Traditional sectors are thriving in a new direction

China, a world leader in manufacturing, faces a major challenge as it frantically pursues cutting-edge technologies and new fields, as well as coping with expanding traditional industries such as steel, non-ferrous metals and construction materials.

While some have called them “low-end” and urged a phase-out of such industries, arguing that they are not efficient enough and may cause negative environmental impacts, China’s top industry regulator has expressed a more rational view.

Jin Zhuanglong, minister of industry and information technology, said that traditional industries in China are huge, accounting for more than 80 percent of the manufacturing sector. They include steel, nonferrous metals, petrochemicals, construction materials, light industry, machinery, textiles and clothing, food and traditional Chinese medicine.

These traditional sectors form the foundation of the modern industrial system, are crucial to economic development and people’s livelihoods, and are essential for China to maintain its status as a leading global manufacturer, Jin said.

“Regardless of the present or the future, traditional industries should not be simply relegated to ‘industry industries’ and phased out. We must prioritize the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, adopting a set of ‘comprehensive measures’ to accelerate their development towards higher-end, smarter and greener directions, allowing traditional industries to ‘bloom anew,'” Jin added.

Looking to the future, Jin’s ministry will focus on implementing advanced, intelligent, green and integrated technological renovation of traditional industries, supporting new technology pilot projects and carrying out major technological improvement of production and large-scale equipment renewal projects. The aim is to rejuvenate traditional industries, making them carriers of new high-quality production forces.

A typical example is the collaboration between Inspur Yunzhou, a unit of Inspur Group that focuses on industrial internet, and Hansy Mining Co Ltd, a manufacturer of crushing and screening equipment for mining. The two companies launched an industry application aimed at transforming traditional machines into smart devices.

The initiative focuses on equipping conventional “dumb machines” that aren’t connected to the internet with advanced industrial security devices, such as Yunzhou’s security chips and smart gateways, before they leave the factory. This transformation allows the hardware to evolve into smart devices that boast data services.

The equipment undergoes a full spectrum of management and analysis, through comprehensive monitoring and control capabilities, including quality tracking, energy consumption, performance analysis, remote maintenance and after-sales service. This process continuously collects application and error data, creating an equipment analysis model, the two companies say.

The transformation has brought significant benefits to Hansy Mining by reducing operating costs, increasing product value and improving service quality. It has helped the company reduce equipment failure rates by 15 percent, reduce unplanned downtime by 20 percent, increase maintenance efficiency by 25 percent, reduce maintenance costs by 20 percent and increase after-sales repair efficiency by 90 percent. These improvements have significantly increased the competitiveness of the company’s products and brand, Hansy Mining said.

Shang Guangyong, chief technology officer and deputy general manager of Inspur Yunzhou, said intelligent equipment transformation helps companies move from traditional “industrial equipment manufacturers” to “industrial equipment manufacturing, industrial digital services and infrastructure operators.”