Catch up and overtake
While the machine tool industry is preparing to become the flagship of qualitative changes in the monetary policy of the industrial sector of Russia, its participants enter their production in the "Red Book" of the country's technological competences
The Russian economy as a whole and its industry in particular once again demonstrate the negative dynamics of real growth rates, or the so-called zero prospects. About this in late April, said Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov. Probably, this year the market will experience a technical recession with all the ensuing consequences in terms of capital and direct investment. According to the results of the first quarter of 2014, the Ministry of Economic Development estimates GDP growth at the level of 0,8% compared to the same period last year. At the same time, the Russian industry grew in annual terms by slightly more than 1%, but compared to the fourth quarter of 2013, its decline amounted to 12,4%.
Economic Development Minister Alexei Ulyukayev could not make the market players happy, calling the country's economic situation unstable and pointing to an investment pause, which in the language of economic statistics means a nearly five percent reduction in capital investment in the first quarter of 2014 compared to the previous year. Probably the central link in this problem is the massive outflow of capital from the country, which by the beginning of April reached, by some estimates, 50,6 billion dollars. Nevertheless, the flight of capital that we observe is apparently another decisive step towards the largest all-Russian import substitution campaign in the last 70-80. According to Alexei Ulyukayev, the situation in industry is not so bad, which is explained by the increase in import substitution, including due to the weakening of the Russian ruble.
Unobtrusive regulation
So, the persons responsible for achieving the target indicators of the Russian industry are faced with a very difficult task: on the one hand, the economy stops growing, on the other - it is necessary to give a strong impetus to the domestic market, both to stimulate demand and to boost supply. It should not be forgotten that the economy is in a state of obvious stagflation, that is, the recession spiral is aggravated by rising inflation. At the end of 2014, the projected inflation rate will be 6,5-7%. Therefore, it is logical to expect the beginning of a new wave of neoclassical economic thinking, in particular monetarism, which turned out to be very effective in the medium term in the United States since the economic course of President Ronald Reagan (1980-1988 years).
However, as current monetary policy shows, the Russian economy is not yet ready for full-fledged deregulation. In particular, it concerns the rates on medium and long-term lending to industry and refinancing rates.
Since the second half of 2013, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia (the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation) is revising the program “Development of the domestic machine-tool industry and tool industry” adopted several years ago for 2011-2016 in favor of the Russian Federation’s Industry Development Program published earlier this year. and increase its competitiveness. Machine tool industry ”for 2012-2020 years. The total planned volume of funds allocated for all types of industry is 240,8 billion rubles. The goal of the program is to “create a competitive, sustainable, structurally balanced industry in Russia”. One of the basic investment goods program developers have called the machine tool industry products - for the development of this industry, an import substitution strategy was chosen: "reducing the dependence of Russian strategic organizations of machine-building and defense-industrial complexes on the supply of foreign technological tools."
However, unlike many cumbersome and non-specific programs, the above-mentioned measures to increase the investment attractiveness of the machine tool industry, presented by Denis Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia, are reduced to an extremely important step. It is about creating an industry development fund that will carry out targeted lending to industrial enterprises at a rate not higher than 5%. Instead of almost three-fold reduction in the cost of borrowed funds, the applicant companies will have to prove the investment feasibility of the projects for which they will ask for loans. Thus, as early as September 2013 of the year, at the meeting of the scientific coordination council for the machine tool industry development program, First Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade of Russia Gleb Nikitin noted: “Each project must, firstly, be confirmed by the demand of a specific customer, and secondly, must have a certain list of investors and a clear organizational structure. "
The fund in question will become a special credit program of VEB and the Ministry of Industry and Trade. Thus, VEB will be responsible for reviewing applications and examining projects, as well as for attracting additional financial resources and bringing them to the recipient. In addition, there is a proposal voiced by the Ministry of Industry and Trade on zeroing the federal part of the profit tax for the manufacturing industry. Such a measure can really significantly increase the investment attractiveness of industry enterprises whose profitability does not exceed 10%, and often amounts to 3-5%.
According to the Committee on Industrial Policy and Innovations of St. Petersburg, currently the Government of the Russian Federation Decree No. 3 of January 3 2014 has approved the Rules for the provision of subsidies from the federal budget to Russian organizations. As part of this resolution, it is planned to compensate part of the cost of paying interest on loans received from Russian credit institutions in 2014-2016 for the implementation of new comprehensive investment projects in priority areas of the civil industry under the state program subprogram. Petersburg enterprises, including from the machine-tool industry, are also involved in the implementation of this decree and the receipt of subsidies from the federal budget. In particular, LLC Kirov-Stankomash together with JSC Stankoprom are implementing an investment project for organizing the production of high-tech machine-tool equipment.
On the verge of extinction
A sharp increase in the potential demand for domestic machine-tool construction is primarily signaled by the state itself as represented by the defense industry complex. “Our main task is to have time to create the necessary number of productions to ensure the projected order in 2016,” says Gleb Nikitin.
At the same time, market players testify to the total non-competitiveness of the products of the Russian machine tool industry. “In order to increase the mutual attractiveness of doing business both for producers and distributors of the industry, special attention should be paid to this issue, for example, to ease the tax burden. Thus, the priority direction of the Finval Group of Companies is to solve technological problems of any complexity based on the use of high-tech equipment of foreign manufacture, as there are no worthy domestic analogues of these machines at the moment, ”the Director of the Technical Center of CJSC“ Finval-Industry ”notes ( the company - distributor of machine tools and tools, bearings and tooling) Yuri Yurikov.
According to the Ministry of Industry and Trade, production of machine tools for January-May 2013 of the year is estimated at 95,9% by January-May of 2012. At the same time, the production of machine tools as compared to January-May 2012 amounted to 88,8%, CNC lathes - 79,7, forging and pressing machines - 89,6, woodworking machines - 98%. According to the data for 2012 year, the coefficient of technological equipment update does not exceed 1% per year, and the moral and physical depreciation of fixed assets of machine-tool plants reaches 70-80%. The total share of machine tools in GDP is several times less than in the industry leading countries: China, Italy, Germany, Japan, South Korea, the United States and Taiwan. As a result, about 90% of machine tool capacities purchased today by domestic factories are foreign equipment.
So, according to Yuri Yurikov, “the currently used fleet of domestic equipment dominates substantially in almost all machine-building enterprises in Russia. However, on the 80% it is a continuously becoming obsolete universal equipment. In the newest stories domestic machine tool industry is experiencing difficult times and came close to complete degradation. Today, there is no need to talk about any significant competition of domestic machine tools with foreign models. For this reason, no doubt, the advantage when choosing a supplier of equipment is provided to foreign companies. Thus, Russian consumers recognize both the technical and the economic advantage of the latter. ”
The machines manufactured in Russia are low-and mid-range equipment that is not in the high-tech category, noted in the St. Petersburg Committee for Industrial Policy and Innovation. “The efficiency of the Russian machine tool industry is low. The greatest problems are connected with the unsatisfactory organization of production, sales of products and low innovative activity, ”the government of St. Petersburg confirms. In addition, foreign companies at the state level are granted substantial benefits - both in taxes and in the export of their products to other countries.
According to the doctor of technical sciences, professor of the department of technology of construction materials and materials science of the St. Petersburg State Polytechnic University, Mikhail Korotkikh, the restoration of the production of means of production in Russia is an essential component of the country's economic security. Indeed, the industry is not able to succeed in the much-needed technological breakthrough, using only its own funds. In many ways, this is justified by the extremely long by the modern standards the payback period of the products of the machine-tool industry. Mikhail Korotkikh also noted that the industry is forced to overcome a difficult path: to build an integral automated chain, eliminating human participation due to the spread of robotics. Active market participants have repeatedly sent detailed appeals to the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and the Chairman of the Military Industrial Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation Dmitry Rogozin about the inadmissibility of further blind sponsorship of machine-tool technologies of competing countries. The fact is that when purchasing equipment from, say, a German company, the order price also includes a certain percentage redirected by the manufacturer to the fund of future engineering design developments in the industry. Consequently, with each subsequent purchase, Russian consumers of foreign equipment increase the gap between world and domestic levels of competitiveness of machine tool products.
Light at end of tunnel
In the NWFD, the machine tool industry is represented by a small number of enterprises, often with a rich Soviet past. Among the largest regional representatives of the industry are Kirov StankoMash LLC (a subsidiary of Kirovsky Plant OJSC, a relatively recently created enterprise based on the own developments of the Kirovsky Plant and bankrupt enterprises of the industry, St. Petersburg), the St. Petersburg Precision Machine-Tool Plant (created on the basis of the Machine-Tool Plant Ilyich), Petersburg Machine-Tool Plant TBS, CJSC, Baltic Machine-Tool Plant, CJSC (St. Petersburg), Vologda Machine-Tool Building Co., Ltd. Water ”, OJSC“ Petrozavodsk Machine-Tool Building Plant ”, OJSC“ Northern Communard ”(Vologda).
The state of the machine tool industry in St. Petersburg reflects the general state of this sector in the country, noted in the Committee on Industrial Policy and Innovations of St. Petersburg. Nevertheless, at present, there have been some positive developments in the industry. In the northern capital with the support of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of St. Petersburg and the Russian association of manufacturers of machine tool industry "Stankoinstrument" the cluster of machine tool industry has been operating since 2012.
The cluster unites practically all manufacturers of machine tool equipment of the North-West to achieve a common goal - to ensure the life cycle (R & D - production setting - mass production), as well as to actively participate in creating the modern market of innovative high-tech equipment and technological services for leading industries and industry of Russia. The cluster includes such companies as LLC Kirov-Stankomash, OJSC Special Design Bureau of Machine-Tool Information and Measuring Systems with Experimental Production, LLC Saint-Petersburg Precision Machine-Tool Building Plant, ZAO Special Design Bureau of Heavy and Unique Machine Tools and etc. In addition to this cluster, an Innovation and Technology Cluster of mechanical engineering and metalworking works in the city, which also includes machine tool enterprises. Cluster formations are an effective tool for increasing the competitiveness of the domestic machine-tool industry, in particular St. Petersburg.
Most of the representatives of the industry tend to concentrate previously accumulated experience, and most importantly - the engineering and design development of the Soviet machine tool enterprises, often bankrupt and liquidated. However, such efforts need to be supported by the development of a comprehensive knowledge-intensive infrastructure, putting the achievement of the country's technological independence at the forefront. It is almost impossible to develop the industry under the existing financing system, especially if we are talking about a qualitative leap at the technological level.
The measures taken today to consolidate efforts in the industry have not yet brought clear results. Neither the Minpromtorg program “Development of the industry and increasing its competitiveness”, nor attempts to create a single design and engineering center (the so-called Interstate Eurasian Engineering Center) with a branch network for the modernization and technical re-equipment of enterprises in the field of mechanical engineering and metallurgy are not already existing tools for the restoration of machine tools industry. And finally, there is no systematic interest of industry participants and related specialists in restoring lost competencies and finding at least acceptable niches for a new qualitative revolution in development. Domestic enterprises are still alone with the machine tool industry in an attempt to restore the balance of power on it.
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