China's satellite navigation and positioning services output value registers 7.39 pct growth in 2024

China

China's satellite navigation and positioning services output value registers 7.39 pct growth in 2024

2025-05-18 16:56 Last Updated At：20:59

China's satellite navigation and positioning services industry, centered on the BeiDou navigation system, registered a 7.39 percent year-on-year growth to reach 575.8 billion yuan (about 80 billion U.S. dollars) in its total output value in 2024, according to a white paper released on Sunday.

The white paper released by the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and Location Based Services (LBS) Association of China reported that the core industrial output value - including chips, devices, algorithms, software, navigation data, terminals, and infrastructure directly related to the research, development and application of satellite navigation technology - reached 169.9 billion yuan (about 23.57 billion U.S. dollars).

With stepped-up efforts to prioritize the application of the BeiDou System, China's independently developed global navigation satellite system, the country's satellite navigation and positioning services sector has maintained steady growth since 2024, according to the white paper.

"As all industries are undergoing digital transformation and smart upgrades, demand for satellite navigation equipment and spatiotemporal data continues to rise, further stimulating the application of BeiDou's spatiotemporal information. At the same time, national and local governments have introduced a series of policies to deepen BeiDou's application in both industry-specific and consumer sectors, boosting its overall market activity. As of now, the supply chain for BeiDou-based products remains stable. Core products such as chips, modules, and antennas upgrade continuously and have reached mass production on a scale of hundreds of millions of units," Yu Xiancheng, president of China's GNSS and LBS Association, concluded.

In addition, the white paper highlights the rapid growth in intellectual property activity related to the BeiDou System. By the end of 2024, the total number of satellite navigation patent applications in China surpassed 129,000, marking a year-on-year increase of 4.8 percent, maintaining the country's global leading momentum in this field.

Prompt clearing efforts begin amid season's first snowfall in northern China

Northern China has launched full-scale clearing efforts to ensure smooth and safe traffic after multiple regions experienced the first snowfalls of the winter season.

In Inner Mongolia, snowfall began on Thursday night and continued through Friday morning in the northern and western parts of the autonomous region. Ordos City in the west experienced mild to moderate snow in most areas, with the northern part receiving the most snowfall of over five millimeters.

"The snow removal team has been working around the clock to clear snow and reduce slip hazards on sections prone to icing, including bridges, slopes, and curves. This aims to minimize the impacts of snowfall on road traffic," said Liu Feng, chief of a local highway maintenance station.

Snowfall in Jinan, capital of north China's Shandong Province, has been strengthening since 14:00 on Friday, with the local weather service upgrading the snowstorm warning signal from blue to yellow at 19:20 on the day.

Local authorities prepared over 1,670 snow removal machines for operation and immediately started clearing work as precipitation began.

Meanwhile, in north-central China's Gansu, temperatures in the rural Jishishan County dropped about 10 degrees Celsius as the rest of the province was largely affected by Friday's snowfall.

Gansu is a crucial passageway for traffic between China's eastern and western regions, so local authorities acted quickly to ensure highway safety.

"We applied deicing agents on sharp curves, steep slopes, and bridges, and increased patrols on roads in case any emergency situations may come up," said Che Yifan, deputy chief of a local highway maintenance station.

Snow also covered the Chinese capital Beijing on Friday, prompting emergency responses from local transportation authorities, with over 4,000 personnel and more than 2,600 pieces of machinery being dispatched to carry out the clearing effort.