To accelerate the development of advanced equipment manufacturing in the West Bank of the Pearl River, the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and Provincial Government held a joint provincial and ministerial promotion event for the development of the advanced equipment manufacturing industry belt on the West Bank of the Pearl River and a project signing ceremony in Zhuhai yesterday morning! Shunde High-tech Zone's Guangdong Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Base and international robotics giant KUKA signed a letter of intent for investment, becoming one of the focal points.

Relevant officials from the Shunde District Bureau of Economy and Science and Technology said that the project will mainly provide research and development and services for the home appliance and electronic consumer goods industries. This will benefit the intelligent equipment industry that Shunde is focusing on developing, promoting industrial transformation and upgrading. Projects led by KUKA will also bring a large number of downstream robot system integrators, forming a robot and intelligent equipment industry chain in Shunde.

Joy of Signing

International Robotics Giant Plans to Set Up in Shunde, Industrial Park Rises

It is understood that KUKA plans to establish China's first robotics application R&D base in Shunde. Through the construction of a robotics application R&D base, it will attract downstream system integration companies to enter the Shunde Robot Professional Park (hereinafter referred to as the "Robot Professional Park"). It will also serve and assist the seven companies that have already entered the Robot Professional Park and guide more advanced industrial robot-related companies to gather in the park, jointly promoting the development of the robot industry in Shunde and working together to form an industrial robot and intelligent equipment industry chain cluster in eight years.

These seven companies include Foshan Lixunda Robot System Co., Ltd., Guangdong Jiateng Robot Automation Co., Ltd., Foshan Shunde Aishida Garment Co., Ltd., Guangdong Weideli Machinery Industry Co., Ltd., Guangdong Gaoshun Optoelectronics Co., Ltd., Guangdong Shunyuantong Switch Co., Ltd., and Guangdong Shunde Bushengle Electric Co., Ltd., respectively developing robot systems and intelligent automated equipment production lines, intelligent manufacturing flexible production lines, mobile robots, woodworking machinery intelligent equipment, and industrial robot supporting projects, etc.

I understand that the Robot Professional Park covers an area of approximately 227.46 mu (approximately 15.16 hectares), with a planned total investment exceeding 1 billion RMB. The goal is to produce more than 500,000 industrial robots and intelligent equipment annually after reaching full production capacity, with an output value of 4.3 billion RMB.

Background Interpretation

Solid Foundation + New Opportunities + Existing Base: Significant Advantages

KUKA's plan to set up in Shunde High-tech Zone has a profound background. Shunde is a famous manufacturing base. Facing new international manufacturing competition pressures and the inherent requirements for the transformation and upgrading of Shunde's manufacturing industry, Shunde actively explores the path of deep integration of "two industrializations" and proposes a new direction of "intelligent manufacturing." It has become the only "national-level equipment industry deep integration of two industrializations and intelligent manufacturing pilot project." The robotics application market is vast. Therefore, the robotics industry is highly valued by Shunde and has been actively cultivated, with a number of companies such as Lixunda and Jiateng Robotics rapidly growing.

This year, Guangdong Province proposed the creation of an advanced equipment manufacturing industry belt on the West Bank of the Pearl River, and Shunde also proposed the goal of building Shunde into the "core area of the Pearl River Delta West Bank machinery equipment industry belt." Policies such as the "Work Plan for Building the Core Area of the Advanced Equipment Manufacturing Industry Belt on the West Bank of the Pearl River" and the "Implementation Measures for Promoting the "Robot Replacement" Plan to comprehensively enhance the competitiveness of the manufacturing industry" have been successively introduced, bringing new development opportunities to Shunde's second largest pillar industry, machinery equipment manufacturing.

The Shunde High-tech West Startup Zone, which was identified as a Guangdong Provincial Intelligent Manufacturing Industrial Base at the end of 2013, is also an important reason for KUKA's planned establishment in Shunde. The base, with a planned area of 5,200 mu (approximately 346.7 hectares), will consist of functional areas such as an intelligent manufacturing industrial base, an intelligent equipment parts production base, a business supporting area, an intelligent equipment exhibition and sales center, and an intelligent equipment education and demonstration base, with good supporting policies. At the end of July this year, the High-tech Zone West Startup Zone was also identified as a 2014 provincial and municipal co-construction strategic emerging industry base (Guangdong Provincial Intelligent Manufacturing Demonstration Base), and will enjoy strong support from numerous provincial policies. The favorable provincial and district policies are undoubtedly a major attraction for companies such as KUKA.

Base Rise

Smooth Progress, High-end Project Clusters Become New Growth Poles

I understand that as an important carrier for Shunde's development and improvement of the machinery equipment manufacturing industry and intelligent manufacturing industry, the Shunde High-tech Zone West Startup Zone, with a planned area of 18.86 square kilometers, is currently under vigorous construction and investment attraction.

Currently, the park is comprehensively carrying out the construction of infrastructure such as roads, water supply networks, sewage trunk lines, power grids, greening, and water conservancy. The east-west main road network section has been completed and opened to traffic, and the north-south main road network section is expected to be officially completed and opened to traffic in May next year, when a "connected internal and external" road network pattern can be initially formed.

It is understood that the startup zone has currently introduced a total of 18 companies, covering an area of approximately 1,069 mu (approximately 71.27 hectares), including the world's top 500 company POSCO's advanced galvanized steel plate project, the German Messer industrial gas project, the natural gas gate station project, and 15 projects settled in Longteng Park. The industrial scope involves intelligent manufacturing, resource recycling, new energy utilization, and auto parts, etc. The total investment of these projects is approximately 4.68 billion RMB, and the annual tax revenue after reaching full production capacity is expected to reach 750 million RMB.