Special Coverage
Toronto-based The Globe and Mail published an article on July 23, "Made in China takes on whole new meaning", introducing the new face of Chinese manufacturing by taking Celestica at Suhong Road in Suzhou Industrial Park as an example. "Work boots aren't required at this factory. Shoe coverings are," observed Andy Hoffman the reporter at the beginning of the article. "Before entering Celestica Inc.'s electronics manufacturing facility in Suzhou, about 110 kilometers west of Shanghai, visitors must step onto a machine that encases their feet in plastic. The light blue booties keep street dirt and dust from contaminating the sophisticated telecommunications and medical equipment the Canadian company produces here.
After 17 years of continuous development, Suzhou Industrial Park has witnessed the gradual shaping of hi-tech industrial clusters consisting of electronic information, machinery manufacturing, bio-medicine, and new materials. The total industrial output in SIP increased from 3.586 billion yuan in 1994 to 150 billion in 2004 and nearly 300 billion in 2008, registering 80 times growth in 14 years. During the first nine months this year, the SIP expected a year-on-year growth of 19% to 31.5 billion yuan, among which that of rising sectors totals at 150.46 billion yuan, growing by 29.4%, contributing 52.8% to large-scale industrial output, and continuously leading in the city.
Founded in December 1994, Samsung Electronics (Suzhou) Semiconductor (SESS) is the first foreign enterprise registered in SIP and has undergone rapid growth since then. Its first production line started running in 1996, producing such low-end product as TR DIP. The third line introduced in 2003 marks a milestone change to producing the company's core products including DRAM and Flash. Now the SESS is one of the two manufacturers in the world capable of producing 46-nanometer DDR3 memory. The SESS is not the only one in Suzhou Industrial Park realizing product upgrade and achieving rapid growth in recent years. Rogers Technologies opened its sixth plant in SIP in this April. The new production facility of the world leader in R&D and production of special materials targets at the rising 3G sector and aims to secure its leading position during the upcoming 4G era by producing high-quality special materials for 3G/4G communication base station, RF antenna, and satellite receiver.
Efficiency is the core of all economic activities and product is the ultimate carrier of efficiency. To survive the intense competition, the manufacturers have to keep increasing the competitiveness of their products through innovation. This is also the case of SIP companies in managing to become industrial leaders through product upgrading. Taking Samsung Electronics (Suzhou) Semiconductor as an example, its R&D strength makes it possible to upgrade memory module from DDR2 to DDR3. Samsung Semiconductor (China) Institute is the only overseas research facility of the Group and its IC packaging technology R&D center based in SIP helps it move up the value chain.
During the initial stage of its development and construction, Suzhou Industrial Park experienced the development pattern of attracting investment with local resources, including attractive land and labor cost and preferential policies. As a result, many multinational companies moved their labor-intensive production bases to SIP contributed to its rapid growth. The land resource, however, is not inexhaustible and SIP authorities faced the inevitable rise of business cost and the challenge of preferential policies offered by other development zones in the country. The strategy that SIP government adopted is to become a competitor in medium- and high-end sectors and to build industrial clusters.
Suzhou Industrial Park Administrative Committee.2004 Copyright. All rights reserved
