Liaoning aims at smart manufacturing

Northeast China's Liaoning province has focused on building a digital and intelligent province as a strategy to continuously advance the transformation of its manufacturing industry, Governor Wang Xinwei said on Wednesday.

Liaoning boasts an extensive range of industrial sectors and a complete industrial system, making it an important base for petrochemicals, metallurgy and equipment manufacturing in China, Wang said at a news conference to outline the province's 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30).

He said Liaoning adheres to the development directions of intelligence, green development and integration, while optimizing and upgrading traditional industries, extending industrial chains and moving toward the high end of value chains and technological processes.

"Liaoning has a strong industrial foundation and rich application scenarios, but traditional industries still account for a high proportion," Wang said. "Intelligent and digital transformation is the key to promoting the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry and a strategic approach to achieving new breakthroughs in Liaoning's comprehensive revitalization."

Wang emphasized the need to promote the deep integration of artificial intelligence, big data, the industrial internet and manufacturing.

At the news conference, Vice-Governor Wang Libo highlighted Fushun New Steel as an example for successful transformation.

"In the past, the company relied on manual operations by laboratory technicians for fuel component testing, requiring nearly 1,000 manual weighings and data recordings per day, which was labor-intensive and inefficient," he said. "After undergoing intelligent and digital transformation, the company achieved automatic sample transfer and inspection in 2025."

"The inspection cycle was shortened by 40 percent and overall efficiency improved by 15 percent," Wang said. "Errors caused by manual operations were also significantly reduced."

According to data from the provincial department of industry and information technology, Liaoning's digital R&D design tool penetration rate reached 86.7 percent by the end of the first quarter — ranking 13th nationwide. The numerical control rate of key processes reached 69.9 percent, ranking 10th nationwide.

At the BMW Brilliance's Tiexi plant in the provincial capital of Shenyang, advanced technologies such as digital twins have enabled employees to master production skills in the virtual world. The plant has launched projects such as "Digital Pioneer" to improve the digital capabilities of thousands of production engineers.

"The transformation is not a solo endeavor for enterprises, but requires the building of a sound industrial ecosystem," Wang Xinwei said. "Liaoning has established an integrated transformation framework supported by 23 national 5G factories, two national-level industrial internet platforms and four national-level transformation pilot cities."

In the rotor workshop of Shengu Group — a machinery manufacturing enterprise — the company's independently developed Zhiding Industrial Internet Platform has enabled digital control of the entire production process, improving the processing efficiency of core components by 28.2 percent.

At Angang Steel's cold rolling plant, the color coating production line has achieved one-click startup and unmanned operation, increasing production efficiency by about 20 percent and reducing production costs by nearly 10 percent.

The province has issued a series of plans and policies to systematically advance intelligent and digital transformation.

"We have developed a clear roadmap and timetable, aiming to achieve full intelligent and digital transformation coverage of all industrial enterprises above designated size by 2028," Wang Libo said.

The province has established a special leadership group and introduced nine support policies covering financial subsidies, loan interest discounts and financial services.

Liu Haijun, director of the northeast revitalization research center at Northeastern University, suggested that Liaoning strengthen the dual-core leadership roles of Shenyang and Dalian. "The province can focus on improving new infrastructure construction such as computing power, while establishing sound talent, financial and technical support systems," he said.