A researcher works in a lab in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/cnnb.com.cn]

Eighteen companies from Ningbo were recently listed among China's sixth batch of manufacturing enterprises with the highest share in their niche markets in the nation.

A total of 118 enterprises from across the country made the list which was released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Sunny Optical Technology (Group) Co Ltd, a company engaged in the design, manufacturing, and sales of optical devices, is among the newcomers.

Headquartered in Yuyao county, Ningbo, the company's main products include lens modules, camera modules, photoelectric vision products, and microscopic, analytical and surveying instruments.

Besides being a dominant force in the global cell phone lens market, the company is also considered a trailblazer in fields like new energy vehicles and industrial robots.

Ningbo is currently home to 63 such "manufacturing champions", more than any other city in the nation. The city is aiming to increase this figure to 100 by 2025.

The city has also set the goal of making breakthroughs in more than 100 core technologies and developing more than 1,000 key new products annually by the end of 2022.