From September 20th to 23rd, the 2024 World Manufacturing Conference with the theme of "Smart Manufacturing World, Creating Beauty" was held in Hefei, Anhui. During the four-day conference, various new technologies, products, and formats representing the forefront exploration of the manufacturing industry were presented in a brilliant manner. The "2024 Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises" was newly released, and 718 projects with a total investment of nearly 370 billion yuan reached cooperation. Enterprises, institutions, and merchants from 19 countries and regions worked together with Chinese partners to promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of the manufacturing industry.

The high-quality development of manufacturing industry is of paramount importance to the high-quality development of China's economy. The attendees believe that currently, the global manufacturing industry is undergoing profound changes in quality, efficiency, and power, providing broad cooperation space for manufacturing enterprises in various countries. Through the window of the World Manufacturing Congress, people see the bright prospect of China joining hands with all parties to promote high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry and achieve shared benefits.
The flourishing development of new technologies in the manufacturing industry

On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress exhibition hall, the humanoid robot "Qijiang No.2" grabbed oranges and handed them to visitors. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

Xiao Jiang, please hand me an orange. "Upon receiving the command, the humanoid robot named" Xiao Jiang "relayed the task smoothly with its left and right hands, picking up and handing it out. Not far away, another humanoid robot named "Wan Xiaote" danced and showcased its "eighteen martial arts" to the audience.

On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress exhibition hall, the audience took an orange from the "hand" of the "Qijiang-2" humanoid robot. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fu Tian
The speed at which the robotics industry launches new products is getting faster and faster, such as humanoid robots that integrate big language models and emotion recognition systems, "said Zuo Jun, manager of Huaibei Wante Science and Trade Co., Ltd. The company plans to promote the use of" Wanxiaote "in the business hall of State Grid Power Supply Company, providing customers with reception, explanation, Q&A and other services.
On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress exhibition hall, the service-oriented humanoid robot "Wan Xiaote" showcased its skills. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan
Multi rotor electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, hydrogen powered fully automatic urban trains... Strolling through the exhibition area of approximately 20000 square meters at the 2024 World Manufacturing Conference, new products like these constantly refresh people's understanding of new manufacturing technologies.

Seizing the opportunities of the new round of technological and industrial revolution, countries are striving to enhance their manufacturing technology innovation capabilities and provide new engines for economic growth. According to statistics, China has established 30 national level manufacturing innovation centers, covering fields such as power batteries, humanoid robots, and high-performance medical devices.

On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress exhibition hall, visitors visited and learned about the service-oriented humanoid robot "Wanxiaote". Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fu Tian
Enterprises are samples for observing industrial changes. At this conference, the "2024 Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises" list released by the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Entrepreneurs Association showed that the net profit growth rates of industries such as boiler and power equipment manufacturing, industrial machinery and equipment manufacturing, and power and electrical equipment manufacturing were all above 50%; The asset growth rate of industries such as wind energy, solar equipment manufacturing, power and energy storage batteries exceeds 15%.

Represented by the 'Top 500' enterprises, manufacturing enterprises have shown a distinct feature of continuous transformation between new and old driving forces, "said Liang Yan, Vice President of the China Enterprise Confederation.

Establishing a mechanism for future industrial investment growth, promoting the aggregation of various advanced production factors towards the development of new quality productive forces, and laying out the construction of a number of future industrial pilot zones... China's manufacturing industry continues to impact and accumulate momentum towards new future industrial tracks such as aerospace information, quantum computing, and life sciences.

On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress, visitors visited the "Origin Wukong" superconducting quantum computer model. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

'One arrow, 41 stars, amazing!' At the exhibition area of Jilin Province, the guest of honor of this year's conference, a model of the 'One arrow, 41 stars' successfully launched by Changguang Satellite was made, which aroused admiration from the participating audience.

Changguang Satellite is the first commercial remote sensing satellite company in China. The satellites developed by the company will gradually realize the "Jilin-1" satellite constellation network, which can overlook the Earth from space 24 hours a day. Cui Shaowei, a staff member of Changguang Satellite Exhibition Area, said that the aerospace information industry will be integrated and developed in synergy with commercial aerospace, low altitude economy, artificial intelligence, and other industries, ushering in a vast market with a scale of trillions.

High end, intelligent, and green have become common choices

A thick and mottled copper ingot engraved with the number " 1953", as the first copper ingot cast in New China, it witnessed the blue thread of China's copper industry; A lithium battery copper foil that is as smooth as silk and only 4.5 microns thick is an indispensable raw material for emerging industries such as new energy vehicles and new energy storage.

At this conference, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holding Co., Ltd. showcased these two exhibits, which became a vivid footnote for the manufacturing industry to move towards the high-end of the value chain.

From traditional copper ingots and rods to today's copper foils and wires, innovation has enabled product expansion and iteration, meeting the new needs of industrial upgrading, "said Gong Huadong, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co., Ltd.

Moving towards high-end, manufacturing enterprises are constantly increasing their R&D investment. According to the "2024 Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises" list, the total R&D investment of the "Top 500" manufacturing enterprises in 2023 is about 1.23 trillion yuan, an increase of 12.51% over the previous year; The R&D intensity was 2.37%, an increase of 0.04 percentage points from the previous year.

On September 20th, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Conference, the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Entrepreneurs Association released the "2024 Top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises" list. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

More than 5000 orders need to be processed every day, with over 80% of them being personalized customized orders for less than 5 units. The daily calculation of materials is about 260 million pieces, and it used to take about 6 hours for manual production scheduling every day. This is a set of production scheduling data from Hefei Lianbao, the largest intelligent device R&D and manufacturing base of Lenovo Group.

After intelligentization, the daily production scheduling time has been reduced to 1.5 minutes, driving a 23% increase in output. At the same time, we have refined our accumulated technology, experience, and capabilities into solutions and services, empowering the intelligent transformation of other manufacturing enterprises, "said Yang Yuanqing, Chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group.

Only by inserting "smart wings" can manufacturing enterprises fly higher and farther. Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the opening ceremony of the conference that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology would implement the digital transformation action of the manufacturing industry, deepen the "5G+industrial Internet" and AI empowerment, and accelerate the popularization and application of digital technology in the whole industry and chain of the manufacturing industry.

On September 20th, the audience learned about a medical robot at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress exhibition hall. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fu Tian

With the upgrading and efficiency improvement of the manufacturing industry, promoting energy conservation, consumption reduction, and efficiency enhancement, and building a green, low-carbon, and circular development production system has become the best choice for manufacturing enterprises to practice high-quality development.

At this conference, the Electric Power Science Research Institute of
State Grid Anhui Electric Power Co., Ltd. showcased its high-precision carbon emission online monitoring system for thermal power.
The carbon emissions from thermal power generation are relatively high, and accurate measurement of them is the basis for formulating emission reduction policies and conducting carbon trading, "said the person in charge of the research institute. Currently, 7 power plants and 15 units have been connected to the system.

From efficient and low-carbon energy use to comprehensive utilization of solid waste, the greening of the entire manufacturing chain in China has

continuously achieved new results. According to data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first two years of the 14th Five Year Plan, the cumulative energy consumption per unit of added value in China's industrial enterprises above designated size decreased by 6.8%; From 2021 to 2023, the water consumption per 10000 yuan of industrial added value will decrease by 20.3%; The comprehensive utilization of bulk industrial solid waste in 2023 is about 2.2 billion tons, with a utilization rate of 54%.

Embracing the high-quality development of global manufacturing industry and a bright future together

The French Alstom straddle type monorail train, which is about 26 meters long and weighs about 30 tons, as the largest exhibit at this conference, attracted visitors to take photos one after another; The car interior design, jointly developed by the German Kurz Group and Swarovski, integrates artificial crystals and sensor technology; The new generation factory management system from XIRIUS company in South Korea helps manufacturing enterprises build smart factories

On September 21st, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress, people visited and experienced the Alstom straddle monorail train. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

In the approximately 500 square meter international exhibition area of this conference, exhibits from well-known enterprises from different countries are overwhelming, showcasing the latest achievements and development trends ofthe global manufacturing industry.

There are numerous cases of China and foreign countries working together to explore new opportunities in the manufacturing industry by targeting new industries and pursuing high quality.
On September 21st, at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress, children visited and experienced the Alstom straddle monorail train. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Huang Bohan

As one of the series of events of the 2024 World Manufacturing Conference, the Anhui Province Emerging Industries and Multinational Companies Matchmaking Conference attracted 178 political leaders and businessmen from 19 countries and regions including the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, including representatives from 92 multinational companies such as Honeywell, Mitsubishi, and Schneider.

Taking the new energy vehicle industry as an example, we are developing sensor products based on the demand of the Chinese market to enhance battery safety and optimize mileage estimation, "said Yu Feng, President of Honeywell China, at the matchmaking meeting. This multinational corporation from the United States has been continuously investing in China

in recent years, focusing on areas such as automation, energy transformation, aviation, and new energy vehicles. In July of this year, Honeywell signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Anhui Fengyuan Group to build sustainable aviation kerosene and other projects in Bengbu, promoting green and low-carbon development.

Shortly before the opening of this conference, the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2024 Edition)" was released on September 8, reducing the number of restrictions on foreign investment access from 31 to 29 nationwide, and clearing the restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing industry.

This policy not only demonstrates China's positive willingness to expand international cooperation, but also enhances the confidence of foreign-funded enterprises in continuing to deeply cultivate the Chinese market, "said Takeshi Tamai, Director and Deputy General Manager of Mitsubishi Electric (China) Co., Ltd., who attended this conference.
On September 21st, children learned about the automatic passenger rapid transit system model at the 2024 World Manufacturing Congress. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fu Tian

For the world, we need to build an authoritative platform to showcase the achievements of manufacturing development, promote high-end resource docking and cooperation, and jointly promote high-quality development of the manufacturing industry. The World Manufacturing Congress is a very ideal platform, "said Carlos Magrinos, Global President of the Global Alliance of Small and Medium Enterprises. He hopes that countries can take the World Manufacturing Congress as an opportunity to jointly promote the high-quality development of the global manufacturing industry and inject more vitality and momentum into the world economy.