Qiantang District, Hangzhou City. Photo courtesy of the Propaganda Department of Qiantang District Committee
China News Service, Hangzhou, November 10 (Reporter Wang Yifei) In Gree Electric Appliances (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd., the unmanned "black light factory" with an area of more than 10,000 square meters has realized unmanned operation in the entire process and "smart" manufacturing without stopping work 24 hours a day. An air conditioner comes off the assembly line here on average every 6 seconds, and related products are exported to the Middle East, North America and other places.
The changes in the "birth" process of an air conditioner are the epitome of the changes in the economic "texture" of Qiantang District, Hangzhou, where the factory is located.
Production equipment within Gree Electric Appliances (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd. Photo by Wang Yifei
Qiantang is the "East Gate" of Hangzhou and was established during the administrative division adjustment of Hangzhou in April 2021. Since the Hangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone, a national economic development zone, was established on this land in 1993, Qiantang has been an important industrial town in Hangzhou and even Zhejiang. Last year, it contributed about 20% of the city's industrial output value above designated size with about 3% of Hangzhou's land area.
Compared with the huge size, the transformation from manufacturing to "intelligent manufacturing" has become a more eye-catching attraction at the local industrial level in recent years.
In Qiantang, there are many cases of products being "off the production line in seconds". In the smart factory of Zhongce Rubber Group Co., Ltd., a tire rolls off the production line on average every 3.1 seconds, and the manufacturing of such products usually takes nearly 40 seconds; in Geely Automobile's Qiantang manufacturing base, nearly 400 robots are deployed in the welding workshop alone, with an automation rate of 90%. It only takes 90 seconds for a complete vehicle to roll off the production line...
Qiantang gathers more than 700 industrial enterprises above designated size, and the total output value of industrial enterprises above designated size will exceed 400 billion yuan in 2025. Up to now, a total of 3 national-level smart factories have been built locally; 17 provincial-level advanced smart factories have been built, ranking first in Hangzhou in number; and 59 municipal-level "future factories" have been built, leading Hangzhou in number for 5 consecutive years.
Bright spots will continue to emerge on the future track, which is also a vivid reflection of Qiantang's manufacturing industry's courage to enter the "high-end game".
Demonstration of micro-tech wheel-footed robots. Photo by Wang Yifei
Hangzhou Juwei Technology Co., Ltd., located in Qiantang Robot Valley, has only been established for a year and a half. By giving robots the ability to move and operate, companies have formed a matrix of robot products covering industrial security, emergency rescue, special operations and other fields. Currently, the company's products are accelerating their deployment in many countries in Asia, Europe, and South America.
In recent years, Qiantang has proposed accelerating the creation of the “first area for artificial intelligence manufacturing and integrated innovation development”—putting artificial intelligence at the core of innovative Qiantang construction and treating it as the biggest opportunity of the era to escape the “second growth curve.”
Last year, the local artificial intelligence manufacturing output value reached 33.57 billion yuan. From January to September this year, the output value of Qiantang’s embodied intelligent robots and intelligent terminal clusters increased by 13.9%. At present, the district has gathered more than 150 artificial intelligence-related companies.
This is not "a flower that blooms alone". In Hangzhou's "296X" advanced manufacturing cluster layout, Qiantang is responsible for a total of 11 clusters of "8 cores and 3 associations" and is one of the districts (counties and cities) fully covered by the city's three clusters. In the first three quarters, the output value of 11 clusters reached 243.87 billion yuan.
How can a large manufacturing region make a name for itself in the "high-end manufacturing industry"? In the process of Qiantang's transformation, there are three characteristics worth noting.
First, focus on the layout of the track.
Creating a modern industrial system with local characteristics is not “all-inclusive”. Focusing on building a new industrial benchmark zone for smart manufacturing and cluster development, Qiantang has relied on its own foundation to identify the five leading industries of "automobiles, pharmaceuticals, cores, chemicals, and intelligence" and continues to deepen the development of "chain + cluster".
Taking intelligent connected vehicles as an example, in the first three quarters, the output value of the district’s intelligent connected vehicle clusters reached 93.56 billion yuan, accounting for 50.3% of Hangzhou’s total. Behind the figures is an industrial structure in which four local vehicle companies are located in the same area and more than 70 professional parts and components companies are present. Related products cover passenger cars and commercial vehicles, and the power sources include fuel, hybrid and pure electric.
At present, the output value of Qiantang's five leading industries accounts for 88.2% of the district's industrial output value, becoming the core engine driving local economic growth.
Secondly, innovation ecology breeds momentum.
With 14 universities and 250,000 teachers and students, Qiantang is making every effort to create an "innovation ecosystem around the university town" to help scientific research achievements cross the "valley of death" of transformation. In the first half of the year, the technology transaction volume between enterprises in the district and universities in the area reached 28.77 million yuan, accounting for 7.52% of the foreign cooperation volume of universities.
In order to promote the integration of "AI+", the local government has upgraded the "given policy" to "given scenarios", improved the normal collection and release mechanism of the scenario list, and promoted the first application and rapid iteration of AI technology taking root in real scenarios.
Another example is the support for innovation factors. As of September, the scale of Qiantang District's industrial funds exceeded 57.5 billion yuan, cultivating 23 listed companies and 51 key companies to be listed.
Third, it is the continuous empowerment of the business environment.
Qiantang divides enterprises into the start-up stage, growth stage and mature stage, matching the three-tier services of nursery type, support type and multiplier type; launches the "1+N" industrial policy system, governs 23 special details with one programmatic document, and arranges no less than 30% of the financial resources every year Government funds are used to support industrial development; "Enterprises are waiting for approval" to "Enterprises are waiting for approval." Hangzhou's largest foreign-owned manufacturing single project in the past decade, the Yokohama Qiantang Smart Factory, was put into operation 11 months after it started, setting a new record for the fastest factory construction in the world.
At present, Qiantang's total manufacturing investment has ranked first in Hangzhou for 19 consecutive quarters. This year, China’s leading companies in the field of embodied intelligence, Galaxy General, Xingdong Era, and Yushu Technology, have also signed contracts with Qiantang. These have become side manifestations of the attractiveness of the local business environment.
This year, Qiantang proposed to make every effort to promote the construction of innovative Qiantang and accelerate the construction of the main platform of the global advanced manufacturing base. Next, how this new industrial city uses new productivity to continue to write a story of industrial renewal and build long-term competitive advantages deserves attention. (over)
