Advantages for Development

Rizhao has beautiful ecological environment. There are no severe cold in winter and no intense heat in summer. Rizhao always has the good reputation of "the south in the northern area and the north in the southern area" and it is rewarded with "the Habitat Scroll of Honor Award". In particular, the golden beach continuous for 64km, clean seawater and bright sunlight have constituted the "Gold Coast" with unique charm. In 2019, with the number of tourists exceeded 45 million person-time, enabling Rizhao as the excellent tourism city in China.

The traffic location is convenient in Rizhao. As the node city of "the Belt and Road" and the port type national logistics hub city, Rizhao is separated by sea with South Korea and Japan in the east, and the most convenient marine outfall in the south Shandong and the central and western regions, and it is possible to reach Rotterdam, the Netherlands westwards directly. The city is open to navigation in over 100 counties and regions. There are two railways over 1,000km to directly arrive at the hinderland, 13 sea-railway combined transportation container trains to connect Asia and Europe, and 4 long-distance transport pipes to directly arrive at the harbor districts, with the future annual crude oil transport capacity of 100 million tons. In 2019, the cargo throughput of port reached 464 million tons, and the throughput of the Port of Rizhao ranked No. 8 of the ports in the coastal areas of China. Such high-speed railways as Rizhao-Lankao High-speed Railway and Qingdao-Yancheng Railway are built in the city, directly reaching 66 cities. The flights in the Rizhao Shanzihe Airport have been open to 20 key domestic cities like Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, with the passenger throughput over 1 million person-time.

The port-neighboring economy of Rizhao is prominent. Rizhao is the advanced steel manufacturing base, the industrial base of automobiles and parts, and the national marine economic development demonstration zone emphatically constructed in Shandong Province. At present, the steel production capacity of over 20 million tons has been formed, which will exceed 40 million tons in the future, enabling Rizhao as one of the regions with the most concentrated steel layout in China and even the world. The trillion-level industrial cluster will be formed for the related supporting industries of steel. The annual outputs of the automobile and parts industry include 950,000 automobiles, 1 million engines and 1.4 million automatic transmissions. The port-centered industries based on steel and supporting industries, automobile and parts, petrochemical storage, transportation and processing, pulp paper printing and packing, and cereal and oil food processing will begin to take shape. Rizhao has established close economic and trading ties with South Korea, Singapore, Japan and other counties. In 2019, the total import and export value of the whole city reached RMB 105.2 billion, ranking No. 53 of the Top 100 foreign trade cities in China.

Key industries

Automobile and parts industry

Rizhao is the automobile industry base emphatically constructed in the whole province for the medium- and long-term development planning of the automobile industry. In 2019, the output value of the automobile and parts industry in the city completed was RMB 31.02 billion. So far, there are 4 vehicle manufacturers in Rizhao, including Feidie Automobile of Wuzheng Group, Haihui New Energy Automobile, ZXAUTO and Great Wall Automobile, and over 300 enterprises related to vehicles and parts. The industrial system of automobiles and parts with the production capacity of such vehicles as passenger vehicles, light trucks, pickup trucks, agricultural vehicles and special vehicles as well as WIA engines and Powertech gearboxes as the core has been formed, with the production capacity of such key products as 950,000 vehicles, 1 million engines, 1.55 million gearboxes, 12.5 million sets of axles and 1,200 sets of moulds.

Steel industry

With high steel concentration ratio, there are two leading iron and steel enterprises, i.e. SD Steel-Rizhao and Rizhao Steel in Rizhao, with the capacity over 20 million tons. Next, according to the Advanced Iron and Steel Manufacturing Industry Base Development Plan of Shandong Province (2018-2025) (LZZ [2018] No. 242), Rizhao will be mainly constructed to the advanced steel manufacturing base in Shandong Province. The steel production capacity will reach 40 million tons till 2025, and Rizhao will become the core area and leading area for transformation and upgrading of the steel industry in the whole province.

Bio-pharmaceutical industry

The bioindustry in Rizhao is growing and expanding, and the enterprise scale and technical level have been largely improved. A batch of leading enterprise groups famous in China and even the world has emerged. At present, there are over 20 biotechnology enterprises in the whole city, and the multi-directional integrated industry with complete categories has been formed, including seaweed chemical industry, medical pharmacy, biological fermentation, and Chinese medicine modernization. Main products include sodium alginate and printing and dyeing auxiliary, mannitol, iodine, fucoidan from fucus vesiculosus, chitosan oligosaccharide, medical agents for injection, citric acid series products, xanthan gum, chondroitin sulfate, human menopausal gonadotropin (HMG), human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), and drug release intravascular stents (under study). The area of traditional chinese medicinal materials reaches 60,000 mu, and the annual outputs of Scutellaria baicalensis, dry Salvia miltiorrhiza products and other products are respectively 12,000t, 9,000t and 1,200t, realizing the annual value of production over RMB 1.5 billion and the profit and tax of RMB 300 million. Over 10 key enterprises have good industrial base, including Shandong Jiejing Group Co., Ltd., Rizhao Luxin Jinhe Biochemical Co., Ltd., Rizhao Topscience Biotechnology Co., Ltd., Shandong Changfu Jiejing Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., and Shandong Kaison Biochemical Co., Ltd., with fast growth and relatively strong driving force. They have become the key enterprises in the bio-pharmaceutical industry in the city.

Modern agriculture

Rizhao is the important traditional agricultural city, and the agricultural science and technology extension service system has been preliminarily established. There are over 10 agricultural research units including academy of agricultural sciences, scientific research institute of tea, scientific research institute of forests, research institute of grapes and research institute of edible mushrooms, and the number of all-level agricultural scientists has exceeded 1,000. However, the agricultural technique level in the city is relatively low as a whole, and the research and development of the high and new technology of modern agriculture are insufficient. With the constant growth of the socialistic new rural construction, such generic technologies as improved agricultural varieties, intensive processing of agricultural products, and safety of agricultural products will be researched and developed deeply in the whole city, and the improved variety projects will be implemented vigorously to improve the level of agricultural facilities and intensification. The research and applications will be carried out for the biological prevention and control of main plant diseases and insect pests, prevention and control of major epidemics of animals, protection and efficient utilization of agricultural biological resources, agricultural ecological environment improvement and other technologies to improve the sustainable innovation ability of agricultural science.

New energy

Recently, the R&D, promotion and application of the solar energy and related industrial technologies have been advanced with efforts in Rizhao. The R&D and utilization of solar water heaters, the development of the photovoltaic cell series products, and the power generation by straws have been progressed to some extent. There are over 20 relevant enterprises. Shandong Haoming Solar Energy Industry Co., Ltd. has developed the solar water heaters and solar energy heat collection project installation. For the produced Jihao and Haoming series solar water heaters, the company has established sales network in the whole country, and installed over 10,000 heat collection projects. For the high efficiency crystalline silicon solar cells, solar LED street lamps, etc. developed by Rizhao Dilaite Opto-electronics Industry Development Co., Ltd., the solar energy is used as the source, and the large-power LED is taken as the light source without burying the cables, which are economic and environmental. Rizhao Dinghong Electronics Co., Ltd. has also explored and developed the utilization of new amorphous silicon solar energy.

Electronic information

In 2008, there were 31 enterprises above designated size in the whole industry, realizing the main business income of RMB 2.8 billion, the profit of RMB 140 million, and the tax of RMB 40 million, respectively accounting for 1.9%, 1.3% and 1% of the industrial enterprises above designated size in the city.     Among them, the main business income of the software industry reached RMB 65.78 million, with an increase of 52%, and the total quantity ranked No. 7 in the whole province. There is respectively one provincial software service outsourcing demonstration base, one provincial electronic information industrial park and one provincial software park in the city. The products include multiple categories, such as dedicated telephones, electron components, lead-acid batteries and electronics manufacturing. There are over 40 enterprises engaged in the software development in the city, with over 500 employees, forming the benign industrial pattern for the interactive development of embedded software, application software, digital animation and game industry, software outsourcing, etc.

Industry of fine chemicals

With relatively obvious advantages and features of the chemical industry in Rizhao, such superior products as plastics, organosilicone, rubber tires and rubber latex have been developed mainly in recent years, and a batch of key enterprises with large scale, relatively strong market competitiveness and relatively high technological content of products, such as Rizhao Jinma Chemical Co., Ltd., Rizhao Lanxing Chemical Industry Co., Ltd., Shandong Chenxi Group Co., Ltd., Shandong Jiejing Group Co., Ltd. and Shandong Zhongtai Sunshine Electrical Technology Co., Ltd., have been cultivated. Such provincial engineering research centers as Shandong Synthetic Latex Engineering Technology Research Center, and Shandong Seaweed Processing Engineering Technology Research Center have been established, forming the influential fine chemical industry base in China.

Shipbuilding and equipment manufacturing

In recent years, the project expansion of Huahai Ship Industry has been promoted in Rizhao, and the Kuishanzui Ship Repair and Manufacturing Base has been planned and constructed. The priority has been given to building the repair and manufacturing docks over 100,000 tonners, the container vessels, oil tankers, bulk cargo ships, refrigerator ships, ocean-going fishing vessels, yachts and speed boats have been developed preferentially, and the ship repair and refitting have been vigorously developed, forming the industrial system based on ship manufacturing with auxiliary ship repair and relatively strong supporting ability.

Advanced manufacturing industry

Automobiles and parts manufacturing. There are over 200 enterprises in the automobile industry of the city, with 35,000 employees, including 113 enterprises above designated size, and the total assets amount to RMB 7.6 billion.  The industry is mainly distributed in Wulian County, Rizhao Economic-Technological Development Area and Donggang District from territory. The enterprise aggregation is relatively high, and the automobile industry with division of responsibilities and close cooperation has been formed. In particular, three-wheeled automobiles, low-speed trucks and other series agricultural vehicles have been advantageous to some extent, forming the Wuzheng automobile industry chain led by Shandong Wuzheng Group and with such spare parts manufacturers as Shandong Aoyou Automobile Parts, Shandong Shunda Machinery and Rizhao Xuri Automobile Ornaments Group as the backbone.