Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

Construction of Phase I of the Sinomach (Zhuhai) Robotics Science Park project will be completed in March 2017. Following that, plants and office buildings will be handed over to ABB Robotics (Zhuhai) Ltd by the end of June, according to an agreement recently signed by the two companies in the Zhuhai Hi-Tech Industrial Development Zone.

Industry insiders say the move marks a new step in the high-tech zone’s stride toward smart manufacturing.

Construction site of Sinomach (Zhuhai) Robotics Science Park [Photo courtesy southcn.com]

Funded by World Top 500 Company China National Machinery Industry Corp (Sinomach) and Guangdong Province’s Xin Point Corp will be a high-end smart manufacturing tech park, provincial demonstration base, and one of the key projects in advanced manufacture on the west bank of the Pearl River Estuary.

The 4-billion-yuan ($611 million) project will cover 66.67 hectares of land while the floor area is planned at 1.04 million sq m. Construction will be carried out in three phases, with the first phase occupying 12 hectares and floor space of about 220,000 sq m at a cost of 1 billion yuan ($144 million). It will host the plants and office buildings of Swiss-based ABB, one of the World’s Top 500 Companies and an international robotics industry leader, as the science park aspires to claim the high ground for developing intelligent industries in the high-tech zone and attracting high-end talents. The park also aims to forge the largest center for R&D, manufacture, and sales of industrial robots in South China.

At the signing ceremony, Li Gang, chairman of Sinomach (Zhuhai) Robotics Science Park, outlined plans to build an incubation platform to facilitate collaborative innovations by industrial, educational, and research entities as an accelerator for companies’ growth, a Sinomach robotics research institute, investment and financing platform, and public service platform. It will also attract more well-known robotic enterprises to the tech park.

ABB is the only multinational company in China that offers a full range of solutions in R&D, manufacture, sales, engineering, system integration, and all-round services for the robotics industry. So far, ABB Robotics (Zhuhai) and the Zhuhai High-Tech Zone have worked together to set up a public technological service platform. This will be used to exhibit and promote industrial robot applications and attract enterprises to the zone. 

Under the plans, Phase I will see ABB’s South China headquarters, plants, and R&D office buildings cover 6 hectares of land with a total floor area of 45,000 sq m. It will be built at a cost of some 200 million yuan ($29 million).