Huangshi is accelerating industrial upgrades, leaping from “new energy vehicle manufacturing” to a “key unmanned equipment base in central China.” Pictured is the production site of Great Wall Motors’ Daye base.
On May 20, at a press conference series held by the Hubei Provincial Government Information Office titled “Starting Strong for the 15th Five-Year Plan, Accelerating Efforts to Build a Strategic Support Point,” Huangshi’s Deputy Party Secretary and Mayor Wu Zhiling stated that the city will focus on high-quality development to build itself into a central city in eastern Hubei.
As a major old industrial base in China, Huangshi is transforming from “traditional industry” to “new quality production”: leaping from “the province’s largest copper deep-processing base” to a “central China computing power industry cluster,” from “the province’s key steel base” to “the largest special steel new materials base in central China,” and from “new energy vehicles” to a “key unmanned equipment base in central China.”
Industrial Leap Reshapes Strength
During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, Huangshi’s main economic indicators maintained top-tier growth in the province for five consecutive years, with industrial value added above designated size growing by double digits each year.
“We are committed to building a modern industrial system with advanced manufacturing as the backbone, striving for total industrial output to enter the province’s first tier,” Wu Zhiling said.
New advantages come from Huangshi’s innovation-driven industrial upgrading, enhancing industrial capacity, momentum, and efficiency.
As one of China’s four major copper smelting and deep-processing bases, Huangshi’s copper industry holds significant weight in the province. In the next five years, this copper thread is expected to lead to a computing power industry cluster.
Aiming to build a “central China computing power industry cluster,” the city is promoting chain development from “copper deep processing to copper-based new materials to AI computing power boards to smart terminals,” creating the country’s most complete computing power PCB supply chain and driving clusters of smartphones, tablets, wearables, and other terminal products.
The second leap is in steel.
Over the next five years, Huangshi will push to transform from “the province’s key steel base” to “the largest special steel new materials base in central China.” Relying on Daye Special Steel’s national key laboratory for advanced special steel, the city is driving chain development from “smelting to special steel to high-end manufacturing,” enabling key equipment in aerospace, deep-sea exploration, and high-speed rail bearings to be domestically produced, aiming to become a national base for high-end special steel new materials.
While copper and steel represent an explosion of accumulated energy from traditional industries, the leap in new energy and intelligent connected vehicles shows Huangshi using “new forces” to strengthen “new strengths,” moving from a “new track” to the “main track.”
In April this year, the 100,000th Weipai Gaoshan MPV rolled off the line at Great Wall Motors’ Daye base. Huangshi, once a maker of auto parts, can now produce high-end luxury MPVs.
Currently, the city is leaping from “new energy vehicles” to a “key unmanned equipment base in central China.” Leveraging intelligent connected vehicle test zones and national hydrogen energy pilot areas, it is developing key components like new energy battery materials, motors and electronic controls, smart cockpits, and lightweight chassis, building a diverse product system including new energy passenger cars, commercial vehicles, logistics vehicles, and hydrogen mining trucks, aiming to become a new force in unmanned equipment in central China.
What underpins this leap?
What gives Huangshi the confidence to reshape its industrial strength?
Look at investment. In 2025, private investment in the city grew 6.5% year-on-year, ranking second in the province. In the first quarter of this year, private investment and industrial technology renovation investment growth ranked second and third in the province, respectively.
“We don’t just pick whatever is available; we carefully select the best,” said Cheng Yanmin, Party Secretary and Director of the Huangshi Development and Reform Commission. Huangshi focuses on precision investment in ten key industrial chains, including high-end equipment, optoelectronics, and new energy and intelligent connected vehicles, promoting 100 projects worth over 5 billion yuan each, such as Honghe Electronics and Xingang Heavy Science.
Leading enterprises provide momentum. Yu Wenhua
