once more marginalized link. Many practitioners in the automobile industry may not have understood it carefully, and even pay little attention to it. However, if this important link is missing, the automobile industry will not be able to achieve the development of a circular economy, and there is no way to talk about green and low-carbon throughout the life cycle. This is the automobile scrapping, recycling and reuse industry.
In the past 10 years, the automobile industry has been changing with each passing day, and new products, new technologies and new models have emerged. In line with this, the automobile scrapping and recycling industry has also undergone earth-shaking changes: most of the "small workshops" that were once hand-disassembled have become assembly line factories with high mechanization levels. In the past, crude cement land and even mud land have become hardened grounds that are anti-leakage and oil-fouling. Networking and digitalization are gradually becoming popular... In the past 10 years, my country's automobile scrapping and recycling industry has not only continued to hit a new high in scale, but more importantly, the entire industry has entered a critical period of transformation and upgrading from the extensive development of the past, and has made more positive contributions to the country's development of the circular economy and the realization of the "dual carbon" goal.
1 Once "scattered and small" enterprises "can't eat enough"
In March 2012, a news about the refurbishment of scrapped cars in Ruzhou, Henan Province "turned into school buses" caused a great response from society. On the " assembly car Street", known as the "first demolition of the Central Plains", there are many assembled and renovated old cars, with a complete range of types, most of which flow into the countryside, and some are even used as school buses to pick up and drop off students. It is understood that during the heyday of this illegal dismantling and assembly street, there were more than 300 professional dismantling merchants, more than 4,000 employees, more than 10,000 vehicles dismantling annually, with a transaction volume of more than 20 million yuan, and more than 5,000 tons of various metals were recycled. Here are all illegal and irregular car dismantling workshops. Whether it is the complete vehicle or the parts, they flowed into the market again without compliant dismantling and inspection. This not only greatly damaged the healthy and orderly development of the industry, but also posed a serious threat to the safety of the people's lives and property.
informal scrap recycling and dismantling enterprises are full of chaos, and most formal car scrap recycling and dismantling enterprises also face problems such as low degree of mechanization and poor environmental awareness. If we walk into the car scrapping and recycling and dismantling companies around 2012, we can probably see such a scene: mountains of worn-out motor vehicles are covered with oil and broken parts. In some scrap recycling and dismantling companies, workers are still wearing work clothes full of stains. They are smashed with big hammers to break. The dismantling factory is filled with odor, and some are emitting thick smoke, which makes people unbearable to look at them.
"The automobile scrapping and recycling industry at that time can be described as 'scattered, messy, and small'." Gao Yanli, vice president of the China Material Regeneration Association, recalled in an interview with a reporter from China Automobile News that 10 years ago, there were more than 600 automobile scrapping and recycling enterprises in my country, 7 in Beijing, and 4+1 in Shanghai (4 scrapping and recycling enterprises, a service agency, responsible for scrapping and recycling registration). Most of the enterprises have low mechanization levels, and some even rely on manual disassembly, and have a strong environmental awareness. Li Zhenbiao, director of the Automobile Industry Policy Research Department of China Automobile Political Research, also pointed out in an interview with reporters that at that time, my country's scrapped automobile recycling industry was still in its early stages of development, with a large scale, a small number of enterprises, and a poor operating condition. About half of the enterprises' annual recycling volume is less than 1,000 vehicles, and the dismantling technology level is low, and the operation is not standardized, environmentally friendly, and unsaving phenomena are common.
The car scrap recycling company at that time was very difficult.
On the one hand, since some small workshops bid higher than formal dismantling companies when acquiring scrapped cars, a large number of scrapped cars that should have flowed into formal dismantling companies eventually flowed into the "black market", which led to many scrap recycling companies being "not full". Data released by National Bureau of Statistics shows that as of the end of 2011, the number of civilian vehicles in my country was 106 million. According to the international scrapping rate of 7% per year, the number of cars that entered the scrapping period in 2011 should reach 7.42 million, but in fact, only about 500,000 vehicles, and a large number of scrapped cars have not entered the scrapping stage.
On the other hand, it is also very difficult to scrap recycling and dismantle business conditions . In 2012, an employee of a car scrap recycling company revealed in an interview with our reporter that after the car is dismantled, it is usually re-fueled as scrap steel. Since the steel price is not high, the company's profits are generally very low, and it is good if it can achieve profits and losses and remain unchanged. Gao Yanli told reporters that the highest income of the scrap recycling and dismantling company at that time was 500 yuan/ton.
It is worth mentioning that in 2012, the National Development and Reform Commission announced the first batch of pilot units and products for automobile remanufacturing that passed the acceptance, which means that my country's automobile parts remanufacturing work had started 10 years ago, but scrap recycling and dismantling enterprises did not make much profit. As Li Zhenbiao said: "Because the scrapped car models were old at that time, there was no market channel for dismantling parts, and the profit margin of the company was very limited." It is understood that a large number of available scrap parts flowed into the "black market", the company's remanufacturing technology level is relatively low, and it does not have a complete reverse logistics system. In addition, consumers have not had a high awareness of remanufacturing products, and they are not psychologically acceptable to remanufacturing products, which leads to the "can't collect and sell" of automobile remanufacturing, and the profit level of scrap recycling companies has been further reduced.
2 Welcome the Spring Breeze A package of policies was issued
When looking back on the journey of my country's automobile scrapping and recycling industry in the past 10 years, Gao Yanli and Li Zhenbiao both regarded the issuance of a document as a "watershed" in the development of the industry. This document is the " scrapped motor vehicle recycling management Measures " (hereinafter referred to as "Order No. 715") officially issued by the State Council on May 6, 2019. Order No. 715 not only liberalized the total control of enterprises, allowed existing qualified enterprises and newly applied enterprises to compete fairly on the same starting line, established a market mechanism of "in and out", but also canceled the previous reform measures such as recycling scrapped vehicles in accordance with scrap metal prices and allowing the "five assembly" to be sold to remanufacturing enterprises, restoring the commodity attributes of scrapped cars. In Gao Yanli's view, the issuance of this document marks the end of the era of relying solely on policies to make a living, and has entered a new stage of self-change in the industry and pursuit of transformation and upgrading. Before the issuance of
"715 Order, under the promotion of " scrapped car recycling management measures " ( State Council Order No. 307), subsidy funds for scrapping and renewal of old cars, and accelerating the elimination of yellow-label vehicles, the scale of the industry, the number of enterprises, etc. was in a stable growth stage; after the issuance of Order 715, the state innovated the industry management methods, led the high-quality development of the industry while reducing administrative intervention in the market, and promoted the scrapped motor vehicle recycling industry to enter a new development stage of reform and upgrading." Li Zhenbiao pointed out that as a management document with the highest legal effect in the scrapped motor vehicle recycling management system, Order 715 plays an important role in the "Basic Law" and guides the automobile recycling industry to a new stage of development.
Following the issuance of Order No. 715, a package of policies and regulations have also been issued one after another.
In December 2019, the "Technical Specifications for Scrapped Motor Vehicle Recycling and Dismantling Enterprises" (GB22128-2019) was released, and it was revised on the basis of the original 2008 version of the standard, adding hierarchical dynamic management, electric vehicle dismantling requirements, etc., becoming an important standard basis for the construction of scrapped automobile recycling and dismantling enterprises and the carrying out dismantling technical work.
In July 2020, the Ministry of Commerce of the State issued the "Implementation Rules for the Management Measures for the Recycling of Scrapped Motor Vehicles in ". Li Zhenbiao pointed out that the document is based on Order No. 715 as the superior method of , and is positioned as an administrative management in the industry. It cooperates with the "Technical Specifications for Scrapped Motor Vehicle Recycling and Disassembling Enterprises" (GB22128-2019) and industry management specification documents, providing a basis for the formulation of provincial-level competent departments and related normative documents. It is a core management document that undertakes all aspects.
In May 2022, the new version of the "Motor Vehicle Registration Regulations" (Ministry of Public Security Order No. 164) was officially implemented, and it was clear that motor vehicles whose vehicles were not in the registration place could be sold scrapped motor vehicles to the recycling companies where the vehicle was located, which means that scrapping in other places was officially released.
According to Li Zhenbiao, there are many supporting policies and regulations "on the road". For example, the " Motor Vehicle Mandatory Scrap Standard Regulations " is being revised, and a more scientific and reasonable scrapping indicator system will be built by vehicle models; the Ministry of Commerce's "Technical Requirements for Recycling and Dismantling of Scrapped Electric Vehicles" standard is being formulated; the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's "Technical Specifications for Pollution Control of Scrapped Motor Vehicles (Draft for Comments)" has been solicited for public opinions, and the national carbon peak and carbon neutrality strategy have also put forward new requirements for the scrapped motor vehicle recycling industry.
3 Promote transformation and popularization of modern technology
has been launched and will be launched a series of policies, becoming a "spring breeze" in the automobile scrapping, recycling and reuse industry.
Li Zhenbiao said that my country's scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industry has achieved a series of new achievements under the new management system: the most prominent thing about
is the rapid increase in the number of scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling enterprises. As of the end of 2021, there were more than 1,000 scrapped motor vehicle recycling companies nationwide, an increase of 32.5% compared with the end of 2019, with a significant increase. Li Zhenbiao predicts that the number of recycling companies will continue to show a significant increase in the future; second, the recycling of scrapped motor vehicles has increased significantly. In 2021, the national scrapped motor vehicle recycling volume reached 2.975 million, an increase of nearly 30% over 2019; third, the industry's environmental protection level has been significantly improved. Since 2019, the environmental awareness of enterprises in scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industries has been greatly enhanced. More than 56% of enterprises have passed the environmental assessment and acceptance, and more than 40% of enterprises have applied for the " pollutant discharge license ". In addition, the treatment and disposal of hazardous waste are more standardized. More than 85% of enterprises have signed disposal agreements with enterprises with hazardous waste disposal qualifications, and 98% of enterprises have built hazardous goods warehouses and have hazardous waste warehouse entry and exit ledger. What is more worthy of recognition is that Gao Yanli told reporters with deep emotion that many companies have begun to realize that the wheel of history will not reverse, and must keep up with the national development situation and meet the requirements of relevant laws and standards, otherwise they will be eliminated by the market. Therefore, after Order No. 715 and supporting relevant policies were issued, the entire industry greatly improved its awareness of transformation and upgrading. During the visit to the company, Gao Yanli found that the low-level and low-quality operations in the past were gone, and replaced by assembly line operations. Most scrap recycling companies have transformed their working environment and replaced them with hardened grounds that are anti-leakage and oil-fouling. In terms of software, from the collection of vehicles to the storage of parts, the entire recycling and dismantling process, all enterprises have adopted digital management . Gao Yanli gave an example and said that some pilot companies will digitally scan the scrapped vehicles when they enter the factory to obtain data related to scrapping and dismantling of the vehicle, including the total weight of the car, which equipment is required for dismantling, and how to dismantle it, so as to achieve scientific management. After disassembly, the corresponding network platform will also provide the price of parts and a more suitable sales location, and the worries of scrapping and recycling companies can also be solved. In addition to updating and upgrading existing technologies, in recent years, automobile scrapping and recycling companies have also been actively learning new skills and new technologies, such as scrapping and recycling of new energy vehicles. Gao Yanli still remembers that around 2019, some new energy vehicles in my country entered the scrapping and recycling stage, mainly some new energy vehicles in the public operation field. However, during the investigation and visit, many scrapping and recycling companies said that they had not been exposed to new energy vehicles and knew very little about the dismantling of this product. By 2021, after many trainings by industry institutions, enterprises have set up dismantling workshops for new energy vehicles and storage warehouses for waste power batteries in accordance with the technical specifications of scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling enterprises, laying anti-slip and anti-static grounds, and also training employees on dismantling technology for scrapped new energy vehicles, basically making relevant preparations for receiving scrapped new energy vehicles.The progress of
enterprises is reflected in statistical data: According to statistics, in 2018, only 988 new energy vehicles were recycled in my country, and in 2019, the total recycling volume reached 4,598; in 2020, the national recycling volume was 14,748; by 2021, the total recycling volume of new energy vehicles continued to grow rapidly, reaching 35,000.
4 Look at the future and welcome new development opportunities
According to data provided by the China Material Regeneration Association, in 2012, the total number of scrapped motor vehicles in my country was 1.147 million, of which only 601,000 cars; in 2014, the total number of scrapped motor vehicles in the country exceeded 2 million for the first time, and the total number of scrapped cars exceeded 1 million for the first time, reaching 1.423 million; in 2020, against the backdrop of the sudden outbreak of the epidemic and the increasing downward pressure on the economy, the total number of scrapped motor vehicles in my country was 2.398 million, and the automobile scrapping and recycling industry also went against the trend and reached a new level of 2 million, reaching 2.153 million.
10 years, the automobile scrapping and recycling industry has gone through a difficult journey from small to large, and has changed from a marginal industry to an important participant in realizing the circular economy, and is playing an increasingly important role in the big stage of the automobile industry. Now, my country has entered a new stage of development, and promoting resource conservation and intensive utilization and building a resource recycling industrial system and a waste material recycling system have become the top priority of economic development. Against this background, as an indispensable and necessary link in the entire life cycle management of the chain of automobile , the scrapped motor vehicle industry is highly valued and strongly supported, and is gaining better and better development opportunities and environment.
In order to promote the industry to develop in a healthier and orderly direction, Li Zhenbiao suggested that it is necessary to further improve the scrapped motor vehicle recycling management system, such as researching and formulating fiscal and tax support policies to promote the development of the industry, and formulating more detailed management measures for scrapping and recycling of new energy vehicles; secondly, when implementing qualification approval, local commercial departments support the introduction of more powerful and technical outstanding enterprises, strengthen supervision, and accelerate the elimination of backward enterprises; thirdly, they hope that more industry-leading enterprises will appear, improve the informatization level and dismantling level of my country's scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industry, and change the traditional impression of "dirty, messy, and poor" in the scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industry.
"my country's scrapped automobile recycling and reuse management system is gradually improving, and many difficulties and bottlenecks that hinder the development of the industry are also being solved in an orderly manner. With the continuous increase in the number of motor vehicles in my country and the gradual increase in the scrap rate of automobiles, the industry's development prospects are broad." Looking ahead, Li Zhenbiao believes that in the next period, a large number of enterprises and capital will enter, showing the development characteristics of more intensive technology and capital, and pushing the industry into a period of transformation, upgrading and structural optimization, that is, the "industry reshuffle" period. By then, a number of large backbone groups that are leading in dismantling technology, facilities and equipment, and safety and environmental protection, actively extending to high-tech and high-value-added fields such as back-end "remanufacturing" and "power battery reuse" to lead the healthy development of the industry.
is facing the future and in the full promotion and implementation of the requirements put forward by the circular economy, Gao Yanli is also full of confidence. She has very high expectations for the automobile scrapping and recycling industry: this year, the company's upgrade and transformation and acceptance will be basically completed, with a compliance rate of more than 90%; by 2023, it will be possible to focus on building several regional large-scale scrapped motor vehicles dismantling, crushing and comprehensive utilization bases, and strive to reach 30 nationwide by 2025; by 2024, the recycling rate of scrapped cars will reach 95%, of which the reuse rate of materials will not be less than 85%.
"In terms of the entire industry, the total sales of 'recycling and dismantling parts' in the scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industry in 2019 has reached 10.8 billion yuan." Gao Yanli hopes that by 2025, the total sales of 'recycling and dismantling parts' in the scrapped motor vehicle recycling and dismantling industry can reach a new level, and strive to achieve quadruple on this basis.
text: Shi Yunyun Editor: Sun Huanyu Layout: Zhao Fangting
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