BEIJING, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- As the country is moving toward the goal of "bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports", the ice and snow sports industry is ushering in unprecedented development opportunities in China. With the Beijing Winter Olympics as an opportunity, China's ice and snow sports equipment industry has striven to overcome a lot of technical difficulties, and is embracing leap-forward development today, since related products have been started from scratch, related brands developed into high-quality ones, and related production oriented on from quantity to quality.
People ski at a ski field during a snowfall in Chongli District of Zhangjiakou City, north China's Hebei Province, Nov. 18, 2020.
-- Products produced from scratch
The ice and snow sports equipment industry has been developed fast, with its localization rate and market share continuing to increase.
It is learned that the current world snowcat market has almost occupied by two companies, a German one and an Italian one. Seizing the opportunity of preparing for the Beijing Winter Olympics, Hebei Xuanhua Construction Machinery Co., Ltd. carried out independent innovation with its rich experience in the development and manufacturing of tracked vehicles."SG400 snowcat is China's first high-end high-horsepower one, filling the domestic gap in this field. We possess independent intellectual property rights in key core technologies such as its chassis suspension, electronic control system and hydraulic transmission," said Wen Xiaoxuan, Chief Designer of SG400 and Deputy Director of Snow & Ice Business Department of Hebei Xuanhua Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.
A waxing truck, independently developed by several enterprises in Shandong Province, served the national training team of snow events who were training at a cross-country ski resort in Wenquan County,Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. As China's first home-made waxing truck, it was set on a snowboard waxing platform with ventilation. According to An Zetao, Captain of the waxing truck, it integrated technologies such as solar photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, 5G industrial interconnection, big data and artificial intelligence, and 66 patents have been declared during its development and design process.
Promoted by a series of measures, the localization rate and market share of the ice and snow sports equipment have continued to increase. With many blanks being filled, the "ice-breaking" trumpets have been already sounded for the ice and snow sports equipment industry.
-- Brands developed intohigh-qualityones
In the future, it is necessary to strengthen the original and core technologies to create internationally competitive enterprisesand brands.
The skate brand Heilong, also known as Black Dragon, was founded in the 1950s to1960s and has exported its products to more than 20 countries and regions. After entering into the 21st century, its original products did not keep up with the development pace and its operation faltered. With the successful bid of Beijing to host the Winter Olympics, Qiqihar Heilong Skates Co., Ltd. (Heilong Skates)has been ushering in the opportunity to reshape its brand after acquisition and reorganization.
Since 2015, the average annual sales volume of Heilong Skates has increased by about 30 percent. The domestic demand has obviously increased, while the sales channels are recovering in overseas markets. Today, Heilong Skates has developed a new generation of skates jointly with domestic colleges and universities, for which, intellectual property rights are being applied in terms of structure and material. It is believed that more athletes can wear skates of Chinese brands in international competitions in the future.
-- Production oriented on from quantityto quality
China's ice and snow sports are ushering in unprecedented development opportunities. With further efforts to realize the goal of "bringing 300 million people to participate in ice and snow sports", the ice and snow sports equipment industry is undoubtedly developed quickly. Nine departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Education and the General Administrationof Sports of China, jointly issued the "Action Plan for the Development of the Ice and Snow Equipment Industry (2019-2022)", proposing that "the annual sales revenue of the ice and snow sports equipment industry exceed RMB 20 billion yuan by 2022, with its average annual growth rate of higher than 20 percent."
The improvement in quality stems from the successive introduction of ice and snow supportive policies and the continuous optimization of the industrial development environment in various regions. Zhangjiakou City in Hebei Province has planned and built two large-scale R&D and manufacturing clusters for ice and snow sports equipment, namely, Zhangjiakou Ice & Snow Sports Equipment Industrial Park and Xuanhua Ice and Snow Sports Industrial Park, aiming to build a national ice and snow sports equipment manufacturing base and form an ice and snow sports equipment industrial base integrating research and development, design, manufacturing, testing, distribution and storage of ice and snow sports equipment. "Being close to the snowfields means being close to the market." This is an important reason for many enterprises to choose to settle in these two industrial parks. According to the data released by Zhangjiakou City, as of the beginning of 2021, a total of 81 projects had been signed for the snow and ice sports industry, among which, 69 ones have been landed, with a total investment of RMB 33.434 billion yuan, and 31 ones have been put into operation, with an output value of RMB 2.404 billion yuan achieved.
(Edited by Bao Nuomin with Xinhua Silk Road, baonuomin@xinhua.org)
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