The 2024 International (Shenzhen) Intelligent Building Industry Expo kicked off on Sunday in Shenzhen City, south China's Guangdong Province, showcasing more than 1,000 innovative products.
As the first specialized expo covering all links, factors and the entire lifecycle of the building industry in China, the two-day event features debuts of a host of the latest intelligent, green and digital technologies, which represent the country's new quality productive forces in the field of intelligent construction.
Among the debuts is a basalt reinforced concrete-based material with ductility of over one percent, which is expected to eliminate steel bars in infrastructure building; an antique screen wall built completely through the assembly of renewable modules with the help of digital technology, a new method that can improve efficiency and reduce costs by 40 percent; and China's first self-supporting full-lifecycle management and collaboration platform for the building industry, which covers all links from design, material processing to construction and, as an example, can triple construction efficiency in the field of decoration.
"This expo focuses on seven key areas, including intelligent construction equipment, industrialized architectural components and intelligent production, smart home and intelligent operation and maintenance, green and low-carbon. More than 140 innovative enterprises from 11 countries and regions are exhibiting more than 1,000 innovative products, which represent the latest outcomes in intelligent construction. So far, agreements valuing a total of four billion yuan (about 560 million U.S. dollars) have been signed on the trade of innovative products via the expo," said Chen Weiguo, chief organizer of the expo and executive director of the China Construction Industry Association.
1st int’l intelligent building industry expo opens in south China’s Shenzhen
The United Arab Emirates' decision to withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) signals a broader strategic recalibration as the Gulf producer seeks to diversify its energy export routes and reduce vulnerability to regional chokepoints, according to a Middle East affairs expert.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) announced Tuesday it will withdraw from OPEC, marking the end of its decades-long alignment with the cartel.
Against this backdrop, the UAE is actively exploring alternative logistics pathways to safeguard its energy exports. A key focus is developing overland connections to bypass the strategically sensitive Strait of Hormuz.
"The UAE's primary energy loading and unloading ports are currently located in the Gulf region, within the Strait of Hormuz. However, given the increasingly uncertain security situation around the Strait of Hormuz, the UAE has gradually come to realize that its existing transportation system -- which relies on transit through the Strait of Hormuz to connect with international energy markets -- will be difficult to sustain over the long term. Consequently, the UAE hopes to establish overland connections linking its main inland energy production areas with the Fujairah Port, where crude oil can be loaded onto vessels for export to international energy markets," said Wang Jin, director of the Center for Strategic Studies at Northwest University in China.
While the strategic rationale is clear, implementation faces significant hurdles. Wang noted that infrastructure constraints could limit the effectiveness of this pivot, particularly given the UAE's ambitious production targets.
"However, this strategy involves two key challenges. First, the existing overland pipeline infrastructure cannot fully meet the UAE's so-called energy transport capacity requirements. According to current UAE projections, the country's average daily energy production may reach approximately 5 million barrels in the future. Yet the transport capacity of the existing pipelines falls far short of this anticipated volume. Therefore, the UAE must consider how to further expand the capacity of its overland energy pipeline network in the future, and whether new pipelines should be constructed to connect with the Fujairah Port," he said.
Beyond pipeline capacity, long-term success hinges on port infrastructure and sustainable financing -- questions that remain unresolved as the UAE weighs its next moves, according to Wang.
"More importantly, as the Fujairah Port -- a deep-water port -- gains increasing strategic significance, the UAE must also consider whether the port should be expanded and its capacity upgraded to accommodate more vessels for loading and unloading energy-related products. Thus, for the UAE, critical questions remain: how to develop effective planning, how to advance infrastructure construction, and where to secure funding for related projects. Consequently, although the UAE currently has proposals to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, whether and when these plans can be realized will likely require a long and complex process ahead," he said.
UAE's OPEC exit reflects strategic shift amid energy security concerns: expert
