Wenxi: Industrial Transformation Creates Clusters for Steel, Magnesium Metal, and Glass


  Wenxi’s industrial sector took root in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Over more than half a century of ups and downs, the county has steadily grown into a economically robust region where industries such as steel, metallic magnesium, glassware, chemicals, and building materials dominate the industrial economy. In recent years, guided by the provincial Party Committee’s overarching guiding principle of “Four Priorities, Four Highs, and Two Synchronizations” and closely aligned with the municipal Party Committee’s key approach to economic work—“Five Focus Areas, One Optimization, and One Promotion”—Wenxi’s industry has focused on breaking through conventional constraints, pursuing iterative upgrades, and achieving smooth transformation and upgrading, thereby entering a fast track of development.

  How can industrial development remain vibrant and sustainable? Today, the CPC Wenxi County Committee and the Wenxi County People’s Government are conducting a scientific assessment of the situation, keeping pace with the times, and comprehensively considering the county’s resource endowment, environmental conditions, locational advantages, and industrial foundation. In accordance with the inherent laws governing regional economic and industrial development, they are deepening structural adjustments, intensifying integration efforts, expanding the scale of industries, and vigorously fostering distinctive industrial clusters.

  — Building a steel industry cluster worth hundreds of billions. Leveraging Shanxi Jianlong, we will implement six key initiatives—equipment upgrading, lean management, green development, industrial clustering, innovation and intelligentization, and service extension—adopting cutting-edge technologies in the steel industry to elevate the company’s technological and equipment standards, extend the industrial value chain, and foster the development of industries such as bar, plate, and steel pipe production as well as component processing and manufacturing. Through these efforts, we will advance the Jianlong hundred-billion-yuan steel industry project, establish a steel industry sector of hundred-billion-scale during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, and build a high-quality steel production base in central and western China.

  —Building a ten-billion-yuan-level metallic magnesium industry cluster. Adhering to the development approach of “total volume control, extended processing, and transformation and upgrading,” we will focus on high-value-added processing, integrate resources, pursue scaled operations, drive technological innovation, and build strong brands. Our goal is to achieve world-class excellence in the deep processing and manufacturing of magnesium-aluminum alloys, as well as optimal R&D and application of magnesium-aluminum alloy products. We will accelerate the establishment of a national key laboratory for new magnesium–aluminum materials, expedite technological innovation and the commercialization of research outcomes in the magnesium–aluminum industry, and establish a national-level base for the deep processing of magnesium–aluminum alloys.

  —Building a glass industry cluster with annual sales of RMB 5 billion. Adhering to the principles of “overall expansion, industrial clustering, transformation and upgrading, and sophisticated processing,” we will leverage the West City Glass Cultural and Creative Park as a platform to harness agglomeration effects and drive regional development, actively explore both domestic and international markets, accelerate process innovation and technological upgrades, prioritize the modernization of glass production-line equipment and the development of new products, and expedite the construction of a demonstration base for the production and processing of traditional craft glass. Our goal is to achieve RMB 5 billion in sales revenue by 2025 and establish the region as a nationally renowned hub for the manufacturing and processing of glass products.