At the meeting, Zhao Zhike, vice chairman of ICAC, clearly proposed that ICAC will actively rely on the guidance of the superior unit to strive to launch an initiative guidance document for maintaining market order and resisting malicious low-price competition in the industry. "Affected by the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the operating costs of industrial service enterprises have increased, and the total amount of cleaning business of the owner unit is not as much as before. If this is not done, the damage of unfair competition to the industry will be immeasurable. ”

The picture shows the meeting site. (Photo by Zhao Xinjie)

"Since 2020, affected by factors such as the normalization of the prevention and control of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the 'entry of enterprises into the park', the competition in the industrial cleaning service market has become more intense. It is not uncommon to bid at a low price and then abandon the bid after winning the bid at a low price. Zhao Zhike pointed out that some enterprises "only have a large business volume", and simply hiring salesmen fooled things; Some enterprises delay the progress of the project to obtain visas and compensate for losses through high-priced settlement; There are also strong support of enterprises, resulting in insufficient cash flow and inability to operate; What's more, due to the inability to complete the project, they actively abandoned the bid and withdrew from the site, so that the bidding enterprise fell into passivity. These phenomena of "starving peers, exhausting themselves, and pit owners" have brought negative effects to the industrial cleaning industry.

"Six years ago, the association noticed the situation of malicious low-price competition. This problem has been plaguing the industry and dragging down the industrial cleaning field. Wang Lijie, deputy general manager of Beijing Bluestar Cleaning Co., Ltd., said.

In an interview with this reporter, a delegate at the meeting introduced his experience of encountering malicious low-price competition. He found that even if the lowest market price was the bidding, other competitors were likely to offer lower prices, resulting in the final project closing price less than half of the original price. Such price reduction behaviors not only cannot guarantee the quality of the completion of the project, but also destroy the healthy competition situation of the entire industry.

A number of participants said that once the transaction price is below a certain range, the project will be in a state where it cannot be started, or forced to start construction at the cost of reducing costs, which will cause losses to both the cleaning company and the owner. As Hu Genying, director of the safety department of the cleaning engineering division of Beijing Lanxing Cleaning Co., Ltd., said: "Cutting corners cannot guarantee quality." This can bring great hidden dangers to the operation of the plant, especially in terms of safety. Low-price competition has a great impact on industry development and cleaning safety. To this end, he suggested that the association sort out relevant positive and negative cases, and make briefings, which are regularly sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, important state-owned enterprises and other relevant units, so that they can pay more attention to the quality of industrial cleaning.

"Upstream customers should also strengthen publicity and think about why enterprises that use unfair competition can win bids." Xu Hongwen, chief engineer of the industrial protection center of CNOOC Energy Development Equipment Technology Co., Ltd., said, "Some Party A units do not know much about the industrial cleaning industry. The association should communicate with Party A and introduce relevant technologies, so that customers can also have a target in terms of bid evaluation criteria. ”

Li Songtao, manager of Zhongjing Construction Group Co., Ltd., proposed that "on-site interview scores" can be added to the scoring of bidding documents to reduce the hidden dangers caused by the phenomenon that "bidding documents are a set, but the scene does not know anything"; Or only evaluate bids, do not rank, organize the owner to the actual inspection of the bidding unit, so that the owner can further understand whether the construction quality matches the bidding price.

Some participants also believed that the association could start from the industry itself and solve the problem from the stipulation of what constitutes "malicious low price". For example, the association can try to define a price range or reference value, and gradually promote it from individual fields to the whole industry.

In order to effectively reduce unfair competition in the industry, a number of representatives proposed the establishment of an industry "blacklist". "When bidding, some enterprises use false qualifications to bid, and some enterprises evade or abandon bids. The association should record and report these enterprises in the form of a 'blacklist' to make them traceable online. Jiao Yang, head of Beijing Jiaoyang Cleaning Technology Studio, said, "For non-cleaning association members and non-industrial cleaning qualification enterprises, they can also be listed in the form of a list to expand the scope of influence." ”

In response, Li Songtao added: "Is it possible to establish a scoring system. Taking member companies as an example, the original score is 100 points, and points will be deducted in the event of bad competition such as bid evasion. At the same time, he believes that this system should also be equipped with a complaint, report, and bonus point mechanism, and the whole process is fair and open, with rewards and punishments. He Zhengwei, department manager of Beijing Bluestar Cleaning Co., Ltd., also agreed with this suggestion. He stressed that we cannot only rely on associations and committees, and only when the majority of member units act together can we create a fair market environment.

At the same time, Weng Weirong, general manager of Quzhou Universal Cleaning Co., Ltd., pointed out that the formulation of rules should fully consider the characteristics of low entry threshold in the industrial cleaning industry and "the company makes money with fewer people, but loses money when there are many people". He suggested that the association start from the source, formulate standards and ratings for member enterprises, and assign A~D grades, on the one hand to provide reference for owners, on the other hand, it also delays the issuance of certificates for enterprises that do not meet the standards, and checks at the entry link.

"It is not enough to produce 'quantitative changes', the association should pursue 'qualitative changes' that can make member companies feel tangibly." Wang Lijie believes that the association should play the responsibility of guidance and standardization, and the key to achieving this goal is to establish the authority of the association and enhance the credibility of the industry. Lv Yan, deputy manager of Shenyang Instrument Science Research Institute Co., Ltd. Huibo Equipment Company, said: "We must not only formulate the rules of cleaning services, but also publicize the rules, so that users can better understand our capabilities and strengths, improve the social status of the cleaning industry, and make the whole industry develop better and better." ”

This article was published in China Chemical Industry News Intelligent Manufacturing Weekly