CHONGQING, Dec. 25 -- China is leading the world in the mass production of graphene films used in production of cell phone and computer touch screens as a new production line began operation on Wednesday.

The production line is in a graphene industrial park in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality. It can produce tens of millions of graphene films every year.

A state-level graphene industrialization base with sales revenue of 100 billion yuan (16.35 billion U.S. dollars) is expected to be completed within 5 years, according to an executive with the industrial park.

Graphene is a relatively new material with outstanding electrical, chemical and mechanical properties that make it attractive as flexible conductors used in gadgets such as touch screens.

"China is leading the world in the industrialization of graphene as it has begun mass production," said Shi Haofei, a researcher with the Chongqing Research Institute with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

At present, scientists from Europe, the United States, Japan and the Republic of Korea are doing laboratory research on graphene, said Shi.

Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms in a honeycomb lattice. It was first isolated in 2004.