Zhuzhou in C China's Hunan shines with high-end, smart manufacturing

Zhuzhou city in central China's Province has the fifth largest economic aggregate in the province and its per capita GDP ranks second in the province. Nine in 10 engines for small and medium aircraft in China are made in Zhuzhou.

Workers operate on a production line at an assembly workshop of CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. in Zhuzhou, central China's Hunan Province, July 5, 2022. (Xinhua/Chen Zeguo)

Rail transit equipment manufacturing is a prominent calling card for Zhuzhou. At the start of 2023, subway trains designed and produced by CRRC Zhuzhou Locomotive Co., Ltd. started trial operations in a metro line connecting central Istanbul and the city's new international airport.

Zhuzhou, previously an industrial base, has developed into a manufacturing powerhouse, bursting with vitality.

The city boasts an efficient supply chain.

"In Zhuzhou, it only takes several minutes to prepare over 10,000 spare parts needed to build an electric locomotive within a 5-km radius," said Chen Yujie, a technical supervisor from the workshop of the urban rail transit department of CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Co., Ltd.

Zhuzhou is striving to move the manufacturing sector toward high-end, smart and green production. It has 58 national-level specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), including 25 national-level key "little giant" enterprises.

"This carbide drill can accurately bore 2,500 holes on a printed circuit board the size of a fingernail, " said Mao Shanwen, general manager of Zhuzhou Cemented Carbide Group Co., Ltd., while showing a drill which was just one-eighth the diameter of a strand of human hair.

For a long time, the demand for such drills relied on imports. After more than 20 years of research, the company eventually developed the drill, breaking up the foreign monopoly of the products.

Zhuzhou has advanced industry-university-research institute synergy. It has built a multi-tier innovation system consisting of two national key laboratories, 61 national-level innovation platforms and 378 provincial-level innovation platforms.

Technological innovation contributes 65 percent to economic growth in Zhuzhou and spending in research and development (R&D) as a percentage of GDP in Zhuzhou has ranked first in Hunan for four consecutive years.

Over more than one year, 20 meetings have been held in Zhuzhou to help more than 100 enterprises solve problems.

Today, one-stop services have been provided on more than 300 administrative items, and the time it takes to handle administrative items has been cut by an average of more than 80 percent from 2019.