High-tech giants reach world markets from industrial hub

Emerging sectors welcomed to contribute to Yantai's recently accelerated economic development

Blue Whale 1 - the ultra-deep-water semisubmersible drilling rig built by the nation's largest semisubmersible platform manufacturer, China Yantai CIMC Raffles Offshore - conducted successful tests in the South China Sea in May.

Blue Whale 1 is the world's most advanced ocean drilling platform design. It provides important experience for CIMC to further enhance China's high-end energy exploration equipment, company executives told reporters from Asian Media's Discover Yantai Trip.

Residents of Yantai, Shandong province, take pride in the Blue Whale 1 being manufactured in the city's ocean area.

Government officials share that pride, saying that the semisubmersible drilling rig is a prime example of the city's industrial upgrade work.

Last year, industrial output generated from the city's high-tech sector hit 70 billion yuan ($10.3 billion).

This accounted for 42 percent of all local companies with annual industrial output above 20 million yuan in Yantai, meaning Yantai ranked No 2 in the province in terms of high-tech sector revenue as a proportion of enterprises with annual industrial output above 20 million yuan for each.

Industrial revenue generated by enterprises with industrial output above 20 million yuan reached 1.63 trillion yuan, ranking No 1 in the province.

Last year, emerging sectors contributed 50.6 percent to the city's high-tech sector, with revenue of 355 billion yuan.

While China has a strong presence in the highest levels of the global ocean equipment manufacturing sector, the nation still lags behind developed countries in the high-end chemical materials industry.

However, Yantai-based Wanhua Chemical Group has broken the global monopoly in MDI - Methylene diphenyl diisocyanate - core technological competence.

According to Liao Zengtai, the company's chairman, Wanhua currently has an annual industrial capacity of 10,000 metric tons of MDI, as a world leader in the polyurethane industry.

Jereh Group provides integrated solutions for the oil and gas drilling industry. Supplying more than 600 sets of large-scale oilfield equipment and four series of related products, Jereh has become the world's largest manufacturer of oilfield production equipment.

It is involved in oil well construction, gas services, transportation, compressed natural gas and liquefied natural gas filling equipment, oilfield engineering technology, and the general design of oil and gas engineering services.

Jereh also has the world's largest cement manufacturing center, and its sales of fracturing equipment, coiled tubing equipment and liquid nitrogen pump equipment rank No 1 across China.

Serik Korzhumbayev, editor-in-chief of Kazakhstan's Delovoy, a Kazakhstan newspaper, said that cooperation between Jereh and countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative has become a highlight of international production collaboration.

In 2014, Jereh launched its first 4500 pattern fracturing truck - the world's largest stand-alone power fracturing truck. The vehicle is regarded in the industry as having redefined fracturing equipment. Its release not only marked a new era for Chinese oilfield turbines, but also made China the third country to produce turbine equipment after the United States and Russia.

Intl cooperation

Cutting-edge technology is a signature brand for Yantai, as well as how it embraces partners around the world.

The Sino-Russian High-tech Industrialization Cooperative Demonstration Base in Yantai is embracing global researchers.

Eyeing the city's strong competence in technological research, some 180 research institutes have established partnerships with the base, said Zhang Renzhong, the director of the base.

Its partners now include the Institute of Far Eastern Studies of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Science's Siberia and Ural branches, the South Ural State University and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.

Yantai-based Changyu Pioneer Wine is one of the world's largest wine producers. The international wine town based in Yantai can fill up to 25,000 bottles of wine per hour, thanks to its 10 world-level imported automatic production lines.

The company has been continually involved in overseas mergers and acquisitions.

In a recent move, Changyu purchased Chile's seventh-largest winemaker, Indomita, for $40 million with an 85 percent stake in the company, said Sun Jian, a board member of Changyu.

Yang Min contributed to the story.

yangcheng@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/18/2017 page24)