Building everything from container ships as heavy as 10,000 tons to smart glasses weighing as little as tens of grams, Chinese manufacturers are going rapidly as they unleash their innovation capabilities.
The recent launch of an LNG dual-fuel container ship from east China's Zhoushan, a major shipbuilding hub in Zhejiang Province, was the latest success for this shipyard. The giant vessel, with a total length of 335 meters and a height of 25 meters, can carry 11,500 standard containers and is currently the largest container ship built in Zhejiang Province.
On the very same day, this private shipbuilding enterprise was also advancing work on orders for a container ship and a 115,000-ton oil tanker.
Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology shows that currently, more than seven out of every 10 new shipbuilding orders worldwide are directed to China.
"At present, we have 87 orders in hand, and the delivery date has been scheduled until 2029. Among them, more than half of the orders are high-value-added LNG dual-fuel container ships," said Zhang Ruihua, director of the design department at Zhoushan Changhong International Industry Shipyard.
Elsewhere in Zhejiang, the production of augmented reality (AR) glasses is another example of the innovative vitality of Chinese manufacturing.
"Though they seem like ordinary glasses, this product can show me the text for my speech as I am delivering it. When I go abroad, while other people are speaking different languages, they can translate it into Chinese right in front of me," said Xiang Wenjie, the co-founder of an AR glasses maker in Hangzhou.
As a unicorn enterprise specializing in the research and development of human-computer interaction technology, the company has received nearly 300 patents in the AR field, which have been commercialized in fields such as culture and museums, education, and industry. Their independently developed core products have been exported to over 80 countries and regions.
A number of enterprises have emerged in the field of artificial intelligence in the Yangtze River Delta region, covering key sub-sectors such as computing power services, data services, and algorithm models. With the coordinated development of each link, a relatively complete and highly competitive industrial chain cluster has been established.
Equipment manufacturers in China spurring growth through innovation
