Advanced industries a priority

While the city of Yantai is on its way to becoming an industrial hub on the Shandong Peninsula, its Fushan district is adding to this by concentrating on several advanced industries.

These include three pillar industries - automobile parts, electronic information and special-purpose steel - as well as machinery, marine equipment and modern services.

Their express purpose, according to Wei Jing, head of the district government, is to support Fushan's growth.

Revenues from the three pillar industries accounted for 72 percent of the district's total industrial revenues in the first 11 months of 2010.

In fact, they have their own special industrial bases - parks that are home to more than 270 projects, backed by 46 billion yuan in investment.

"The advanced industries have clearly increased Fushan's competitiveness," Wei said.

The auto parts park leads them all, with over 110 projects, with more than 11 billion yuan in all. They include a 1.5-billion-yuan transmission project and a 500-million-yuan gearbox project, as well as others funded by famous auto parts suppliers.

Meanwhile, the electronic information sector has 20 new projects under construction, including a 1-billion-yuan information industry park and a 660-million-yuan Furong software park.

Some 20 companies are producing special-purpose steel products for vehicles, ships and buildings.

The leader in this sector is a 5-billion-yuan project backed by the Baosteel Group. It is expected to have annual output worth 10 billion yuan, which will make Fushan an important seamless steel tube base in China.

In describing their future industrial development plans, Wei said that priority will be given to modern manufacturing and services.

He described marine equipment as the highlight of the manufacturing business over the next few years, as a way of helping near-port industries.

The modern service business will put its emphasis on logistics, to help build the district a transportation hub in the Yellow Sea region.

There are already 16 logistics projects with 3 billion yuan in backing in the district.

Wei predicts that all these advanced industries together will have 80 billion yuan in revenues by 2015.

(China Daily 12/29/2010 page12)