Giant firms anchor industrial clusters
"Famous Chinese corporations have drawn more large companies to Qingdao. As an engine driving industrial clusters, those brands are a mainstay of the Qingdao economy," saidWang Jian, deputy director of Qingdao Municipal Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision.
The number of giant, famed Chinese companies based in Qingdao, including Haier and Hisense, ranks the city third in brand power following Shanghai and Shenzhen, Wang told China Daily.
Last year 50 percent of total industrial value and 65 percent of profits in the city came from famous brand corporations.
The new Qingdao auto factory of SGMW - a partnership between Shanghai Automobile Industry (Group) Co, General Motors and Wuling Automobile Co Ltd - began production on April 1. It is designed for an annual output of 300,000 cars.
A new SGMW engine factory under construction is scheduled to begin production in the first half of next year.
Six primary industrial clusters have been highlighted by the Qingdao municipal government since 2002, including electronics, home appliances and shipbuilding.
Qingdao is now the largest production base for household appliances in the nation through the rise of famous brands like Haier, Hisense and Aucma that support more than 800 related companies.
Famous Chinese brands such as Qingdao Jifa Group and Redcollar Group power the textile trade, with Jifa attracting more than 1,500 textile operations to open in Jimo, a Qingdao satellite city, over the past three years. The resulting industrial textiles cluster that formed in Jimo make it the nation's largest producer of knitted goods, clothing fabric and sportswear.
Qingdao Port, the third-largest in China, is making extensive improvements in its effort to become the shipping hub of northeast Asia.
Through Hong Kong Merchants Group, Itochu Corp and Baosteel Group, Qingdao Port now has international shipping lines reaching 450 ports. Its modern facilities have attracted more than 900 logistics companies from home and abroad.
Advantages offered by Qingdao port have also lured large petrochemical and processing operations, including a 10-million-ton annual capacity refinery built by China Petroleum and Chemical Corp scheduled to begin production in May. More than 30 petrochemical enterprises, including those from South Korea and Japan, have facilities in Qingdao.
In shipbuilding and repair, China Shipbuilding Industry Corp (CSIC) has become an anchor enterprise at the port requiring the support of more than 20 large companies, research institutions and overseas shipbuilders.
With an investment of 10 billion yuan at Haixi Bay of Qingdao in 2004, CSIC began construction of a facility to build ships ranging in size from 150,000 to 500,000 tons. Annual revenue is expected to be 10 billion yuan after completion.
"Since a large project can form a series of industrial chains and clusters, Qingdao will dedicate itself to developing more famous brand industrial clusters to propel the economy," said Wang.
According to the 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-10), six main industrial clusters will take shape by 2010 to have an annual output value of 1000 billion yuan, accounting for 70 percent of the entire city.
(China Daily 05/06/2008 page24)
