The Manufacturing Ledger of an AI Data Hall: Power, Cooling and Interconnects
A system-level study of AI data-hall power, cooling and interconnects, using a public reference design, reproducible calculations and Chinese manufacturers' disclosures. It examines equipment requirements, procurement boundaries, redundancy, delivery and cash conversion, while distinguishing design facts, conditional estimates and company statements.
A Power Plant’s Second Life: China’s Transformation of Panshan’s Aging Units
How can aging Russian-made generating units gain a second life through Chinese boilers, turbines and generators matched to retained plant infrastructure? This report follows Tianjin Panshan’s engineering decisions, the people doing the work, and the different progress of its two units, examining the technical and economic limits of renewing old high-end equipment.
A Connection in the Deep Sea: China’s Work on Underwater Connectors
From a high-pressure test failure to sea trials at about 1,600 meters in 2023 and 100 consecutive cycles at over 2,960 meters in 2025, this article follows Guojun Wu’s team at the Xi’an Institute of Optics and Precision Mechanics, examining the precision, reliability, and long-term responsibility behind an electro-optical wet-mate connection.
China's Fastener Industry: Property Classes, Cluster Specialisation and Trade Remedies
Drawing on 40,200 fastener entities, this report examines property classes and materials, cold heading and heat treatment, the division of labour among clusters such as Yongnian and Wenzhou, the current state of EU and US trade measures, inspection failures and acceptance testing.
China's Casting Industry: Process Boundaries, Cluster Geography and Market Access
Drawing on 56,600 casting entities in the Institute’s enterprise database, this report sets out the parameter boundaries of sand, investment, lost-foam, high-pressure and low-pressure die casting, together with cluster geography, market-entry rules, cost structure and supplier verification.
China's Surface Treatment Industry: Process Boundaries and Environmental Compliance in Plating, Anodising and Heat Treatment
Drawing on 58,400 surface-treatment entities, this report examines the process boundaries of plating, anodising, coating and heat treatment, the park-based model of centralised effluent treatment, the GB 21900 limits, and how compliance costs reshape where capacity sits.
China's Wire and Cable Industry: Product Definitions, Cluster Geography and Copper Price Pass-through
Drawing on 103,600 cable and wire entities, this report examines product definitions, cluster geography, the transmission of copper and aluminium prices into quotations, licensing and CCC market entry, inspection failures and acceptance testing.
China's Lighting and LED Industry: Value-Chain Division of Labour, Export Structure and Energy-Efficiency Standards
Drawing on 107,000 lighting entities, this report examines the division of labour between light sources and luminaires, the device-to-fixture structure of an export-oriented industry, energy-efficiency and safety standards, cluster geography and procurement verification.
The Age of Chinese Factories—The Founding-Year Distribution of Existing Manufacturing Entities (1978—2026)
Ranking 2.31 million surviving manufacturing entities by founding date gives a median founding year of 2014; those founded before 2008 are 21.83% of entities but 50.4% of employment. It also explains why the recent end of this curve is not a decline.
Chinese Factories in Social Insurance Enrolment Figures
Drawing on social insurance enrolment disclosed in corporate annual reports, this report profiles 2.31 million Chinese manufacturing entities, examines why 52.89% report zero insured employees, and sets out a three-tier method for supplier screening.
2026 China Sewing Machinery Industry: Market Size & Competitive Landscape
In 2025 Vietnam overtook China as the largest apparel supplier to the US — yet the sewing machines stitching those garments still come from Taizhou. This report dissects China's sewing machinery industry: 170 years of migration (US–Japan–China), a strongly cyclical market and its export structure, the four survival paths of leading firms, four decades of the Taizhou cluster, the Zhuji embroidery-machine belt, the frontier of automated sewing, and our 2026–2030 outlook.
China's Power-Battery Recycling 2026: The First Year of Binding Rules, and a Disordered Urban Mine
On 1 April 2026, MIIT Order No. 73, issued jointly by six ministries, took effect, giving power-battery recycling in China its first binding regulation. It confronts a peculiar industry: whitelisted firms hold nominal capacity counted in millions of tonnes yet process only a fraction of it, and roughly eight in ten scrapped electric vehicles arriving at licensed dismantlers have no battery. This is not an industry short of capacity, but one short of order.