BEIJING, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Six out of every ten fishing rods sold in the world are produced in Weihai in east China's Shandong Province. Behind this outstanding achievement is the coastal city's continuous efforts in promoting intelligent manufacturing technology and its complete industrial chains layouts.
In the intelligent workshop of Shandong Handing Industrial Automation Co., Ltd., the world's first full-automatic fishing rod production line, which is wholly developed by the company, is operating efficiently, enabling unmanned operation for over 30 fishing rod production processes.
With a total investment of over 20 million yuan, this intelligent production line has obtained over 40 independent patents and helped to save 80 percent of the manpower so as to cut the labor cost by about 1.5 million yuan in one year, said the company's R&D manager Sha Guodong. More importantly, the adoption of intelligent technology makes the quality of the products more stable with the defect rate being controlled below three per thousand even when the line is in full load.
While enhancing efficiency from technology upgrading, local fishing rod companies have also eyed on "soft powers". In the designing studio of Weihai Guangwei Outdoor Equipment Co., Ltd. (Guangwei), designers are targeting the Southeast Asian market and working on the R&D of new lure poles.
By upgrading the grade of carbon fiber and optimizing the structure, the new product has 10 percent less in weight but 15 percent increase in strength, said Tan Chunlin, vice general manager of Guangwei, adding that it launches more than 50 such iterative products every year to precisely meet diversified demands on targeted markets.
Apart from innovation, the city's robust fishing rod industry has also benefited from its construction of whole industrial chain that enables fishing rod producers to make one-stop purchase of all the hundreds of components of a set of fishing gear in one hour. This high-efficient and collaborative industrial ecology has become a solid foundation for "Weihai Manufacturing" to going abroad.
At present, Weihai has gathered more than 5,000 fishing tackle and related enterprises with the products sold to over 60 overseas countries and regions, generating a total output value of over 10 billion yuan annually.
(Edited by Li Xueqing with Xinhua Silk Road, lixueqing@xinhua.org)
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