Innovation reaping rewards for manufacturing industry

BEIJING — Hengli Heavy Industry recently signed contracts to build six very large ammonia carriers for three international shipowners, marking its new expansion in the gas carrier segment.

The company, based in China's northeastern coastal city of Dalian, Liaoning province, delivered its first high-power liquefied natural gas, or LNG, dual-fuel marine engine earlier this year, representing a breakthrough in the country's high-end marine engine manufacturing.

"With independent manufacturing of high-end marine engines, rather than past reliance on imports, Hengli Heavy Industry has stabilized its own supply chain and filled a key gap in the country's shipbuilding industry," said Zhang Haoxu, director of external relations at the privately-owned company.

As China maintains growth in new shipbuilding orders, its shipbuilders are speeding up the shift toward medium — and high-end vessels, and are pursuing smart, eco-friendly and integrated development of the sector.

"The shipbuilding industry today has undergone comprehensive upgrading. Our goal is to build a manufacturing base for world-class eco-friendly ships and high-end marine equipment," Zhang said.

The shipbuilding sector serves as an example of the green transition and upgrading of China's traditional manufacturing industries, which are creating new growth momentum for the world's second-largest economy.

When Jia Xiaojia first proposed the idea of establishing a "data business" in Ningjin county, a major cable hub in eastern China's Shandong province, the entrepreneurs along the industrial chain were completely baffled. However, in just under three years, the vertical industry large model Yilanwang, developed by his startup, has fundamentally reshaped the local traditional cable industry from the ground up.

Ningjin's cable sector, which started in the 1980s, has grown into a comprehensive ecosystem with over 2,500 production and supporting enterprises. In 2025, this cluster generated revenue of 83.96 billion yuan ($12.44 billion). Yet, the sector was long plagued by the "small, scattered and low-end" dilemma, and thus struggled to secure large orders and upgrade its capabilities.

The turning point came with the integration of smart technologies. By leveraging artificial intelligence, the platform has digitized and improved the entire cable supply chain. Notably, all trusted data from registered enterprises comes from real, closed-loop online transactions.

This digital transformation has also revolutionized local financing. Banks, previously hindered by the high costs of on-site investigations for small businesses, have partnered with the platform. By relying on the platform's data, banks have significantly lowered their customer acquisition and risk control costs.

Hongliang Cable Co Ltd was among the first to benefit. With bank credit facilitated by the platform, a consortium of registered cable companies, including Hongliang, successfully undertook a major contract for a high-speed railway.

According to a 2025 report by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, industrial brains are evolving from simply breaking down information silos to becoming intelligent decision-making hubs.

Official figures show the penetration rate of AI technologies among industrial enterprises above designated size has exceeded 30 percent in China, with more than 65,000 smart factories already built.

At the new campus of HBIS Group Shisteel Company in Shijiazhuang, capital of North China's Hebei province, the billowing smoke typical of traditional steel mills has been replaced by a strikingly different sight: fish swimming in a pond connected to the plant's wastewater treatment center.

This contrast has highlighted a profound transformation at the historic steelmaker, which completely abandoned traditional blast furnaces in favor of electric arc furnaces.

Since 2020, Shisteel has eliminated high-emission iron-making procedures. By utilizing 100 percent scrap steel, the company has reduced particulate matter, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions by 75 percent compared to traditional processes.

This deep decarbonization is not just an environmental win but a strategic business asset. As global markets increasingly demand low-carbon materials, Shisteel's green credentials have become a key competitive advantage of its high-end products.

XINHUA