Industrial Transformation & Digital Upgrading

Municipal castings have entered overseas markets. The product qualification rate has risen from 85% to 95%, and energy consumption per ten-thousand-yuan output value has decreased by 8.6% over five years. Since the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Jize County has taken the foundry industry as a starting point to accelerate digital development, driving traditional industries to transform from high energy consumption and low efficiency to refined, sophisticated and intelligent development.

Hongguang Handan Cast Foundry Co., Ltd. integrates idiom cultural elements into product design and launches idiom-themed manhole covers that combine practicality and artistic value. Its independently developed smart manhole covers are fitted with sensor modules to realize real-time monitoring of manhole cover displacement, water level, harmful gases and other data, turning traditional products into "smart eyes" for urban governance.

"We have broken free from the single traditional track of municipal manhole covers. By integrating cultural and technological elements, we have increased product added value by more than 30% and successfully tapped into overseas markets," said Zhao Liqiang, General Manager of Hongguang Handan Cast Foundry Co., Ltd. He stated that digital transformation has not only upgraded production lines, but also reshaped core product competitiveness.

Hongguang Foundry’s transformation is a typical example of Jize County’s efforts in industrial digitalization. Relying on foundry and equipment manufacturing industrial parks, the county has established a transformation system backed by policy guidance, technological support and enterprise initiative. It has organized local foundry enterprises to learn from advanced regions, connected with universities and technical service providers, and pushed over ten large-scale industrial enterprises to carry out intelligent upgrading.

To date, the county has fostered 21 high-tech enterprises and 25 provincial-level specialized, sophisticated, distinctive and innovative enterprises in the foundry sector.

Jize County has rolled out three innovative measures to boost industrial transformation. It has launched a pilot program of smart park systems in economic development zones, enabling real-time visualization of park operational data and improving management efficiency and service response speed. It promotes synchronous digital construction for newly-established enterprises to lay a solid digital foundation from the start, and provides targeted face-to-face technical assistance for established enterprises to help them break through technical bottlenecks, improve quality and raise efficiency. In addition, the county expands digital trade, guiding more than ten foundry enterprises to develop live-streaming sales and product promotion, achieving steady growth in trading volume.

"From replacing manual work with machines to empowering industries with data, we are revitalizing traditional industries," said Li Liqiang, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Executive Deputy Director of Jize Economic Development Zone. The county will further improve the industry-university-research-application collaborative mechanism, strive to nurture its first national-level specialized and sophisticated "Little Giant" enterprises, and make the equipment manufacturing industry a solid driving force for high-quality county economic development.