Located in the estuary of the Yellow River, Dongying, Shandong province, has entered a new era of development and construction.

The city, which has grown due to its rich natural resources, now faces transformation and upgrading of its economic structure. It is seizing the opportunity provided by Shandong province to implement a major project to transform new and old growth drivers.

While upgrading traditional industries, it will develop new industries, under a plan using the layout of the "1+4+3+6" new and old energy conversion development system. 

While playing a good "dominant brand" by actively cultivating a number of key industries such as petrochemicals, non-ferrous metals, rubber tires and so on, it has established new industries such as high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy materials, aviation, marine economy and other emerging industries to create the Dongying model of transformation of resource-based cities.

Upgrading traditional industries: high-end petrochemical industry bases are rising

Dongying's crude oil processing capacity reaches 69 million tons, the largest in China. 

According to the Shandong provincial government's plan, Dongying will focus on building a high-end petrochemical industry as a means of replacing old growth drivers with new ones. Dongying will inject new and high technology into the petrochemical industry to stimulate new vitality in traditional industries. 

"According to advanced international standards, our city has scientifically worked out base planning and implemented key projects, and it will focus on projects to produce per year 2 million tons of paraxylene, 1.2 million tons of high-quality caprolactam, 1.2 million tons of ethylene and so on,” said an official from the Dongying municipal development and reform commission. 

"This will be done with investment of 41.45 billion yuan ($6 billion), which will increase the main business income by more than 70 billion yuan."

Dongying is also striving to optimize distribution in the petrochemical industry with the "1 + N" model. "1" is the high-end port-vicinity petrochemical industry base, which will build an advanced petrochemical industry zone in the northern coastal area. "N" refers to a number of key chemical industrial parks and bases. 

At present, all newly built chemical enterprises in Dongying are located in various specialized parks. In the high-end offshore harbor petrochemical industrial base, 26 chemical enterprises and four petroleum refining and chemical enterprises have been built and put into operation, with total processing capacity of 15.8 million tons at one time. Some of these enterprises have been listed as "top 20 chemical enterprises in China" for five consecutive years. Of the 280 explosive chemical production enterprises in the city 242 have been gathered in the special parks.

Dongying is innovating the construction mode of high-end petrochemical industry bases, building new business platforms, such as East China Petroleum Trading Center and Yellow River Delta Petrochemical Trading Center, and providing integrated trading of 17 kinds of refined oil and fuel oil. It has also set up a 20-billion-yuan petrochemical industry fund.

Dongying Port has become the largest port for oil products and liquid chemicals in Bohai Bay Rim economic region, with crude oil product throughput reaching 54 million tons in 2017. 

By the end of last year, the main business income of Dongying petrochemical industry had reached 488.83 billion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 27.8 percent. The sales revenue of 17 enterprises had reached over 10 billion yuan. 

Key projects led Dongying petrochemical industry to move towards the national level. The project of petrochemical upgrading and transformation by 5 million tons per year constructed by China National Offshore Oil Corporation, Shandong provincial government and Dongying municipal government has now been completed. It has been listed by the National Development and Reform Commission as "the key project of national product oil quality upgrading from 2013 to 2017".

The project mainly involved the construction of more than 10 sets of equipment and supporting projects, such as refining 5 million tons per year of raw materials. Relying on Bohai Bay crude oil and adopting advanced international technology, the main business income will be able to reach 17 billion yuan annually.

Developing new industries: the development of non-oil industry 

As an oil city, Dongying has vigorously developed a non-oil industry for many years, nurtured hundreds of billion-yuan-grade industrial clusters producing rubber tires and automotive parts, non-ferrous metals and petroleum equipment. 

More than 80 percent of the technical equipment used by leading industries has reached the advanced level in China, and it has paved a new way of resource-based city transformation.

Hengyuan Copper Industry Railway's electrification special-shaped copper wire project is included in the national torch plan. Corey Group has built the first online trading platform in the global oil and gas field. Tyre King Information Technology Co has developed a project for an intelligent cloud bank, which will result in the comprehensive upgrading of the tire industry's intelligent network of manufacturing and logistics. 

In recent years, many enterprises have emerged in Dongying, which have mastered the core technology of their industries. They are either rooted in traditional industries or active in emerging industries. With the core technology in their hands, they have created industry brands and set up industry benchmarks.

"Our company's lithium-ion battery electrolyte solvent now accounts for 60 percent of the world's total output." said Zhang Weihai, marketing manager of the New Energy Company of Shandong Shida Shenghua Chemical Industry Group. 

In recent years, the enterprise's lithium hexafluorophosphate project has achieved remarkable benefits and now supplies high-quality solvent raw material for many lithium-ion battery electrolyte manufacturers at home and abroad. 

Dongying is also getting results in the fields of energy saving, environmental protection, biomedicine and high-end equipment manufacturing. 

China Porcelain Functional Material Company specializes in high-end ceramics in Dongying. 

At present, the company produces nearly 30 percent of the world's dielectric ceramic materials. It is the supplier for Apple, Samsung and other prominent global companies. 

With advanced ceramic research and development technology, is has become the largest producer of functional ceramic materials and the largest high-end nano-barium titanate enterprise in China. It has been ranked No 6 in the top 100 listed companies in China by Forbes magazine.

In addition, in recent years the company has acquired many enterprises, and has found a industrial distribution of electronic ceramics, dental materials, energy conservation and environmental protection and new energy. 

In 2017, 111 new technology and product projects in Dongying were included in the provincial innovation plan, all of which reached the domestic advanced level or above. 

Dongying has accelerated the construction of a science and technology financial system, and set up a 20-million-yuan fund for the transformation of scientific and technological achievements and a 5-million-yuan fund pool. Thirteen industrial technology research institutes have been set up, and the road map for technological innovation of the petroleum equipment and non-ferrous metals industry has been worked out.

Cooperation between industry, university and research institutes has been deepened, and 205 enterprises in the city have established close cooperation with 49 scientific research institutes. 

"Five-star service": service becomes competitiveness

Service is a combination of attractiveness, competitiveness and productivity. 

Only when government departments bend down to be "the server" and think about what enterprises want and need urgently, can they upgrade those services and create a good environment for development. 

"In the past, we had to go to several departments for the formalities, but now we can do everything in one place," said a citizen surnamed Li. 

In March, Dongying municipal government service center opened a comprehensive service window to provide people with integrated services by allocating government resources. 

At present, 494 items of examination and approval services have been stationed in the service center. 

Covering an area of 153,000 hectares, the Yellow River Estuary Ecotourism Area in Dongying, Shandong province is a land that hums with life and activity. [Photo by Ding Hongan/Dongying Weekly]

The petrochemical industry is booming in the Dongying Port Development Area. [Photo/dypedz.gov.cn]

A comprehensive service center in Hekou district, Dongying. [Photo/dongyingnews.cn]