News (Reporter Zhao Ping) - Recently, at the press conference titled "Standards Enhancement Leading the Optimization and Upgrade of the Raw Materials Industry" held by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), the China Metallurgical News learned that from January to November 2024, the total output value of China's new materials industry increased by more than 10% year-on-year, and is expected to exceed 8 trillion yuan in 2024, maintaining double-digit growth for 14 consecutive years.

The conference highlighted the significant achievements in the development of China's new materials industry. First, the industry scale has continued to expand. The output value increased from 5 trillion yuan at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period to 7.6 trillion yuan in 2023, with an average annual growth rate of about 15%. A large number of new materials, such as rare earth functional materials, rank among the top in the world in terms of scale. Second, the strength of enterprises has continued to grow. The number of large-scale new materials enterprises exceeds 20,000, and a large number of specialized and sophisticated "little giant" enterprises in the new materials sector have been cultivated. The international influence of new materials enterprises in key areas continues to grow. Third, innovation capabilities have been continuously improved, including the construction of more than 30 key platforms for production application verification, testing and evaluation, and resource sharing. In 2024, guidelines for the construction of the new materials big data center and pilot platforms were issued. These platforms have cumulatively served 172,000 enterprises, providing over 2,000 key material application verifications and 1 million testing and evaluation services. In addition, scientific and technological achievements in some fields have been applied for the first time globally, such as carbon fiber composites being used for the first time in key load-bearing components of commercially operated subway trains, and high-temperature superconducting materials supporting the world's first 35-kilovolt kilometer-level superconducting cable, which has been continuously and stably supplying power for over 1,000 days.

In the next step, the MIIT will focus on four aspects to develop China's new materials industry. In terms of accelerating breakthroughs in key technologies, efforts will be made to strengthen collaborative innovation among industry, academia, research, and application around key materials in key areas such as next-generation information technology and aerospace equipment, to enhance the resilience and security of the industrial and supply chains. In terms of enhancing the supply capacity of "shelf products," efforts will be made to strengthen the iterative upgrading of materials with technological advantages, enhance the core competitiveness of materials with market advantages, and prospectively layout cutting-edge materials to achieve "developing a batch, reserving a batch, and applying a batch." In terms of continuously optimizing the innovation platform system, on the basis of improving the public service capabilities of the already laid-out platforms, the second phase of the key platforms for new materials will be organized and implemented, the construction of the new materials big data center will be promoted, and the cultivation of a batch of new materials pilot platforms will be accelerated. In terms of creating a favorable environment for industrial development, the new version of the first application insurance compensation policy for new materials will be implemented, the coordination of new materials standards will be strengthened, the cooperation between new materials production and finance will be enhanced, the training of talents will be increased, and international exchanges and cooperation will be actively carried out.

China Metallurgical News (January 1, 2025, 03 Edition, Page 3).