Manufacturers embrace upgrading to fuel growth

Workers assemble new energy vehicles at Geely's plant in Jinzhong. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Driven by an industrial transformation campaign, Shanxi's manufacturing sectors maintained rapid growth during the first half of this year, according to officials at the Shanxi Department of Industry and Information Technology.

The sectors reported a year-on-year increase of 8.3 percent in terms of incremental output value in the first six months, 4.4 percentage points higher than the average of all industrial enterprises above designated size – those with annual sales revenue of more than 20 million yuan ($2.74 million).

Zhang Zhanxiang, deputy chief of the department, said the rapid growth can be attributed to Shanxi's new industrial transformation campaign, which focuses on upgrading its manufacturing industries toward the directions of low-carbon and smart operation.

The manufacturing sector relating to environmental protection and energy conservation reported a 20.4 percent year-on-year increase in terms of incremental output value in the first six months, among the highest of all industries, according to Zhang.

He noted that this is the result of a provincial initiative to promote low-carbon operations, which has generated great demand for environmental protection-related equipment and solutions.

"The demand for resource-recycling solutions is impressive," Zhang said. "Now the ratio of recycled use of all kinds of waste has reached 75.3 percent provincewide and there is still room for growth."

He said that the growth potential will come from Shanxi's renewed efforts in green development, which will highlight the economized use of resources, recycling of waste and cleaner production.

"Shanxi is continuing to implement low-carbon upgrades for the manufacturing industry and plans to develop more green industry parks," Zhang said. "So our outlook on the environmental protection-related manufacturing sector is optimistic."

In terms of intelligent manufacturing, the provincial department of industry and information technology announced a new batch of 63 demonstration intelligent manufacturers for this year in July.

Zhang said Shanxi is now home to 16 national-level and 284 provincial-level demonstration enterprises for intelligent manufacturing.

Another reason for the manufacturing industry's growth is that it is winning support from local financial institutions for their long-term development.

Statistics show that the amount of long and medium-term loans to manufacturers by local banks increased 4.9 percent year-on-year in the first half of this year. The loans now account for 56.4 percent of total lending, showing the lenders' optimism about the industry's future development, according to Ma Shuangxi, deputy chief of the Shanxi Commission of Development and Reform.

Jin Shuaini contributed to this story.