Revitalizing and Upgrading Traditional Manufacturing, Accelerating Deployment in Frontier Fields

In recent years, Hunan has made sustained efforts to build itself into an advanced manufacturing hub of national significance, a sci-tech and innovation hub with core competitiveness, and a hub of reform and opening up in inland regions. In the first half of this year, the added value of Hunan's equipment manufacturing industry grew 2.8% year on year while that of the high-tech manufacturing industry above designated size increased 4%. The provincial total import and export volume hit a new high for the same period in the past three years.

Manufacturing is the ballast stone of Hunan's economy. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2020-2025), Hunan cultivated five national advanced manufacturing clusters, ranking first in central and western China, with manufacturing accounting for 26.4% of regional GDP. During the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030), Hunan has set 21 development indicators across five major categories, striving to ensure that its advanced manufacturing strength ranks firmly in the first tier nationwide by 2030.

The path to higher levels is not easy. Facing shrinking demand and cyclical downturns, the "old foundations" of Hunan's manufacturing—such as construction machinery, rail transit, and steel and non-ferrous metals—have not passively waited for the cycle to recover. Instead, they have proactively stepped out of their comfort zones, reshaping processes with artificial intelligence (AI) internally and seeking incremental growth in global markets externally, drawing a "second growth curve" on new tracks.

Seeking changes from within, the intelligent and green transformation of Hunan's manufacturing is fully underway. Zoomlion Heavy Industry Science and Technology Co., Ltd. has used new technologies to transform decades of accumulated manufacturing processes and scenario data, entering the embodied intelligence track and independently developing and launching multiple humanoid robots. CRRC Zhuzhou Institute Co., Ltd. has transferred high-speed rail electronic control technology to offshore wind power equipment, leaping into the first tier of the domestic industry. Hunan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. and Unitree Robotics have jointly built the first embodied intelligent robot innovation laboratory in China's steel industry. Breaking through outward, Hunan's exports of construction machinery rose 24.9% in the first half of this year.

The momentum accumulated from manufacturing upgrades is being deeply channeled into emerging fields. Hunan, driven by Changsha's construction of a global R&D center, is making forward-looking arrangements for future industries and emerging tracks, and an industrial matrix of "moving toward the new" is accelerating into shape. In the field of artificial intelligence, more than 300 key AI enterprises across the province provide 80% of the supporting components for the entire intelligent equipment industrial chain. In the field of new materials, the advanced energy storage, cemented carbide, and carbon-based materials have formed highly resilient closed industrial chain loops.

In the layout of future industries, quantum technology is one of the tracks where Hunan has first-mover advantages. During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Hunan approved a total of more than 20 major scientific research projects in the quantum field. It has built a number of high-level platforms, and achieved landmark results such as quantum absolute gravimeters and quantum dot lasers. This April, the Hunan Quantum Metropolitan Area Network was released. At the same time, the Hunan Interdisciplinary Proof of Concept Center for Quantum-trusted Navigation was inaugurated, opening up the "first mile" of commercialization of research outcomes.

New momentum is accumulating and, moreover, taking shape. In the first half of this year, the added value of high-tech manufacturing industry above designated size in Hunan grew 4% year on year. Zhu Chunguang, member of the CPC Leadership Group and deputy director of the Department of Science and Technology of Hunan Province, noted that in the next stage, efforts will be made to highlight supply of sci-tech innovation and the pull of industrial demand. Hunan will focus on cutting-edge fields such as quantum technology, brain-computer interfaces, and embodied intelligence; strengthen technological R&D and platform support; accelerate the construction of a number of proof of concept centers and pilot test bases for future industries; and continuously expand diverse application scenarios.

New momentum is building steadily and shaping new advantages in foreign trade. In the first half of this year, Hunan's total import and export volume reached 295.81 billion CNY, up 12.7%. The foreign trade structure is shifting toward newer and greener sectors, with high-end equipment exports up 17.5%. Hunan's exports of the "new three" products increased 35.5%, expanding to 152 countries and regions, while those to Africa grew 97.4%. Lan Shengbin, deputy commissioner of Changsha Customs, said that in the first half of this year, Hunan's exports of electric vehicles, lithium-ion batteries, and photovoltaic products surged 27.3%, 43.2%, and 105.3%, respectively.

Institutional breakthroughs are injecting deeper momentum into opening up. A total of seven institutional innovation achievements from the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone have been replicated and promoted nationwide. Hunan and Hainan have jointly built the Hunan-Hainan Co-constructed Advanced Manufacturing Industrial Park, China's first cooperation platform between a free trade zone and a free trade port. The park has introduced 37 projects with a total investment exceeding 15.63 billion CNY. Changsha Customs has successively issued 22 measures to support "Hunan enterprises going global" and 25 measures to facilitate cross-border trade. In the first half of this year, the number of enterprises in Hunan with actual import and export performance increased 20.3% year on year, and private enterprise imports and exports grew 16.7%.

Lan Shengbin remarked that Hunan's foreign trade will continue to show resilience and vitality, thanks to the concentrated efforts and intensive implementation of policies to stabilize growth, and its geographical and industrial advantages.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn