In spite of the
growing importance of services, industrial firms
remain the pillar of the Shanghai economy. This
was shown by the city's 2004 listing of its top
100 enterprises; nine of the top 10 firms were
primarily manufacturing-oriented, with Lianhua
Supermarket Co Ltd the only exception.
Within the manufacturing sector, however,
emphasis is gradually shifting to high-end
products, with the "new materials" and flat-panel
display industries earmarked for accelerated
development in the next five years.
The
listing of the top 100 enterprises for 2004, in
terms of "comprehensive strength", was led by
steelmaker Baoshan Iron and Steel Co Ltd. The
company ranked first with sales revenue of
58.638
billion yuan (US$7.25 billion), 15.281 billion
yuan higher than the second-place firm. The sales
revenue of Baosteel was 33.877 billion yuan in
2002. It grew 30.3% year-on-year in 2003 and 32.8%
in 2004.
The enterprises in second to 10th
place on the list were, in order, Tech-Front
(Shanghai) Computer Co Ltd, Shanghai General Motor
Co Ltd, Shanghai Volkswagen Automobile Co Ltd,
Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical Co Ltd, Shanghai
Municipal Power Company, Lianhua Supermarket Co
Ltd, China Petrochemical Co Ltd, Shanghai Gaoqiao
Subcompany, Tech-Com (Shanghai) Computer Co Ltd
and Shanghai Tobacco (Group) Company.
Shanghai Municipal Statistical Bureau and
the Shanghai Modern Statistical Industrial
Development Center have, in line with
international practices, worked out the ranking
according to the sales revenue of enterprises,
covering the industrial, hotel, construction and
chain store sectors.
Compared with 2003,
the major economic indices of the top 100
enterprises in 2004 have increased: their combined
sales revenue reached 741.834 billion yuan, up
5.9% from the 700.671 billion yuan in 2003; and
the sales revenue required to make the list was
1.677 billion yuan, 4.7% more than the 1.602
billion yuan needed in 2003.
Of the top
100 enterprises, 19 saw their sales revenue exceed
10 billion yuan each, three more than in 2003;
seven saw it exceed 30 billion yuan; and two
exceeded 50 billion yuan. One conclusion of the
2004 rankings is that industrial production
remains the main force driving economic
development in Shanghai.
'New
materials' prioritized Shanghai will give
priority to the development of the new materials
industry during the 2006-2010 period, and build
innovation, production and export bases for the
sector.
According to information released
at the 2005 Shanghai forum on international
development trends for new materials, the Shanghai
Municipal Economic Commission has set a target
that by 2010 the city's new materials industry
will realize annual sales income of 100 billion to
120 billion yuan. This includes 45% for organic
new materials, 40% for metal new materials, 10%
for new building materials, 3% for inorganic new
materials and 2% for compound materials.
Shanghai has taken the lead in the
research, development, production and application
of new materials in the country in recent years,
and formed new systems for multidisciplinary
interwoven technologies in the fields of metals,
ceramics and high-polymer materials. The
development of new metal materials,
high-performance plastics, special rubber and
differential chemical fibers has been the
mainstream of the city's new materials industry.
According to the commission, the total
output value of the new materials industry in
Shanghai is set to reach 60 billion yuan in 2005.
The industry is forecast to see profits of 10
billion yuan ($1.2 billion) and direct exports of
$1 billion in 2010.
Nationally, industry
experts said that the new materials industry would
develop at a high growth rate during the 2006-2010
period, with the overall national new materials
market expected to reach 650 billion yuan by 2010.
$6 billion for flat panel display
industry In early November 2005, Shanghai
announced the establishment of its Panel Display
Industry Base, as China's financial hub began its
campaign to invest $6 billion to develop its thin
film transistor-liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD)
industry over the next five years.
The
panel display industry will be developed as a new
pillar industry of the metropolis. LCDs are mainly
used for mobile phone, computer and flat-panel TV
screens, and their manufacture is considered a
high-added-value industry. The flat-panel TV
market has grown explosively in China this year,
with domestic sales surging 200% year-on-year.
Within the flat-panel TV market, sales of LCD TVs
have skyrocketed by more than 400% year-on-year.
As the international manufacturing sector
shifts to mainland China, a large number of
downstream LCD complete set assembly plants and
main component assembly plants have clustered in
the country, especially in the Yangtze River delta
region. However, the production of LCD panels
still relies on imports, and the
technology-intensive upstream glass base plate
enterprises are fully controlled by foreign
giants, with no plants in China yet.
Two
years ago, Shanghai set up China's first
fifth-generation TFT-LCD production line, and the
production line controlled by the Shanghai SVA
Group was put into full production at the Shanghai
SVA-NEC Liquid Crystal Display Co Ltd, a joint
venture between SVA and Japan's NEC, in September
2005. The group's sales of 15-inch LCD screens
surpassed 720,000 units in October, seizing a 40%
share of the global market, ranking first in the
world.
The Panel Display Industry Base,
sited in the Xinzhuang Industrial Park of
Shanghai, plans to cover an area of 2.2 square
kilometers. With Shanghai SVA Group as the core
tenant, the base will oversee the setting up of an
LCD research institute; upstream enterprises
engaging in glass baseplate, color filtering film
and special chemical material manufacturing; two
LCD production lines of above fifth-generation
level; and downstream enterprises assembling LCD
TVs, LCD monitors and notebook PCs.
Total
investment in the base will be no less than $6
billion, of which $2.5 billion will come from
overseas businesses. The base is expected to reach
an industrial scale of more than $10 billion by
2010.
