Robotic arms orderly transport production materials to the conveyor belt, automated guided vehicles shuttle between production lines to support material transfer, and rail-guided shuttle vehicles run back and forth between product warehousing and shipping... In the production workshop of Farasis Energy (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd., a scene of modern intelligent manufacturing unfolds.

"There are only a few workers in the entire production process," introduced Liu Jibin, deputy general manager of the company. This is the company's "Industry 4.0 Intelligent Manufacturing Base," and the ternary soft-pack power lithium-ion batteries produced at the base are mainly supplied to Mercedes-Benz pure electric vehicle models. In 2023, the company achieved an output value of 12.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32%.

As a leading enterprise in the new energy industry of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone, Farasis Energy (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd. is located in one of the few ***"new energy + distributed photovoltaic" superimposed demonstration zones in China. At present, the demonstration zone has formed an industrial scale of nearly 30 billion yuan, with two complete supporting industrial chains: power batteries and solar photovoltaics.

Production workshop of Farasis Energy (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd. Photo courtesy of the Management Committee of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone

A complete upstream and downstream industrial chain effectively helps enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency. Huang Guoping, general manager of CECEP Solar Energy Technology (Zhenjiang) Co., Ltd., stated that the concentration of resource factors is one of the important considerations for enterprises to settle in Zhenjiang. At present, the company is mainly engaged in the research, manufacturing, and sales of crystalline silicon solar cells and modules. With the landing and commissioning of projects such as the annual production of 1.5GW high-efficiency solar modules, cell production capacity can be increased by 20%, module production capacity by 35%, and manufacturing costs can be reduced by 13%.

The new energy industry, which gathers chains through parks and clusters through chains, is only a microcosm of the four major industries of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone. Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone aims at the four leading industries of new materials, new energy, life and health, and aerospace to strengthen, supplement, and extend chains, focuses on the development direction of new quality productive forces, leverages resource advantages such as construction land and port shorelines, accelerates the attraction and landing of high-quality projects, and leads the construction of a modern industrial system with industrial agglomeration.

Aerial view of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone. Photo courtesy of the Management Committee of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone

In July 2024, Zhenjiang Dalu General Aviation Airport created Jiangsu's first cross-provincial low-altitude logistics route and successfully completed its maiden flight, marking the substantive implementation of low-altitude logistics application scenarios in Zhenjiang, further expanding the application of low-altitude economy scenarios, and opening up a new track for the development of the low-altitude economy in Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone. Since the beginning of this year, Jiangsu Aviation Technical College, located in Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone, has also been aiming at the new track of the low-altitude economy, actively leveraging its aviation characteristic educational advantages, and comprehensively enhancing the precision of talent cultivation.

Li Chaoyang, deputy secretary of the Party Working Committee and director of the Management Committee of Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone, stated that Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone insists on making efforts along the "chain," comprehensively using methods such as ecological partner investment attraction and industrial chain investment attraction, and making all-out efforts to tackle key node projects in the industrial chain and new quality productive forces projects. According to reports, focusing on the integration of science and technology with industry, Zhenjiang Economic Development Zone particularly emphasizes the construction of science and technology business incubators and enterprise R&D institutions, and takes the construction of science and technology innovation platforms as an important carrier for innovation and entrepreneurship services and the transformation of scientific and technological achievements in the entire zone.