Xinhua Insight: China's emerging industries work to increase capacity amid economic shift

As many Chinese companies tackle excess capacity, one high-tech company in the southwestern city of Chongqing is facing the opposite problem.

Chongqing Zisun Technology Corp. Ltd. has been producing at full capacity but is still under pressure to meet deadlines as it has received more orders for August, said Shu Zhan, a media officer from the company.

The company specializes in manufacturing "glass microfiber paper," which is used for filters in clean and energy-saving fields. Glass microfiber filters are produced using a process similar to paper production.

The filters have exceptional dust-holding capacity and offer the highest efficiency with minimal air flow resistance.

The economic growth rate of the city of Chongqing has led the nation for nine consecutive quarters, thanks to thriving new industry pioneers such as Zisun.

Since 2014, the city has prioritized development of ten new industries including robots, new materials, and new energy vehicles to inject new vitality into the economy.

"In 2003, there was only one company in Chongqing whose annual sales revenue exceeded 10 billion yuan, and it is now the indebted Chongqing Iron and Steel Company," said Guo Jian, director of the Chongqing Economic and Information Commission.

"If we don't map out a new plan to encourage development of new industries, the city will only become a bigger version of the company," he said.

Zisun's annual turnover hit 200 million yuan last year. When it started in 2007, it was less than 1 million.

The overall output of Chongqing's new industries reached 166 billion yuan last year, up 150 percent year on year, and the figure is expected to reach 1 trillion by 2020.

On Friday, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released the country's GDP growth rate of 6.7 percent for the second quarter, slightly higher than expectations but stable from the first quarter.

As the country's economy heads for a period of steady but slower development, China must transfer its excess capacity to industries that need it, analysts say.

Take Liaoning Province for example, where problems of industrial structure have resulted in sluggish economic growth, said Zhang Wanqiang, director of the Institute of Economics, Liaoning Academy of Social Sciences.

Liaoning's GDP growth in the first quarter was negative, ranking lowest among 31 provincial-level regions on the Chinese mainland.

Equipment manufacturing, the petrochemical industry, metallurgy and agriculture products processing are four of the province's pillar industries, and all have been hit hard by downward pressure, said Zhang.

The provincial economy will linger near the bottom for some time and Liaoning needs to grasp opportunities to develop new industries while stabilizing traditional sectors to achieve recovery as soon as possible, according to Zhang.

Driven by China's emerging industries, it is expected that a "new industrial revolution" is near, said Miao Wei, Minister of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

For Chongqing's Zisun, future economic growth lies in the pieces of "glass paper."

"Now we can only produce upstream products, meaning we have to give our glass microfiber filters to other companies to be used in fields such as home appliances, medical equipment and aviation," said Zisun's Shu.

"But we have built production and operation centers in Jiangsu and Shanghai," she said. "Once our production capacity increases, we absolutely could do more." Endi