（引）2016年，10家经营困难的央企集团整体减亏50%
人民日报记者 宦翔
2月28日，在中央财经领导小组第十五次会议上，中国国家主席习近平指出，深入推进去产能，要抓住处置“僵尸企业”这个“牛鼻子”。
“僵尸企业”，是指已停产、半停产、连年亏损、资不抵债，主要靠政府补贴和银行续贷维持经营的企业。处置“僵尸企业”成为国企供给侧结构性改革的主攻方向。
受国际金融危机的深层次影响，国际市场持续低迷，中国国内需求增速趋缓，部分产业供过于求的矛盾日显，传统制造业产能普遍过剩。2015年，中国政府把“去产能”列为2016年五大结构性改革任务之首。
“‘僵尸企业’不退出，产能过剩矛盾就不能根本化解，结构调整和转型升级就难以实现。只有退出，才能前进。”工业和信息化部副部长冯飞说。
针对“僵尸企业”消耗资源、不断制造亏损的现状，中国国务院国有资产监督管理委员会（简称“国资委”）紧紧盯住负债率较高的企业，采取负债率、负债规模双重管控的新举措，守住了不发生重大风险的底线。此外，国有企业也通过精细管理、流程再造和技术创新，想方设法降低生产成本。2016年，国有控股工业企业每百元主营业务收入中的成本降至82.55元，比上年下降0.61元，为2012年以来的最低水平。
2016年，国资委完成了398户“僵尸企业”和特困企业处置治理任务。10家经营困难的央企集团，卸下了包袱，整体实现减亏50%，其中，中铝等8家央企集团一举摘掉了亏损的帽子。同时，全国1.86万户国有控股工业企业利润总额由降转增，创造了2012年以来的最高增速。
中国最高法院2月公布的数据显示， 2016年共受理5665件破产案，比前一年增加了54%。其中约3600件案件获审结，85%已审结案件导致了破产清算。英国《金融时报》认为，2016年中国破产案件激增，说明中国政府在处理“僵尸企业”、减少过剩产能方面取得了进展。
China declares determination to eliminate‘zombie companies’
By Huan Xiang from People’s Daily
Chinese President Xi Jinping reiterated on Tuesday the central government’s determination to weed out “zombie companies” that have been holding back economic reforms, in a bid to move forward its plan to reduce excess industrial capacity.
Xi made the comment at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs, while describing those companies as “bull’s nose.”
“Zombie company” refers to a company that needs bailouts to operate, or an indebted company that is able to repay the interest on its debt but not the principal. Such companies usually depend on banks or governmental subsidies for their continued existence, effectively putting them on never-ending life support.
China has listed handling “zombie companies” as a main task of its supply-side structural reform for state-owned enterprises.
China’s domestic demand experienced a slower growth in recent years along with the gloomy global market after the financial crisis, resulting in an increasingly severe oversupply and prevalent overcapacity in the traditional manufacturing industry.
In 2015, the Chinese government set cutting excessive industrial capacity the most important task of its 2016 structural reform.
“Industrial overcapacity will not be thoroughly resolved, and economic restructuring will not be realized unless zombie companies are closed,” said Feng Fei, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology. “We can only make progress after we shut down enough zombie companies.”
In order to weed out those “zombie companies,” the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council (SASAC), the top state-owned assets administrator, has kept a closer eye on those firms with higher deficits in both debt-to-asset ratios and amount, in hopes of preventing big risks and saving resources.
The centrally-administered corporations also tried hard to reduce costs by improving management, redesigning their work process and innovating technologies.
In 2016, the cost for per-hundred-yuan turnover of the principal activities of the state-owned industrial enterprises dropped to 82.55 yuan, 0.61 yuan less than the previous year, and a record low since 2012 as well.
In the same year, SASAC disposed of 398 “zombie companies” and other firms surviving on bailouts. Ten struggling state-owned businesses achieved a 50 percent reduction in losses after their bold downsizing helped relieve the burden from loss-making “zombie” subsidiaries, and eight of them, including the country’s largest smelter, Chalco, even returned to profit after years of losses.
At the same time, the total profits of 18,600 government-controlled industrial businesses were the highest since 2012.
According to data released by the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) in February, Chinese courts accepted 5,665 bankruptcy cases in 2016, an increase of 54 percent from the previous year. About 3,600 of them were resolved, with 85 percent of the resolved cases resulting in liquidation.
“Bankruptcy cases surged in China last year, indicating growing economic stress as well as progress in the ruling Communist Party’s efforts to use the country’s courts to deal with indebted ‘zombie’ companies and reduce industrial overcapacity,” the Financial Times said in a recent article.