Two industrial clusters of construction machinery and a new generation of an autonomous and secure computing system based in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, were ranked among 45 nationally advanced manufacturing clusters, according to a list released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

This move came after Changsha's constant efforts to accelerate the intelligent transformation of the manufacturing sector, officials said.

In recent years, the manufacturing industry in Changsha has seen rapid growth as the city rolled out a series of preferential policies and action plans centering on intelligent industrial transformation to encourage businesses to develop proprietary technologies for high-end and intelligent transformation.

Sunward Intelligent Equipment, a Changsha-based construction machinery business, launched its self-developed large-tonnage tailless excavator in June. This new product took Sunward's research and development team nearly two years to work on its technical issues.

This excavator is manufactured mainly for the overseas market, which is used for city construction and can operate in a narrow space, the company said.

Developing a large-tonnage excavator with no tail is not easy, said Fan Zheng, deputy general manager of the excavator division of the company.

The tailless vehicle requires minimizing the size of an excavator while planning and installing parts in a limited space to ensure stable control, Fan explained.

This year, Sunward has accelerated its pace in the international market. The company said in the first half of 2022, Sunward's export volume increased more than 60 percent year-on-year. So far, the company has sold more than 20,000 excavators to Europe, becoming a well-known brand of Chinese excavators in Europe.

At this time, Changsha is home to 1,254 pilot manufacturing businesses for intelligent transformation and more than 100,000 businesses have launched online platforms.

The city has 27 pilot intelligent transformation projects that were granted national-level status. Six factories were recognized among the first batch of national demonstration bases for intelligent transformation.

Sany Group, a Chinese machinery giant headquartered in Changsha, produced its first excavator in its "lighthouse factory" in Indonesia in August, which marks the first factory of its kind put into operation.

"Lighthouse factories" refer to the most advanced factories which are leading the way in the adoption and integration of frontier technologies around the world.

This type of factory has around 100 workers and more than 500 robots of different types and functions. It is expected to generate a per capita output value of 11 million yuan ($1.57 million), according to Sany.

With the manufacturing intelligent transformation underway, Changsha is striving for a new goal to build itself into a nationally advanced manufacturing hub.

The output value of industrial enterprises above designated size in Changsha is expected to top 1.4 trillion yuan by 2026. The city will add 20 new industrial enterprises each with a production size of 10 billion yuan and build a competitive advanced manufacturing cluster, the city plan said.

Zhu Youfang contributed to this story. 

A shield tunneling machine manufactured by China Railway Construction Heavy Industry Corporation. CHINA DAILY


The first China-Europe freight train loaded with cargoes of Sunward Intelligent Equipment departs from Changsha. CHINA DAILY

Source: China Daily