A new LED sapphire substrate production line stands ready to begin operating, in Baotou Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park [Photo/Baotou Daily]

Baotou in North China’s Inner Mongolia autonomous region has been great making strides in expanding its equipment manufacturing industry, with major companies establishing operations in the city -- including Inner Mongolia First Machinery Group Corporation and Inner Mongolia North Heavy Industries Group Co.

The city is home to the successful Baotou Equipment Manufacturing Industrial Park, a magnet for new businesses, which is situated in its Qingshan district.

The industrial park, built in 2006, has resident companies that operate in the heavy vehicle, new energy, railway, fully-mechanized coal mining, electromechanical and engineering equipment industries.

It currently has seven sub-parks: the Baotou High-end Equipment Park, the Emerging Industrial Park, Beida (Peking University) Science and Technology Park, Lide Motor Center, the Small and Medium-sized Private Enterprise Park, the Supporting Park for Production and Living and the Sino-German Equipment Industrial Park.

The industrial park is currently undertaking key new projects -- including a three gigawatt crystalline silicon plant being developed by Baotou-based JA Solar, a solar ingot production facility being developed by Canadian Solar (Baotou) and a plant for anode materials for lithium ion batteries being developed by Inner Mongolia Shanshan Technology Co.