Guangdong Province stands as a cornerstone of China's manufacturing industry, contributing approximately one-eighth of the nation's total industrial scale and encompassing all 31 major manufacturing categories. In recent years, Guangdong has prioritized the real economy and manufacturing, accelerating the development of a robust manufacturing and high-quality province, thereby establishing a pillar for the modern industrial system. To date, Guangdong boasts 9 trillion-yuan industrial clusters, 3 500 billion-yuan industrial clusters, and 7 100 billion-yuan industrial clusters.

Table: Overview of Guangdong Province's Industrial Clusters

Source: Firestone Creation, compiled based on public information

01

Advanced Manufacturing Development Plan

Guangdong Province's manufacturing planning policy aims to foster a "strong manufacturing province" through a comprehensive approach that includes legislative guarantees, optimized industrial layout, innovation drive, and financial support. This strategy promotes the high-end, intelligent, and green development of the manufacturing industry.

In 2021, the "14th Five-Year Plan for High-Quality Development of Guangdong's Manufacturing Industry" outlined four key development orientations: establishing a world-class advanced manufacturing base, a significant global hub for manufacturing innovation, a pioneer in high-level open manufacturing cooperation, and a premier environment for internationally first-class manufacturing development. In 2023, the "22 Policies for Manufacturing as the Core Industry" was released as a programmatic document for the new era, providing an overall "roadmap" and "construction plan" for Guangdong's manufacturing industry. The following year, the "Regulations on Promoting High-Quality Development of Guangdong's Manufacturing Industry" were issued and implemented, marking the country's first special legislation to promote high-quality manufacturing development, providing a legal basis and institutional guarantee for enhancing the core industry's advantages.

Table: Guangdong Province's Advanced Manufacturing Development Plan

Source: Firestone Creation Industrial Data Center

02

Advanced Manufacturing Clusters

Currently, Guangdong Province boasts 8 national advanced manufacturing clusters, 5 of which span multiple cities. Below is a summary of the key areas and leading enterprises involved in these clusters, compiled by Firestone Creation based on the industrial data center:

Table: Guangdong Province's Advanced Manufacturing Clusters

Source: Firestone Creation Industrial Data Center

The Pearl River Delta serves as a national hub for the electronic information industry, which has further nurtured clusters in new-generation information and communication, intelligent terminals, and ultra-high-definition displays. In terms of participation, Guangdong's advanced manufacturing clusters are primarily concentrated in cities such as Shenzhen, Guangzhou, Foshan, and Dongguan. Among them, 5 clusters involve Shenzhen, with 2 independently built by the city: the new-generation information and communication cluster and the advanced battery material cluster. There are 4 clusters involving Guangzhou, Foshan, and Dongguan, with the intelligent mobile terminal cluster unique to Dongguan.

03

Cluster Introduction

Consider the Guangzhou-Shenzhen-Foshan-Huizhou-Dongguan intelligent and connected new energy vehicle cluster, jointly built by Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan, Huizhou, and Zhongshan.

With the development strategy of "three verticals (passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles, public vehicles), three horizontals (electric vehicles, driverless vehicles, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles), and three cores (core technology, core resources, core platforms)", this cluster encompasses vehicle manufacturers, power battery producers, autonomous driving technology firms, key suppliers like sensor manufacturers, innovation platforms, network technology service providers, and third-party industry organizations, forming a comprehensive industrial chain. In 2023, the cluster produced over 5 million vehicles, accounting for 96% of Guangdong's total output and 16.6% of the national total. Notably, new energy vehicle production reached nearly 2.4 million, comprising 25% of the national total.

The six cities compete orderly within the industrial chain and develop with differentiated positioning, actively fostering a robust enterprise hierarchy and industrial ecosystem.

Table: Key Development Areas of the Six Cities

Source: Firestone Creation Industrial Data Center

According to the Firestone Creation Industrial Data Center, the cluster boasts over 4,000 above-scale enterprises in the automotive manufacturing industry, gathering leading firms such as BYD, GAC Trumpchi, XPeng Motors, Dongfeng Nissan, and FAW-Volkswagen, alongside advantageous intelligent and connected new energy automotive parts enterprises like Huawei, Desay SV Automotive, Foryou Corporation, EVE Energy, and Sunwoda. It also features over 200 specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprises and nearly 30 manufacturing single-champion enterprises.

△Intelligent and Connected Vehicle Industry Chain Map

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Author | Weng Jianping, Firestone Creation

Review | Yin Li, Firestone Creation