When presiding over a symposium on promoting the rise of the central region in the new era and delivering an important speech, General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that efforts should be made to write a new chapter in the rise of the central region in Chinese-style modernization drive--

Strong energy engines empower the rise of central China

From March 18 to 21, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Hunan Province, presided over a symposium on promoting the rise of the central region in the new era and delivered an important speech. General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that the central region is China's important grain production base, energy and raw material base, modern equipment manufacturing and high-tech industrial base, and comprehensive transportation hub, and plays a pivotal position in the country. We must consistently implement a series of policies and measures taken by the Party Central Committee to promote the rise of the central region, form a joint force to promote high-quality development, and strive to write a new chapter in the rise of the central region in Chinese-style modernization.

In the central hinterland, the six provinces of Shanxi, Anhui, Jiangxi, Henan, Hubei, and Hunan connect the east and the west, connecting the south to the north, gathering about 1/10 of the country's land and nearly 1/3 of the population, and contributing 1/5 of the country's total economy., important. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, under the personal planning, deployment, and promotion of General Secretary Xi Jinping, the high-quality rise of the central region has outlined a picture of overall stable economy, continuous enhancement of innovative development momentum, significant improvement of the industrial foundation, and new steps in reform and opening up. A new era of pace, comprehensive development of social undertakings, continuous improvement of people's living standards, and accelerated pace of green and low-carbon transformation.

Standing at a higher starting point and solidly promoting the rise of central China, a blueprint will become clearer. As a basic and strategic industry with large industrial scale, wide radiation and strong innovation vitality, the energy industry will resolutely shoulder its responsibilities and missions, anchor scientific and technological innovation to lead industrial innovation, actively cultivate and develop new productive forces, and contribute to the economic and social development of the central region."refueling","fueling","charging" and "empowering", and use the energy engine to strongly empower the rise of the central region.

The "talents" of a great country move towards "new"

Hunan Xiangjiang New District, new energy industries are booming. On the afternoon of March 18, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected BASF Shanshan Battery Materials Co., Ltd. to learn about the local situation of accelerating the development of new productive forces and expanding high-level opening up to the outside world.

▲图为巴斯夫杉杉技术中心测试员正在测试电池性能。巴斯夫杉杉/供图

"When I welcomed the General Secretary, I was nervous and excited, but during the conversation, the tension disappeared unknowingly and I felt extremely cordial." When describing the scene to a reporter from China Energy News, Peng Wenjie, chief operating and chief technology officer of BASF Shanshan, couldn't hide his excitement."During the visit, the General Secretary showed a strong interest in our newly launched products and some specific applications. Interested and asked us for details."

Peng Wenjie said that as one of the world's leading manufacturers of battery cathode materials, BASF Shanshan will continue to maintain high-intensity R & D investment, strengthen R & D technical equipment, implement high-quality and efficient innovation activities, introduce new products in product technology, and accelerate the layout. Quality productivity, make the sustainable closed-loop industrial chain bigger and stronger, promote high-end, intelligent and green development of the industry, and "live up to the General Secretary's earnest instructions."

Riding on the development of the new energy industry, Hunan's lithium battery materials industry continues to grow in scale. In 2023, the output value of the Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan region alone will exceed 180 billion yuan, forming a complete industrial chain from precursors, cathode materials, cathode materials, separators, electrolytes, batteries, systems to the recycling of used power batteries, and four of the world's top 50 companies have settled here.

On the bank of thousands of lakes, in the High-tech Zone of Jingmen City, Hubei Province, lithium battery companies are next to each other. Twelve years ago, Yiwei Lithium Energy settled in Jingmen, Hubei Province. In the past 12 years, it has expanded to 11 factories and 17 factories, with a production capacity exceeding 152 GWh. Under the guidance of chain owner Yiwei Lithium Energy, a large number of leading companies in the lithium battery industry chain, such as Enjie, Kodali, and Xinzhoubang, have successively invested and built factories here.

The materials industry is the basic industry of the national economy. New materials are the forerunner of the development of the materials industry and an important strategic emerging industry. Whether the materials industry is developing well or not and whether its support capabilities are strong directly determine China's international competitiveness in the new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation.

In the vast land of Sanjin, coal has transformed into a "generalist". It is not only used for power generation, but also chemically processed, but can also produce natural gas, methanol, olefins, polyethylene... and finally transformed into textiles, leather, degradable plastics, etc., experiencing a magnificent transformation from raw materials, materials, and end products.

China Coal Pingshuo Coal-to-Olefins Major Project is the largest modern coal chemical project in Shanxi Province. It uses Pingshuo high-sulfur and high-ash melting point raw coal and deeply couples carbon reduction paths such as green electricity and green hydrogen to produce an annual output of 2.2 million tons of methanol per year and converts 1 million tons of coal-based olefin new material products. Liu Feng, general manager of China Coal Pingshuo Group Co., Ltd., introduced that the project undertakes a number of national innovation demonstration tasks and has important strategic significance and demonstration significance for promoting the upgrading of China's coal chemical industry, promoting energy structure optimization, ensuring energy security and regional economic development.

Equipment manufacturing is based on "intelligence"

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that based on the foundation of the real economy, we should make advanced manufacturing bigger and stronger, actively promote new industrialization, transform and upgrade traditional industries, cultivate and expand emerging industries, advance the layout and construction of future industries, and accelerate the construction of modernization supported by advanced manufacturing industries Industrial system. This points out the direction for promoting the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry in the central region.

Chinese-made C919 passenger aircraft, Chinese-made new energy vehicles, the world's largest tonnage crane, and the "Manatee" deep-sea drilling rig... In recent years, the central region has successively created a series of outstanding Chinese intelligent manufacturing business cards.

Xiatang Town, Changfeng County, Hefei City, Anhui Province, was once a "sesame seed cake town" and has now become a "automobile city" bringing together well-known companies such as BYD and China Innovation Airlines. From selling sesame seeds to making cars, Xiatang Town has seized the forefront of advanced manufacturing, jumped from traditional industries to high-end industries, and accelerated towards the goal of "100 billion manufacturing towns".

China's new energy automobile industry started early and developed rapidly. It has not only built a complete industrial chain system with strong scale capabilities, fast technology iteration, and cost competitive advantages, but also is at the forefront of the world in terms of electrification and intelligent networking. Data shows that China's new energy vehicle production and sales have ranked first in the world for nine consecutive years.

To build a world-class automobile industry cluster-Anhui is hard and confident.

In 2023, Anhui Province will establish the automobile industry as its first industry, gathering hundreds of complete vehicle companies and parts companies represented by Chery Group, Jianghuai Automobile, Hefei Chang 'an, Neilai Automobile, Hanma Technology, etc. More than 1200. Here, a new energy vehicle can be equipped with all parts within a three-hour drive.

"Anhui is our core R & D area." The relevant person in charge of Volkswagen Group (China) Co., Ltd. told the China Energy News reporter that Volkswagen has continuously strengthened local R & D capabilities in recent years, improved production efficiency, and rapidly expanded and optimized the new energy product matrix.

Zhengzhou Coal Machinery Group is the world's largest supplier of fully mechanized coal mine technology and equipment. Its smart park is a big show ground for intelligent production-23 automatic production lines, 150 robots, 7 intelligent driving vehicles, 30 AGVs, and unmanned air and ground The logistics dispatch center is at full power. With welding sparks splashing and arc flashing, on the production line, the processes of grabbing, cutting, welding, and assembling are operating in an orderly manner.

According to the relevant person in charge of Zhengzhou Coal Machinery Group, various types of machinery in the smart park are assigned corresponding parameters and instructions by the "brain", and automation, digital and intelligent equipment in the workshop account for 95%. Compared with traditional factories, the production efficiency of smart parks has more than doubled, space utilization has increased by 50%, and production costs have been reduced by more than 60%.

Equipment manufacturing demonstrates its strength, and intelligent manufacturing highlights its weight. The first phase of the "Smart Factory" production line built by Jinko Energy, the leading photovoltaic module leader, in Shangrao, Jiangxi Province, has been put into operation. According to the relevant person in charge of the company, integrated integration, large production capacity and advanced technology are the distinctive features of the "smart factory". In particular, the silicon wafer production workshop adopts the most advanced slicing equipment and technology at present, and has 22 patented slicing technologies with independent intellectual property rights.

The steel industry is an important pillar of the national economy and the "backbone" that helps build a "important weapon of a great power". In the rolling production workshop of Xiangtan Xianggang's five-meter wide and thick plate plant in Hunan Province, 20 tons of huge red-red billets go through heating, rolling, finishing and other processes in the hot heat wave and the roar of machinery, and become pieces of steel plate, used in China's deep-sea equipment. The large-scale use of these steels has allowed Asia's first deepwater jacket "Haiji-2" to firmly take root on the seabed.

Seize opportunities and plan for the future

The central region is rich in coal resources and gathers new energy industries, which has strong potential to support high-quality economic and social development.

General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized the need to further improve the level of development and utilization of coal, rare earth and other resources, enhance the ability to guarantee fossil energy such as coal, accelerate the construction of a new energy system, and focus on the complementarity and deep integration of traditional energy and new energy.

Shanxi thrives on coal and suffers from coal. The industrial pattern of "one coal dominates" has affected the high-quality and sustainable development of the economy to a certain extent. In recent years, Shanxi has taken advantage of the "Comprehensive Reform Zone" policy to focus on adjusting and optimizing the layout of major productivity and continue to promote the withdrawal of backward coal production capacity. During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, a total of 157 million tons of excess coal production capacity have been resolved. By vigorously implementing the "chain length system" of the industrial chain, focusing on cultivating "chain owners + chain cores + specialized and innovative" enterprises, the number of high-tech enterprises in Shanxi has increased from 720 at the end of the "12th Five-Year Plan" to 4155 in 2023.

Grasping projects means stabilizing growth, and grasping projects means seeking the future. Since the beginning of this year, a number of major energy projects have been invested in, started construction, and fully produced in the central region. All provinces have actively deployed and expanded investment in new energy projects, and the development of green energy transformation has accelerated.

Zhao Wenying, an expert in the energy industry, pointed out that the overall industrial structure of the central region is biased and the energy structure is biased towards coal, and the need for low-carbon and green energy transformation is more urgent. In terms of resource endowment, the scenery and scenery resources in the central region are more suitable for distributed energy construction, directly providing power supply to residential buildings, commercial buildings and public facilities. At the same time, it has rich resource conditions in renewable energy such as geothermal and biomass. "Therefore, the central region should pay more attention to the coordinated development of new energy and traditional energy sources, not only ensuring energy security, but also continuously promoting green and low-carbon transformation."

Lin Boqiang, dean of the China Energy Policy Research Institute of Xiamen University, said in an interview with a reporter from China Energy News that competition for new energy tracks is fierce around the world. The rise of the central region will undoubtedly further consolidate the competitiveness and strength of China's new energy industry and contribute to the economy. Quality growth contributes.

Regional interaction and complementary advantages to better integrate into and support the new development pattern. Shen Xiaoming, Secretary of the Hunan Provincial Party Committee and Director of the Standing Committee of the Provincial People's Congress, recently emphasized at the Hunan Provincial Conference to convey and study the spirit of the National Two Sessions that Hunan Province has taken the initiative to integrate into major national strategies, made good use of open platforms, and deepened inter-provincial cooperation and coordinated development of border areas. Develop new productive forces that highlight Hunan's characteristics according to local conditions, combine Hunan's actual conditions, give full play to Hunan's advantages, and firmly grasp the primary task of high-quality development.

The central region is also expanding new development space through open cooperation.

In 2023, Hunan's import and export to countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" will be 323.27 billion yuan, accounting for 52.4% of the total foreign trade. Trade with emerging markets such as Brazil, Russia, and Saudi Arabia continues to expand. Anhui promoted the construction of a free trade pilot zone with high quality. The province's total import and export value of goods trade was 805.22 billion yuan, an increase of 7.8%. Among them, the total exports of the "three new" products of new energy vehicles, lithium batteries, and photovoltaic products were 39.06 billion yuan, an increase of 11.6%

Grab the "spring" and start again after hard work. The energy industry is full of confidence and high morale, is ready for new momentum, seizing new opportunities, and forging ahead for the rise of the central region to a new level!

Wen| Our reporter Lu Qixiu Wang Lin