Envisioning a new-materials industrial cluster with production value of 100 billion yuan ($14.2 billion), Zhuhai is cultivating, upgrading, and modernizing the entire industrial chain, says Zhuhai Vice Mayor Yan Wu.

Yan made the comments at the opening ceremony of the 4th China International Congress on Composite Materials (CCCM-4) on Nov 28. He said new materials such as composites have enjoyed rapid development as industries in Zhuhai.

As of 2018, there were about 500 new-materials enterprises in Zhuhai, of which a hundred are above designated size. The scale of the new-materials industry reached 30 billion yuan ($4.21 billion).

Academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering looked into Jinwan District that day, contributing advice regarding the development of composite-materials and new-materials industries.

A workstation of the Zhuhai Sci-Tech Service Station, New Materials Innovation Base of the Chinese Society for Composite Materials (CSCM), Popular Science Hall, and aeronautic composite material components R&D and industrialization project will settle in Jinwan under agreements signed during the event.

Metro wagon [Photo by Zhang Zhou / Zhuhai Daily]

Themed New Composite Materials, Path to the Future, the CCCM-4 had 50 thematic academic sessions and three international sessions at the Zhuhai International Convention & Exhibition Center from Nov 28 to 30.

Around 3,000 experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives discussed new development patterns of composite materials. More than 600 speeches covering the entire industrial chain of composite materials were delivered by domestic and foreign academicians and experts.

Keynote speakers included Du Shanyi, CCCM honorary chair and professor at Harbin Institute of Technology; Michael Wisnom, director of Bristol Composites Institute and professor at the University of Bristol in England; Hou Xiao, expert from the Academy of Aerospace Solid Propulsion Technology (AASPT); and others.

Meanwhile, hundreds of domestic enterprises and a dozen scientific research institutes and State Key Laboratories attended the 3rd International Exhibition on Technological Innovations & Achievements of Composite Industry. 

Spotlighted was public debut of the world’s first carbon fiber-made metro wagon developed by CRRC. Visitors not only viewed light aircraft, boats, and kayaks made of composite materials, but also personally tried sport equipment made of composites.

Also held were a commercial spaceflight industrial forum, innovation and entrepreneurial roadshow, finals of the 4th GW Cup Chinese High Performance Composite Innovation Contest for College Students, and celebration activities of the 30th anniversary of the founding of CSCM.

The conference was hosted by CSCM with the support of the Zhuhai Municipal People's Government and Guangdong Provincial Association for Science & Technology.