Industry scale of smart manufacturing equipment tops 3.2 trln yuan

The industry scale of China's intelligent manufacturing equipment has exceeded 3.2 trillion yuan (about 442 billion U.S. dollars), the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced at a press conference in Beijing on Thursday.

Shan Zhongde, vice minister of industry and information technology, said that China will advance the construction of its 5G network, computing power, mobile Internet of Things and other information infrastructure at a proper pace, step up efforts to construct industrial Internet platforms, accelerate the innovation and development of industrial Internet, and improve the intelligent manufacturing standards system.

"We will strive to develop intelligent manufacturing technologies, equipment, products and software systems, and make technological breakthroughs in industrial robots, intelligent testing equipment, and additive manufacturing machines," said Shan.

Shan said that in order to develop intelligent manufacturing, especially to support the digital and intelligent transformation of enterprises, there should be a bunch of service providers.

At present, the MIIT is focusing efforts on cultivating more than 150 suppliers for system solutions with main business revenue of at least 1 billion yuan.

The MIIT has worked with the National Standardization Administration to jointly issue Guidelines on the Construction of National Intelligent Manufacturing Standards System, so as to advance the standardized, regulated and systematic development of intelligent manufacturing.

"We will further advance the construction of smart factories and smart supply chains. The goal is that by 2025, more than 70 percent of the manufacturing enterprises above designated size will basically realize digitalization and networking, and a number of demonstration factories featuring intelligent manufacturing will be built to lead the development of the industry," said Shan.

He said that efforts will also be made to nurture a batch of industrial Internet platforms into regional influence by 2025.

Industry scale of smart manufacturing equipment tops 3.2 trln yuan

China saw the single-day passenger trips nationwide reach an estimated record high of 280 million on Wednesday -- the first day of the five-day May Day holiday season, which was a 15.9 percent increase over the corresponding day in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, according to official data released by the Ministry of Transport.

The railway passenger traffic volume is expected to reach 20.4 million trips, the highway cross-regional passenger flow is expected to exceed 257 million trips, the waterway passenger traffic volume is expected to reach 900,000 trips, and the civil aviation passenger traffic volume is expected to exceed 2.11 million trips, the data show.

Wednesday witnessed a robust growth in the railway passenger flow, prompting plans to add another 1,738 passenger trains on the day. To ensure seamless travel for passengers, the railway authorities have taken steps to bolster security checks and verification channels, deploy additional staff in key areas, and enhance coordination with other transportation sectors like the bus, subway and taxi transportation sectors to facilitate passenger travels.

In terms of highway passenger transportation, from 00:00 on Wednesday, small passenger cars each with seven seats or less are allowed to travel toll-free on highways nationwide. The national highway network is operating at peak capacity, which may lead to brief congestion and slower traffic flow around large and medium-sized cities during peak hours.

As for civil aviation, the civil aviation authorities planned to carry out 17,023 flights on Wednesday, with operations running smoothly overall.

China sees passenger trips reach record high on first day of May Day holiday