SFC Markets and Finance｜Guangdong's manufacturing industry is heading towards the "new quality"

南方财经全媒体记者 杨雨莱 李依农 东莞、佛山报道

As a strong manufacturing province in China, Guangdong's industrial added value of enterprises above the designated level reached 0.91 trillion yuan, with an increase of 6.1% in the first quarter of this year. The industries and products representing new quality productive forces such as electronic information and smart home appliances have sprung up. More and more trillion-level emerging industries have been generated, driving the added value of advanced manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing. Please follow the "2024 Guangdong High-Quality Development Research Tour" to take a closer look at the development of Guangdong's manufacturing industry.

Li Bin, Deputy Director-general of the Foshan Development and Reform Bureau

In recent years, Foshan has been working on creating new momentum and enhancing productive forces. We have made efforts in this regard and achieved notable results in our stable economic development. In terms of our industrial manufacturing transformation and upgrading, from the perspective of market entities, the industrial market in Foshan reached 104,000 enterprises in 2023, marking a 6.5% increase. From these data, we can see that there is considerable confidence in the overall economic and industrial development of Foshan among both society and entrepreneurs.

In the past, traditional industries were often seen as backward, which is a misconception. Through digital and intelligent transformations and the application and innovation of new productive forces, as well as innovations in concepts and technology, our traditional industries can continuously demonstrate their vitality.

Qiu Canhua, Director of Dishwasher Factory's Kitchen Heatware and Hard Object Cleaning Products, Midea

We have been involved in the dishwasher industry for 27 years and have conducted significant consumer research. In 2017, we invented the hot air drying dishwasher. Up to this month, we have produced over 3 million dishwasher-sterilizer combo machines on our production line, which is a testament to our original intention of establishing this sterilization standard.

An On-Site Introducer of OPPO

Now in this workshop, there are seven motherboard production lines. You may see some screens or panels displaying real-time production-related data, such as planned output, actual output, differences, and production every two hours. We monitor this data in real-time, including back-end data like warnings of low output and low efficiency.

We have over 100 motherboard production lines worldwide, with each line averaging a daily output of 6,000 units. Our planned annual output for this factory is 40 million units, but this number depends on market changes, international factors, and other variables. A58, for example, is aimed at overseas markets, where local promotional rhythms introduce many uncertainties. The annual number of 40 million is just a plan.

Yuan Lunxi, Head of OPPO AI Center's Smart Creation Team

Typically, what we are doing now includes summarizing the content of calls and recordings for our AI phones, which seem like standalone functions designed for user experience. However, behind these features is a complete evolution in AI agents, operating systems, and hardware improvements, gradually introduced to benefit users and consumers. In the future, we will introduce more advantageous features step by step.

In the first quarter of this year, the investment growth rate of Guangdong's advanced manufacturing industry and high-tech manufacturing industry exceeded 30%, and continued to make breakthrough in basic research and original innovation. What technological breakthroughs have these high-tech manufacturing enterprises achieved? How to continue to accelerate operation and expand the market in the future? Let's keep exploring.

Yu Miaomiao, Product Manager at Guangdong YuanDian Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

Last year, we teamed up with Academician Li Lin to establish a joint ultrafast laser lab. Our main focus is on using ultrafast lasers to tackle precision machining issues in micro and nanostructures. We've introduced the concept of all-laser manufacturing through laser processing to replace traditional metal cutting techniques in micro and nano-manufacturing. Our research team, in collaboration with our experts, is very strong and recognized internationally. We also have a high proportion of R&D staff and collaborate with universities.

We have three core technologies. The first is our CNC system, where we've mastered the underlying algorithms that enable multi-axis linkage control of five axes and beyond, up to eleven axes. The second is our industrial software. While there are plenty of standard industrial software options for metal cutting, there aren't any for laser cutting, so we have a dedicated team developing industrial software in this area.

The third is our laser optical path design. Dr. Qian Daishu, who has been in the laser industry for over ten years, brings a wealth of experience and can customize our laser optical systems based on customer needs. Our three core technologies support our two main businesses: laser CNC systems and CNC machine tools.

The overall mechanical design of our equipment is now more rational, reliable, and stable, and our entire laser system is built modularly, making maintenance and adjustments flexible and controllable. We developed our CNC system in-house and have the capability to control multiple axes. Our equipment has a clear advantage in the market in terms of processing efficiency and precision.

Our company has been in operation for less than ten years and is already recognized as one of Foshan's youngest "little giants" among specialized high-end and innovation-driven SMEs. Our team’s average age is around 30, making our team vibrant, energetic, and full of drive.

Liu Zhifeng, Deputy General Manager of Guangdong Original Point Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd.

Our company is a technology-driven company. Our R&D personnel or technical personnel account for 60% of our total employees. We invest 20% of our sales revenue in R&D every year.

We started exporting last year. Currently, 70% of our sales are domestic, and 30% are overseas. Our main overseas customers include Poland and Turkey in Europe, Vietnam and Thailand in Southeast Asia, and South Korea.

After years of development, China's entire machine tool industry has taken a big step forward. At the level of mid to low-end products, no foreign competitors can match us, and our products are even better than theirs.

However, there are still gaps in certain high-graded, high-precision, and advanced aspects, which require years of iteration to complete. With the largest market and customer base, many companies like us are putting in a lot of effort, and eventually, we will make breakthroughs, but it just takes some time.

Wang Junfeng, Co-President of Guangdong Dtech Tech Co., Ltd.

It's the 5-Axis Grinding Machine, which is primarily used for numerical control tools. This is cutting oil, not water. It serves as lubrication and cooling. We have pipelines to recycle and reuse it. This system serves the workshop, mainly for PCB drill bits. This is our current top-performing product.

Yes, this is a 0.03mm variant, with a 0.03mm diameter. You can see that these machines are also developed by us. This is the final inspection before shipment. This is a 0.15mm drill bit. You can see that there are two cameras on it, one on the top and one on the bottom. One camera is for trimming the cutting edge, and the other is for trimming the blade length and diameter. After the trimming, it will also mark the drill bit, and then package it. We developed all this equipment ourselves.

Our independently developed multi-station grinder integrates some of our core patents. For instance, to ensure the stability of tiny, highly precise drill bits, we have applied for patents on some key components.

For example, we use a floating chuck, which allows it to self-align to the center during rotation, ensuring the precision of the product. The tool sector is far from being saturated, and many new demands are emerging. From our research on the equipment industry, Europe and America are also continuously expanding production, indicating they see a promising future in this sector.

We believe the growth in this sector over the next two years will be relatively rapid, with a growth rate of 7%-8%. Equipment is a crucial part of our business, and we will expand this business further. Additionally, we are making significant advancements in grinding materials and optical films.

Wang Xin, Chairman of Dtech Tech Co., Ltd.

We have already started selling overseas. Products like our Intelligent Drill Bit Warehouse were delivered to TTM's factories in Malaysia last year and received very positive feedback. We also have grinding machines that will be shipped to Japan, South Korea, and Europe. Our knife grinders will also be sold overseas. Our drill bits will have sales outlets overseas, and we hope to gain a larger share internationally.

We started up the business in Dongguan in 1997. Over the past 20 years, we have grown in a healthy and positive way. Dongguan is a major industrial city with the most complete manufacturing industrial chain, providing comprehensive support and enterprise facilities. For example, for our high-end equipment, all parts and components can be sourced in Dongguan.

In our factory in Thailand, many supporting consumables still need to be shipped from China, which makes the cost very high. Therefore, China's industrial chain is the most complete, and Dongguan's manufacturing and electronic information industrial chain is even more comprehensive, giving us a clear advantage in Dongguan, Guangdong.

Huang Jing, Head of Topstar Robotics R&D Department

The area we are looking at now is the manufacturing area of Topstar's robots. Looking from the right to the left, the far right is the row of a life-long security and aging reliability test area. And then go to the left, we can see that our production line employees are working in the production line of our robots, which becomes the equipment we are seeing now, showing how they are produced from one component to another into a complete machine. Then, the relatively large area we have just photographed is the aging of the production equipment before shipment. It will undergo a 48-hour aging time before it is delivered to our customers, ensuring the security and reliability of the robot's.

The process of the (AI data) model takes it apart and it is actually divided into several parts, the first part is perception, the second part is reasoning, the third part is decision-making, and the fourth part is execution. In fact, from the concept of the current AI large model, it is more of solving the reasoning and decision-making things, while the frontier stage will be the perception, it will involve some sensors,

such as mechanical sensors, vision sensors, temperature sensors, vibration sensors, and so on these perceptual classes. Now there are also many domestic enterprises in this direction to make breakthroughs. For us, the robot product manufacturers, We primarily integrate these large models' front-end perception and their decision-making capabilities, utilizing some open-source models and even collaborating on large foundational platforms. Then, through the motion control of robots, we incorporate them into our products.

Huang Yongsheng, Deputy director of Guangdong Topstar Technology Co.Ltd.

As our end users expand overseas, we also go overseas to accompany them, providing supporting services. Therefore, in regions such as Southeast Asia, Mexico, and Hungary, we offer these services alongside our clients. So in the oversea business, we continuously support their overseas expansion efforts.

（市场有风险，投资需谨慎。本节目嘉宾意见仅代表本人观点。）

策划：于晓娜

监制：施诗

责任编辑：李依农

记者： 杨雨莱 李依农

制作：李群 蔡于恬

拍摄：杨雨莱 李依农 肖航 

新媒体统筹：丁青云 曾婷芳 赖禧 黄达迅

海外运营监制: 黄燕淑

海外运营内容统筹: 黄子豪 

海外运营编辑：庄欢 吴婉婕 龙李华 张伟韬

出品：南方财经全媒体集团