Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

Gaolan Port's efforts to build a marine engineering equipment cluster produced a 19.42 billion yuan ($2.82 billion) brand name in 2016 – up a whopping 124 times over the previous year.

Last year, advanced equipment manufacturing at the port achieved an output value of 11.43 billion yuan ($1.66 billion) and an industrial value-added output of 3.04 billion yuan ($441.5 million). These figures are up 27.1 percent and 30.9 percent respectively, according to authorities of the Gaolan Port Economic Zone.

As for the brand valuation, Gaolan Port is among 160 regional brands across the country that were rated at the National Well-known Brand Creation Demonstration Zones Construction & 2016 Regional Brand Valuation Result Press Conference in Beijing on March 21. The event was hosted by the China Quality Certification Center.

Key marine engineering equipment enterprises at the port are China National Offshore Oil Corp (CNOOC), Sany Marine Heavy Industry Co Ltd, and Penglai Jutal Offshore Engineering Heavy Industries Co Ltd. They are supported by CNOOC Pipeline Base, Panyu Chu Kong Steel Pipe Co Ltd, and Petro-Offshore Engineering Co Ltd. Relying on these enterprises, Gaolan Port has energetically developed a marine drilling platform, offshore oil-gas field facility, shipbuilding, and port and logistics machinery manufacture. It resulted in a marine engineering cluster with advanced technology, complete upstream and downstream industries, and a chain integrating R&D, manufacturing, and support facilities.

Gaolan Port [Photo courtesy news.ehikoo.com]

An innovation of the General Administration of Quality Supervision in constructing National Well-known Brand Creation Demonstration Zones, the examination looks at economic indicators of regional brand excess returns, their development potential, and future risk resistance capacity.

Industry insiders point out that the jump in brand value reflects the rapid growth of aggregation degree and influence of the marine engineering equipment industry. 

Back in August 2015, Gaolan Port was given the go-ahead to construct the National Deep Sea Marine Engineering Equipment Industry Well-known Brand Creation Demonstration Zone. Acceptance is now pending.

Moreover, the port was selected as a 2016 Guangdong Innovation-Based Industry Cluster Construction Pilot Area. Furthermore, it was named a National New Industrialization Demonstration Base (Marine Engineering Equipment) by the Ministry of Industry & Information Technology, filling the industry gap in Guangdong Province.