1、 What is the background for formulating and promulgating the 'Standard Conditions'?

Since the beginning of the new century, China's shipbuilding industry has developed rapidly and achieved significant achievements, becoming one of the most influential shipbuilding powers in the world. However, in the process of rapid industrial development, some deep-seated problems have also accumulated, particularly manifested in weak innovation capabilities, prominent structural contradictions, low industrial concentration, and intensified overcapacity contradictions. Against the backdrop of the current international financial crisis and the sustained downturn in the international shipping market, accelerating the structural adjustment of the shipbuilding industry, promoting transformation and upgrading, and maintaining sustained and healthy development of the industry have become the primary tasks for the development of China's shipbuilding industry.

On July 31, 2013, the State Council issued the "Implementation Plan for Accelerating Structural Adjustment and Promoting Transformation and Upgrading of the Shipbuilding Industry (2013-2015)" (Guofa [2013] No. 29), which clearly proposed to "strengthen the management of the shipbuilding industry and improve industry access conditions". On October 6, 2013, the State Council issued the "Guiding Opinions on Resolving the Contradiction of Serious Overcapacity" (Guofa [2013] No. 41), proposing to "revise and improve policies for the steel and cement industries, as well as access conditions for the aluminum, cement, flat glass, and shipbuilding industries. Strengthen industry access and regulatory management, and announce the list of production lines and enterprises that meet the conditions". Based on this, our department has formulated the "Standard Conditions for the Shipbuilding Industry" (hereinafter referred to as the "Standard Conditions") in accordance with the overall requirements of the current transformation and upgrading of the shipbuilding industry and the resolution of the contradiction of overcapacity in shipbuilding. We have extensively listened to the opinions of relevant national departments, industry associations, local shipbuilding industry regulatory departments, key enterprises, design and research units, and experts.

The "Standard Conditions" are the specific implementation of the requirements of State Council documents No. 29 and No. 41 of 2013, and are a new measure to further strengthen the management of the shipbuilding industry. They are of great significance in resolving the contradiction of overcapacity, accelerating structural adjustment, improving technological level, promoting transformation and upgrading, and guiding the sustainable and healthy development of the shipbuilding industry.

2、 What is the function of the 'Standard Conditions'?

The "Standard Conditions" put forward normative requirements for the main aspects of enterprise production and operation, focusing on guiding shipbuilding enterprises to become better and stronger, strengthening technological and management innovation, comprehensively establishing modern shipbuilding models, improving ship design and manufacturing level, production efficiency and product quality, enhancing environmental protection, safety production and occupational health management level, reducing resource and energy consumption, and accelerating the elimination of backward production capacity.

On the basis of voluntary application by enterprises, after initial review by local industry management departments or central enterprise (group) headquarters, expert evaluation organized by industry associations and professional institutions, and public announcement, a public announcement system will be established for enterprises that meet technical standards, environmental protection standards, energy conservation standards, safety standards and other regulatory conditions, providing a basis for national and local policy support and guiding social resources to concentrate on advantageous shipbuilding enterprises that meet the conditions. Implement differentiated policies for enterprises that fail to meet the standard conditions, and promote enterprises to improve and perfect their production conditions. Through the implementation of the 'Standard Conditions', we will promote the transformation and upgrading, joint restructuring, or transformation of enterprises, create world-class shipbuilding enterprises, improve industrial concentration, and guide the shipbuilding industry to digest, transfer, integrate, and eliminate some excess capacity.

3、 How will the implementation of the 'Standard Conditions' be carried out specifically?

After the promulgation of the "Standard Conditions", it has received widespread attention from society, and many departments and enterprises also hope that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will release the list of standardized enterprises as soon as possible. At present, we are actively preparing for implementation, including preparing to establish a review expert database, writing relevant publicity and training materials, formulating relevant work rules for expert review, and improving relevant standards. The preliminary plan for the implementation of the 'Standard Conditions' will be fully launched in the first half of 2014, and specific requirements for the work will be notified separately by our department. The review of the "Standard Conditions" follows the principles of openness, fairness, and impartiality. In the process of organizing and implementing it, the roles of local industry regulatory departments at all levels, central enterprise (group) headquarters, industry organizations, and professional institutions will be fully utilized. The announcement system will implement normalized management, with mature announcements made one after another.

4、 What is the relationship between the 'normative conditions' and the referenced standards?

The CB/T 3000 "Basic Requirements and Evaluation Methods for Production Conditions of Ship Production Enterprises" and CB/T 4335 "Evaluation Methods for Ship Construction Technology Level" cited in the "Standard Conditions" are recommended standards in the shipbuilding industry and serve as the specific technical basis for the implementation of the "Standard Conditions". CB/T 3000 mainly provides specific regulations on the basic production conditions of shipbuilding enterprises from six aspects: general, management, personnel, measurement and testing, production facilities, and production equipment. Articles 5 to 10 and 20 to 26 of the "Standard Conditions" stipulate that the basic requirements of enterprises, production facilities, equipment and metrological testing requirements, personnel requirements, quality assurance systems, etc. should be reviewed in accordance with the relevant provisions of CB/T 3000 standard. CB/T 4335 provides regulations on the definition and evaluation methods of ship construction technology indicators. Article 15 of the "Standard Conditions" stipulates that the evaluation of production technology indicators for enterprises should be carried out in accordance with the CB/T 4335 standard.

With the development of the situation, we will carry out revision work on standards such as CB/T 3000. Recently, we organized experts to study four indicators specified in the "Standard Conditions", including the popularity rate of enterprise resource planning systems, the popularity rate of digital design tools, the numerical control rate of key process flows, and the automation and semi automation rates of welding. We proposed relevant technical indicators and evaluation methods, which will be included in the revision of relevant standards in the next step.

5、 Why is the scope of application of the "Standard Conditions" limited to general steel shipbuilding enterprises?

There are various types of shipbuilding enterprises, classified according to the CB/T 3000 standard, including steel, aluminum, fiber-reinforced plastic, and wooden shipbuilding enterprises. Among them, steel general shipbuilding enterprises (i.e. various types of steel ships except for fishing ships) account for more than 85% of the total number of shipbuilding enterprises in China in terms of quantity, and more than 95% of the total industrial scale. They are the main direction of structural adjustment in the shipbuilding industry and the main problem that needs to be solved to resolve the contradiction of overcapacity. To highlight the key points and resolve the main contradictions, the scope of application of the "Standard Conditions" has been determined to be steel general shipbuilding enterprises that comply with the definition of CB/T 3000 standard.

6、 Why is the requirement for construction technology capability emphasized in the 'Standard Conditions'?

Vigorously promoting the establishment of modern shipbuilding models and comprehensively improving the level of shipbuilding technology is an important measure to promote the development of China's shipbuilding industry and the foundation of enterprises. With the rapid development of China's shipbuilding industry, the level of shipbuilding technology and production efficiency have significantly improved, the shipbuilding cycle has significantly shortened, and the gap with advanced shipbuilding countries has significantly narrowed. However, most enterprises' construction technology capabilities have not been able to synchronize with the scale of the industry. Due to the profound impact of the international financial crisis, the development of China's shipbuilding industry is facing more severe challenges, and in the new situation, efforts should be made to further increase modeling work. According to the 12th Five Year Plan for the Development of the Shipbuilding Industry and the Guiding Opinions of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology on Further Promoting the Establishment of Modern Shipbuilding Models (hereinafter referred to as the "Modeling Guiding Opinions"), in order to encourage and guide enterprises to strengthen technological and management innovation, actively adopt advanced production processes, improve shipbuilding technology level and production efficiency, the "Standard Conditions" have put forward specific requirements for modern final assembly shipbuilding models, refined management and on-time production, production design, information management, and other aspects.

7、 How are the technical indicators and requirements related to construction technology capability determined?

According to the requirements of the Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Plan, the 12th Five Year Plan for the Development of the Shipbuilding Industry, and the Guiding Opinions on Modeling, the Standard Conditions mainly select representative, operable, and easily assessable enterprise information and main production technology indicators in terms of construction technology capability requirements, such as enterprise ERP penetration rate, digital design tool penetration rate, key process numerical control rate, shipbuilding comprehensive energy consumption, steel comprehensive utilization rate, welding automation and semi automation rate, coating coefficient, segmented zero allowance manufacturing rate, segmented zero allowance loading rate on the shipyard (entering the dock), and complete rate of outfitting engineering before launching (leaving the dock). The specific indicators strive to reflect both the actual level of development of domestic shipbuilding enterprises and the guidance for enterprise development.

8、 Why is there a requirement for enterprise technological innovation in the 'Standard Conditions'?

The significant enhancement of independent innovation capability is one of the main goals proposed in the "Industrial Transformation and Upgrading Plan (2011-2015)" issued by the State Council to be achieved during the "Twelfth Five Year Plan" period, and it is clearly stated that the internal expenditure of R&D funds for industrial enterprises above designated size should account for 1% of their main business income, and key backbone enterprises should account for more than 3%. The technology innovation system with enterprises as the main body should be further improved. The first main task proposed in the 12th Five Year Plan for the Development of the Shipbuilding Industry is to promote technological progress and innovation, and to clarify that the R&D investment of enterprises above designated size shall not be less than 2% of their sales revenue.

Under the current situation, the global shipping market continues to be sluggish, market competition is increasing, and the contradiction of overcapacity is intensifying. New international shipbuilding conventions, regulations, and standards are being introduced one after another. Accelerating the improvement of enterprise technological innovation capabilities has become the key to enhancing enterprise core competitiveness and risk resistance. Therefore, in the "Standard Conditions", it is required that enterprises should have independent research and innovation capabilities, with an annual R&D investment of no less than 2% of their main business income, and have R&D institutions such as enterprise technology centers, engineering research centers, and key laboratories recognized by provincial and above departments.

9、 How are the requirements for enterprise safety production in the "Standard Conditions" considered?

The Notice of the State Council on Further Strengthening Enterprise Safety Production Work (Guofa [2010] No. 23) clearly proposes to further deepen the construction of safety production standardization with job standards, professional standards, and enterprise standards as the content, and requires safety standardization grading assessment and evaluation of enterprise safety production status. In June 2013, the State Administration of Work Safety officially issued AQ/T 7008-2013 "Basic Requirements for Safety Production Standardization of Shipbuilding and Repair Enterprises", which stipulated the specific requirements for 13 elements in the construction of safety production standardization standards for shipbuilding and repair enterprises. Therefore, it is explicitly required in the "Standard Conditions" that enterprises should carry out standardized construction of safety production in accordance with AQ/T 7008 standards and relevant regulations, further improving the intrinsic safety of enterprise production.

10、 Why implement dynamic management for announced enterprises?

Dynamic management is to ensure that the enterprises listed in the announcement can continuously maintain the various conditions required by the "Standard Conditions". For enterprises listed in the announcement, local shipbuilding industry regulatory departments at all levels and central enterprise (group) headquarters shall supervise and inspect the implementation of standardized conditions by enterprises every year. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will also organize spot checks, and encourage all sectors of society to supervise. If it is found that the enterprise has engaged in fraud, cannot maintain standardized conditions, etc., once verified, its qualification will be revoked.