Ziyang · Industrial Robot Technology Services

Ziyang’s industry grew out of the “431” Factory. In 1965 the Ministry of Railways set up a diesel locomotive plant preparation office in Guangyuan, and in September of the same year, under Sichuan Province’s arrangements, it moved to Ziyang. Formal construction began on October 20, 1966 under the classified codename “431”: nine branch plants were laid out over about 11.5 km among the “two flats and thirteen gullies” west of the county seat, earning it the name “Ten-Li Locomotive City”. The builders came from locomotive and rolling stock plants in Dalian, Qishuyan, Sifang, Nankou, Tianjin and elsewhere. Basic construction was completed in 1972, and on September 18, 1973 the first Dongfanghong Type 2 hydraulic-transmission shunting diesel locomotive rolled out (nicknamed the “little donkey” for its low horsepower). 1973–1982 was a “decade of hesitation”; in 1982, at the Ministry of Railways’ request, the plant switched to Dongfeng Type 4 mainline locomotives; the first Dongfeng 4 rolled off the line in December 1983, and the first Dongfeng 4B was delivered on June 21, 1986. In 1990 locomotive output exceeded 100 units for the first time; in November 1992 two shunting locomotives were exported to Thailand, making it the country’s first enterprise to export complete locomotives. In 2004 it produced 306 locomotives, second in the world and first in Asia. In 2006 it was restructured as CSR Ziyang Locomotive Co., Ltd., today CRRC Ziyang Locomotive Co., Ltd. In addition, in the early 1980s the local Nanjun Group started out in agricultural machinery repair and for a time held the top spot in provincial commercial vehicle sales for consecutive years.

In 2025, Ziyang’s GDP reached 115.08 billion yuan, up 5.8%; industrial value added was 20.75 billion yuan, up 11.7%, contributing 40.6% to economic growth; there were 352 above-scale industrial enterprises, and above-scale industrial value added grew 13.3%. Among 31 major industry categories, 24 posted value-added growth and 16 grew by double digits: electric power and heat production and supply up 137.9%, chemical fiber manufacturing 110.3%, non-ferrous metal smelting and rolling 47.4%, computer, communications and other electronic equipment manufacturing 39.8%, paper and paper products 30.7%, and general equipment manufacturing 28.2%. Among key industries, electronic information grew 40.1%, clean energy 23.8%, equipment manufacturing 16.1%, medical devices 10.8%, and food and light textiles 0.9%. Among major products, lithium-ion battery output rose 63.3%, service robots 55.9%, steel castings 50.3%, and proprietary Chinese medicines 52.1%. China Dental Valley is the main carrier of medical devices, having attracted 93 well-known domestic and foreign oral-care enterprise projects; its products cover over 60 types in four major categories of dental equipment and more than 100 types in five major categories of dental materials, with 27 enterprises including KaVo, Align and Bomeixing placing 141 products on the market; in 2023, above-scale industrial enterprises in Dental Valley produced 2.59 billion yuan of output value. CRRC Ziyang Locomotive has exported more than 1,000 diesel locomotives to 33 countries, over 50% of China’s total diesel locomotive exports.

Ziyang’s automation retrofits unfold along three lines: locomotive manufacturing, food and beverage, and oral-care devices. At CRRC Ziyang, welding robots work with precision on the steel-structure production line, raising the automated welding rate of frames from 57% to 67%; the “production command cockpit” of the electric locomotive line, based on a digital twin and a unified digital data platform, tracks in real time on a virtual production line the total number of locomotives in production, those started and those paused due to faults, and automatically calculates the daily plan completion rate. On the food and materials side, Budweiser Brewery and the Anyue natural-gas purification plant were rated national-level 5G factories; Budweiser Brewery was rated a provincial-level smart factory; and the petroleum steel-pipe plant has applied for provincial-level smart factory status. In 2024–2025, 12 projects from Budweiser Brewery, Align Technology and others were guided to win 35.03 million yuan of provincial special funds, leveraging 170 million yuan of corporate self-investment; in 2026, 13 enterprises including Dingfan Packaging and Anjoy Food completed registration of smart upgrading and digital transformation projects with a total investment of 280 million yuan; and in 2024, 251 above-scale industrial enterprises were guided through online assessments, a coverage rate of 71%. Notably, Ziyang’s service robot output grew 55.9% in 2025, showing that the city already produces complete robots locally, mainly service robots; no authoritative statistics on industrial robot stock, annual new installations or robot density could be found through public channels (to be verified).