Pingyao manufacturing companies go global

The value of Pingyao county's foreign trade hit 363.1 million yuan ($51.54 million) in 2018 with a growth rate of 113.20 percent on the previous year, ranking among the top counties under the administration of Jinzhong city. 

Exports totaled 245.48 million yuan and the imports came in at 117.53 million yuan last year. 

In recent years Pingyao county – where nine international trading companies are based – has been implementing an industrial transformation and upgrade strategy. Local officials say this has laid a solid foundation for more local enterprises, especially those in the manufacturing sector, to go global. 

Shanxi Liangyu Carbon Co, a small workshop founded in 1979, has developed into the world's largest manufacturer of cathode carbon for aluminum with an annual output value of over 1 billion yuan, officials said. Its operations involve integrating the business of intelligent production, scientific research and construction, as well as the installation of associated electrolyzers.  

The company's machining workshop – where cathode carbon blocks for aluminum are produced, targeting global major aluminum companies – harnesses new technology efficiently. There are less than 30 workers in more than 8,000 square meters of workshop area, because the workshop is equipped with 200 automatic production machines with an automation rate exceeding 98 percent. 

Apart from its transformation of traditional manufacturing through automation, the company has strong industrial and technological support. It boasts membership of several national carbon industry associations, has a research center for aluminum cathode carbon engineering and owns over 20 national patents.

As a result, Shanxi Liangyu Carbon Co posted a turnover of 528 million yuan last year and tax revenue of 270.72 million yuan, and earned exported foreign exchange of more than $12 million in 2018.