China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone was established in Zhoushan. In the past five years, Zhejiang Free Trade Zone has experienced expansion. As the "birthplace", Zhoushan District is also the only free trade park composed of land and sea anchorage in China. It grew from the sea. This thousand island city has bred a thriving marine economy, especially the oil and gas industry.
Zhoushan Islands itself does not produce oil and gas, but has unique conditions in oil and gas storage and transportation. Located on the coast of the East China Sea, Zhoushan is a sea gateway and channel for the Yangtze River basin and the Yangtze River Delta to open to the outside world. It radiates in a fan shape with emerging port cities in the Asia Pacific region, with obvious geographical advantages. Not only that, many uninhabited islands also provide congenital basic conditions for oil and gas storage. After all kinds of exploration and practice, Zhoushan has walked out a differentiated development path of "oil generation without medium" and "gas gathering development".
In the past five years, the construction of the entire oil and gas industry chain has been a process from "0 to 1". Today, Zhoushan has become an open highland for China's oil and gas industry system innovation and oil and gas enterprise cluster development: it has built the largest petrochemical base in China and the second largest single petrochemical base in the world; It has built the largest energy security base in China; It has become the first international tanker port in China and the fifth international tanker port in the world; It has become the largest oil and gas trading port in China and one of the regions where oil and gas enterprises are most concentrated
A series of striking data is just a microcosm of the reform and innovation achievements of the Zhoushan Free Trade Zone, which is also inseparable from the protection of financial forces. Recently, the reporter from the Daily Economic News went to Zhoushan to explore the integration of "oil and gas+finance".
"Baodeng System" Helps Enterprises Clear Financing Blockages
Zhejiang International Oil and Gas Trading Center (hereinafter referred to as "Zhejiang Oil Center") is one of the most influential oil trading platforms in China at present. The annual trade (transaction) volume accounts for about 40% of the total oil trading volume in Zhoushan District of Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone.
Zhejiang International Oil and Gas Trading Center
At present, Zhejiang Oil Center has 2436 member enterprises, including many internationally renowned oil enterprises and leading enterprises in the industry, and more small and medium-sized oil trading enterprises are attracted by the favorable tax business environment of the Free Trade Zone.
For some small and medium-sized oil traders, the difficulty in financing is a major obstacle to their business development. Due to the particularity of oil storage, it is difficult for bank accounts to control the cargo rights, so traders often face the dilemma of financing when goods are in the warehouse. At present, the oil depot in Zhoushan area can hold 30 to 40 million tons of oil. How can we revitalize this huge storage resources?
Relevant exploration has made progress. Previously, Bank of China Zhoushan Branch launched the first oil warehouse receipt pledge financing business under the bonded item in China, exploring the way to build a systematic oil warehouse receipt financing system in Zhejiang Free Trade Zone.
In fact, one of the key points of warehouse receipt pledge financing is to identify and solve the problems of repeated pledge and sale after pledge. Lai Xin, the general manager of Zhejiang Oil Center, explained that it was relatively difficult to manage the inventory of oil warehouse. The bank had made many attempts in inventory pledge financing before, and some risks also emerged, such as enterprises selling the goods after postponing the quality, or repeatedly pledging to multiple banks. Since the data of each link was not completely available, the bank also lacked effective means to identify similar risks.
In this context, the bonded commodity registration system jointly constructed by Zhejiang Oil Center has emerged as the times require, providing strong technical support for warehouse receipt pledge financing.
It is understood that the bonded commodity registration system takes the advantageous variety of bonded fuel oil in the Free Trade Zone as the pilot variety, uses the characteristics of "uniqueness, traceability, and tamper proof" of blockchain technology, and through data sharing and certification, realizes the whole process management and right confirmation of bonded commodities from warehousing to outbound, which can effectively solve the difficulties of "one woman married to many" and "repeated pledge" in bulk commodity warehouses.
"For example, we use the warehouse gateway to put liquid level density, temperature and other information on the blockchain, so that the physical and warehousing data can be mapped through the Internet of Things, and the information flow can not be tampered with, so that we can effectively solve the problem of repeated pledge of bulk commodities." Lai Xin told reporters that every transfer and pledge of commodities from warehousing to outbound can be reflected in this system, "Including all warehouses in this regulatory system is equivalent to a guarantee, and banks can also intervene to provide financing services."
In March 2021, the Hangzhou Central Sub branch of the People's Bank of China and Zhejiang Free Trade Office jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Financial Support to the Expansion and Enabling of China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, which mentioned that banks in the zone should support the members of the spot oil exchange to provide the clearing of cash purchase and sale funds of warehouse receipts and the financing of warehouse receipt pledge; Guide and promote the connection between the bonded commodity registration system of Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone and the unified registration and publicity system of movable property financing of the People's Bank of China Credit Reference Center.
"The integration of these two systems can be said to be a perfect complementary connection." Lai Xin told reporters that the previous practice only relied on the registration publicity system of the People's Bank of China is not complete, because it is impossible to determine whether the registered data is true. After the above two systems are connected, the bonded goods registration system can realize the true management of the whole process of goods from warehousing to outbound, so as to ensure that the information registered in the People's Bank of China's publicity system is true and reliable.
The reporter learned that the customs, SIPRI and Zhejiang Oil Center have completed the joint commissioning test of the bonded goods registration system. At present, SIPRI and the technology supplier are conducting system user acceptance test and online program review. Lai Xin revealed that this system is expected to go online this year and will be connected with the banking system next year.
The trading modes of oil and gas derivatives are increasingly rich
From January to August this year, Zhejiang Oil Center achieved a trade volume of 291.623 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 40.17%, of which the online trading volume has exceeded the total of last year; The trade volume was 51.8598 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 14.01%, and the market continued to be active.
The reporter learned that some member enterprises settled their oil products trade mainly in dollars. In order to meet the daily business needs of member enterprises, Zhejiang Oil Center also received strong support from the People's Bank of China. In March 2021, the Hangzhou Central Sub branch of the People's Bank of China and Zhejiang Free Trade Office jointly issued the Guidance on Financial Support to the Expansion and Enabling of China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone, supporting Zhejiang Oil Center to set up a current account for spot oil warehouse receipt transactions. At present, Zhejiang Oil Center cooperates with China Construction Bank, Zheshang Bank, Bank of China and others to promote the construction of USD settlement function system.
On July 15 this year, the US dollar settlement system jointly developed by Zhejiang Oil Center and Zheshang Bank has been launched, and the business trial order is being promoted. CCB and BOC are conducting interface development, which is expected to be completed and launched within the year.
based on spot trading, Zhejiang Oil Center is gradually exploring the way to develop medium and long term order trading, medium and long term contracts, and derivatives trading, and taking the lead in exploring and innovating OTC derivatives trading modes. It is reported that Zhejiang Oil Center has obtained 41 trading varieties, as well as the filing and approval of four trading modes: spot listing, one-way bidding, spot over-the-counter matching, and capacity pre-sale.
It is worth mentioning that the capacity pre-sale transaction model, which was launched in November 2021, is also the first medium and long term transaction model to be implemented. In short, orders will be formed after the production capacity is sold, and there will be a transfer period of 7 days to 3 months. During this period, no full payment and no invoice will be issued for each transfer. Trade contracts will be concluded at the final delivery period, and then spot delivery will be carried out, which can greatly improve the transaction efficiency.
"For production enterprises, capacity pre-sale can broaden the sales channels and lock in profits in advance; downstream customers can obtain high-quality procurement resources in advance." Lai Xin told reporters that, not only that, capacity pre-sale is also conducive to improving the efficiency of resource docking in the market, promoting the period and current cooperation and cross regional circulation of spot resources.
However, in the above transaction process, both the production enterprises and downstream customers will face a problem, namely the uncertainty of future market price fluctuations. In order to do a good job of "ensuring supply and stabilizing price", in June this year, Zhejiang Oil Center cooperated with the previous exchange to launch the business of "futures price stabilization order", expanding the business to the field of energy and chemical products for the first time in China.
While signing the capacity pre-sale order, the buyer and the seller use option tools to hedge risks and reduce the impact of the price fluctuation of the enterprise's raw material purchase or sales. Among them, the option tool provided in the previous period to reduce the risk of price fluctuation; As a spot platform, Zhejiang Oil Center guarantees supply for the market through pre-sale capacity; Futures companies provide options services for market participants. The futures and cash markets make efforts at both ends, and use financial instruments to effectively serve real enterprises.
It can be seen that as one of the major shareholders of Zhejiang Oil Center, the interaction and cooperation between the two companies became closer. Since the signing of the Strategic Cooperation Agreement on Jointly Building an Integrated Oil and Gas Trading Market in the Yangtze River Delta in 2019, this work has been written into many important development plans in Zhejiang Province. At present, the construction of the integrated oil and gas trading market in the Yangtze River Delta is speeding up in an all-round way, and the cooperation achievements between Zhejiang Oil Center and the previous bourse are also emerging.
In addition to the business of "capacity presale+futures price stabilization order" mentioned above, Zhejiang Oil Center and the Futures Exchange jointly released the "Zhoushan Price" in June 2021, which is the first RMB quotation mechanism based on the price of the domestic futures market, and its influence has continued to increase so far. All kinds of innovative cooperation are vivid practices of the integration of oil and gas in the Yangtze River Delta.
Facilitation policy to smooth the process of foreign exchange revenue and expenditure
At the beginning of the establishment of Zhoushan Free Trade Zone, bonded fuel oil was used as an olive branch to attract international ships to refuel. Today, the annual supply of bonded oil in Zhoushan is 5.52 million tons, with an average annual growth of 31.9%, and it has become the first international tanker port in China and the fifth international tanker port in the world.
The reporter learned from the central branch of the People's Bank of China Zhoushan that, in view of the fact that the resale of bonded oil between domestic and foreign enterprises has not been included in the customs statistics, Zhoushan boldly explored the /confirm/iation, through linkage innovation, based on the third-party cargo right certificate, to facilitate the settlement of domestic resale of bonded oil and effectively help the rapid development of the bonded oil business in the Free Trade Zone. Since this year, the accumulated amount of cross-border revenue and expenditure business for the resale of bonded oil products by oil enterprises within the jurisdiction has been 7.5 billion US dollars.
At the same time, in order to "let more data run on the road and less enterprises run on the road", the People's Bank of China Zhoushan Central Sub branch supports the bank to optimize the handling process of trade foreign exchange business, and uses technical means to provide more convenient digital services for enterprises by reviewing electronic documents.
Zhejiang Harbor International Trade Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Harbor International Trade") is mainly engaged in the international trade of refined oil products and the filling business of bonded oil. The amount of foreign exchange received and paid each month is large, with an average of 2-3 foreign exchange receipts per day and 4-5 foreign exchange payments per month.
"Last year, a total of 486 orders were made. Apart from typhoon days, there were more than 200 days in total, which is equivalent to completing two offshore refuelling every day. Each order means a collection of foreign exchange, and also involves the payment of upstream purchase money. Our financial colleagues felt very deeply that before each payment of foreign exchange, the bank needed to provide the corresponding business documents, and the bank had to audit the authenticity of trade, so the workload was large." Li Na, vice general manager of Haigang International Trade, told reporters.
With the promotion of trade facilitation policies, this situation has been reversed. According to Li Na, since April 2021, ICBC Zhoushan Branch, as a pilot bank, has listed Haigang International Trade as a pilot unit of trade foreign exchange revenue and expenditure facilitation by reviewing the company's specific business situation, allowing the company to enjoy the system dividend brought by the policy. Now ICBC can complete business processing online by borrowing the company's payment instructions, bringing convenience to the company's financial work and improving the efficiency of capital settlement.
The financial staff of Haigang International Trade said to the reporter that according to the original business process, it would take half a day to pay for the purchase of bonded fuel oil. "Before, we needed to provide information to the bank for each payment. The bank checked the authenticity of the information, such as contract invoices, logistics information and customs data, which were processed offline. When we arrived at the bank, we might have to queue up. Some banks also needed customs signatures and seals, but also needed human resources to seal them. These are time-consuming. Now, we can only provide an instruction, which can be completed in about 1-2 minutes."
From January to July this year, Haigang International Trade submitted 25 applications for cross-border remittance electronic documents online through online banking channels, with a total amount of 75 million dollars. The financial personnel of the enterprise said that, compared with the past, submitting payment instructions in online banking has greatly reduced the transaction cost of the enterprise, shortened the business processing time, and greatly improved the work efficiency.
The benefits of RMB internationalization demonstration zone appear
Since the launch of Zhejiang Free Trade Zone in 2017, the People's Bank of China Zhoushan Central Sub branch has guided business innovation and effectively driven the rapid growth of cross-border RMB business with the goal of building a demonstration zone for the internationalization of RMB in bulk commodity cross-border trade.
By the end of September this year, cross-border RMB settlement in the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone (Zhoushan Area) had totaled nearly 400 billion yuan, with an average annual settlement volume 10 times that before listing, benefiting more than 800 enterprises in the province and covering 77 countries and regions. The construction of RMB internationalization demonstration zone was selected into a series of national strategy implementation innovation cases.
Ming Xiuwen, President of the People's Bank of China Zhoushan Central Sub branch, said that when Zhejiang Free Trade Zone was listed, the provincial and municipal People's Banks jointly formulated and issued "33 financial policies". Under the guidance of the policy, the PBOC Zhoushan Branch supported financial institutions to make full use of the price difference between domestic and overseas markets, innovatively launched seven new businesses, including domestic certificate cross-border financing, blockchain forfaiting, risk participation, bonded fuel oil letter of credit, cross-border RMB inter-bank financing business, and completed cross-border capital allocation of more than 300 billion yuan for more than 800 enterprises in the province, which not only expanded the cross-border settlement volume, but also alleviated the financing difficulties and expensive financing problems of some enterprises.
At the same time, the pilot project of facilitating cross-border RMB settlement in Zhoushan Free Trade Zone has also achieved positive results. In 2019, we will successively strive for the pilot projects of facilitating cross-border RMB settlement of oil products trade and higher level trade and investment, and continue to promote trade, investment and financing facilitation.
By the end of September, 75 enterprises had been included in the pilot list, with a total of 7.4 billion yuan of high-level trade and investment facilitation settlement, including 6.3 billion yuan for oil products, and nearly 100 million yuan of cross-border RMB settlement for entrepot trade was supported for enterprises in the two regions.
The reporter learned that Zhoushan is steadily expanding the coverage of pilot policies. Under the tripartite coordination mechanism of "the People's Bank of China - commercial banks - foreign trade enterprises", it has formed a pool of key oil products enterprises. It regularly holds special symposiums on oil products entrepot trade and other topics, clarifies the difficulties and obstacles in RMB settlement, and promotes the expansion of facilitation policies in a regular manner.
Moreover, in order to further play the role of cross-border RMB business in serving the real economy and promoting trade and investment facilitation, the People's Bank of China Zhoushan Central Sub branch is actively carrying out the special action of expanding cross-border RMB "first account", and promoting banking institutions to launch a series of cross-border RMB financial products and services for foreign trade enterprises.
The reporter learned that from January to September this year, there were 104 cross-border RMB "first account" enterprises in Zhoushan City, and the accumulated settlement business exceeded 1.5 billion yuan.
Reform is in the ascendant and fruitful. Taking advantage of the east wind of financial reform to become a new highland of commodity resource allocation with global influence, Zhoushan is not far away.
