THE production volume of the city’s automobile industry, one of the city’s core industries, reached 100 billion yuan last year. There are now 20 automobile manufacturing companies, while the number of companies making car parts has reached 20. Among these, the market share of the city’s heavy vehicles industry has reached 10 percent, which makes it the first in the country.

    The development of the automobile industry has also helped the development of the city’s vehicle manufacturing and related industries.

    According to he city’s commerce department, the city also takes the lead in axle, engine, ABS system and car electronic products manufacturing. In the car parts industrial areas in Jiaonan, Development Zone, Jiaozhou, Pingdu and Jimo, there are 46 car partook makers. Among these, 34 companies are the country’s leading companies and 16 of them have very close connections with Western and Japanese car makers.

    The city signed a cooperation agreement with China FAW Group Corporation on July 13. The group will set up a commercial vehicle base in Jimo. The first phase of the project will produce 100,000 heavy trucks, making annual sales revenue of 20 billion yuan.

    According to the agreement, the base will be converted into a world-class research and development base, which will help promote the city’s technology and creativity in the car making industry.

    Meanwhile, several leading car parts projects are now under construction in the city, which will also help improve the city’s car making industry.

    Not long ago, general manager of Foton Automobile Co. Ltd., Wang Jinyu said the company will focus on developing energy-saving, low-carbon and ecological car making technology with the electronic information industry related to the automobile industry, such as cloud computing and the Internet of Things. The company has jointly worked with the city in many areas over recent years and will strive for more cooperation in the future.

    The city is now promoting new-energy car and related projects, hoping to become a national leading city in building a new-energy automobile production base. Production volume of the new-energy cars and car parts is expected to reach 10 billion yuan in five years.

    (Wang Yuanyuan, Lin Gang)