Xiushan Tujia and Miao Autonomous County · Industrial Robot Technology Services

Xiushan, together with Huayuan in Hunan and Songtao in Guizhou, forms the "Manganese Triangle," and its industrialization history is essentially a history of manganese. In 1973, small-scale mining of near-surface manganese dioxide for dry-cell batteries began locally. Formal mining started in the early 1980s with the Sanjiaotan electrolytic manganese metal plant, built at a scale of 1,000 tons — then Xiushan's largest industrial enterprise. An experimental product of trimanganese tetroxide appeared in 1998, but as late as 2000 electrolytic manganese metal capacity was still only 3,000 tons, with ore mostly shipped to Hunan for processing and more than 20 million yuan in tax revenue lost each year. After 2001 the manganese industry expanded rapidly: in 2005 manganese ore output reached 1.3 million tons and designed electrolytic manganese metal capacity stood at 190,000 tons; that year manganese industrial enterprises delivered gross industrial output value of 1.6 billion yuan — over 65% of the total — and paid 170 million yuan in taxes and fees, 66% of local fiscal revenue. By the end of the 11th Five-Year Plan, manganese-related industrial output exceeded 5 billion yuan, more than 70% of the total. The cost was environmental: disordered early mining and extensive production caused serious resource waste, water pollution and emissions exceeding standards. In 2011, 83 manganese powder processing plants were shut down; in 2015, 11 electrolytic manganese lines below 10,000 tons were phased out; by the end of December 2021, 29 manganese mining enterprises and 19 electrolytic manganese producers had fully exited, with a cumulative 2.3 billion yuan invested in comprehensive manganese pollution treatment. Industry then pivoted to three 10-billion-yuan-class sectors — new materials, electronic information and biopharmaceuticals — and four 5-billion-yuan-class sectors: light textiles and apparel, food processing, e-commerce logistics and cultural products.

In 2024, Xiushan's GDP reached 44.726 billion yuan, up 5.1%, with a three-sector structure of 8.2:30.2:61.6. Industrial value added was 8.455 billion yuan, up 3.8%; above-scale industrial value added grew 3.1%, while gross above-scale industrial output value fell 3.9% — structural adjustment following the manganese exit is still underway. By industry: mining fell 37.5%, manufacturing 3.5%, and electricity, heat, gas and water production and supply 4.3%. By major sector: pharmaceuticals grew 19.1%, electronics 4.3%, consumer goods fell 11.9%, materials 5.0%, and energy 6.0%; the industrial sales ratio was 97.8%. Strategic emerging industries completed gross output value of 4.033 billion yuan, up 15.0% — one of the few bright spots. Construction value added was 5.16 billion yuan, down 1.8%. On platforms, the industrial park's sector concentration reached 94%; it was named a municipal-level characteristic industry (TCM) base and a leisure food industrial park; the logistics park won approval as a national demonstration logistics park and national e-commerce demonstration base; and the agricultural park became a national demonstration park for integrated rural industrial development. In 2023, Xiushan added 8 above-scale industrial enterprises and had 52 enterprises with output value above 100 million yuan — both first in southeastern Chongqing. Output value of new materials, biopharmaceuticals, electronic information and auto parts grew 26.2%, 10%, 14.1% and 33.9% respectively; the high-tech zone hosts 116 industrial enterprises and over 13,000 industrial workers.

Xiushan's automation applications center on process automation in pharmaceuticals and food; industrial robots are rarely documented in public sources. In pharmaceuticals, Chongqing Hongri Kangrentang Pharmaceutical's smart factory workshop for TCM formula granules integrates production control, optimization, scheduling, management and operations, with a comprehensive design covering smart equipment, automated control and online quality inspection; it obtained a drug production license in July 2020 and passed the municipal drug regulator's on-site inspection with "zero defects." Chongqing Haiwang Bioengineering built an advanced-process production line for TCM extraction and pretreatment and was listed among Chongqing's smart factories in 2020. In food, the fully automatic bakery workshop of Chongqing Qifenxiang Industrial Co., Ltd. and the fully automatic beverage workshop of Chongqing Qixiu Food & Beverage Co., Ltd. were both recognized as Chongqing digital workshops; the former introduced bread-making processes and equipment from Denmark. In addition, electronics enterprises such as Maisike Electronics rely mainly on SMT placement and automatic inspection equipment. Patent TCM medicines are among the faster-growing local products by output. Note: there is no publicly available authoritative figure for Xiushan County's installed industrial robot base, annual new installations, or robot density (units per 10,000 industrial workers) — all three to be verified; confirmable stock indicators are 1 municipal-level smart factory and 2 municipal-level digital workshops (2020 figures, with no updated statistics since).