Anhui boosting leading high-tech bona fides

Inside a sprawling plant in Hefei, Anhui province, rows of robotic arms swing in unison, sparks flash as metal panels fuse into the skeletal frame of a car. On a nearby screen, a digital twin recreates every motion in real time, generating millions of data points each minute.

It is here, at MAEXTRO's super factory — a brand co-developed by JAC Group and Huawei Technologies — that the East China province is making its pitch as the beating heart of the nation's next-generation of manufacturing.

"One second here means 300,000 pieces of data captured, analyzed and fed back to improve quality," said Wei Dawei, head of the plant. "That's 18 million insights every minute."

For Anhui, a landlocked province once better known for coal mines and farmland, a minute has become a powerful metaphor for manufacturing.

It takes just 60 seconds for at least one vehicle to roll off an assembly line; for a robot to shuttle semiconductor wafers worth millions of yuan; and for millions of sunflower seeds to be processed and shipped to consumers around the world — demonstrating that the province's rapid automation is not limited to manufactured products, but also agricultural commodity processing.

In the first half, Anhui produced 1.5 million vehicles, of which 730,000 were NEVs — both ranking first in the country. Auto giants like BYD, Chery and Nio operate there, but the local government has also promoted ambitious partnerships.

The MAEXTRO S800, co-branded by JAC and Huawei, is the flagship model produced at the factory. Within 87 days of its launch, more than 12,000 such vehicles have been sold.

They are built entirely at the Hefei super factory, a 10 billion yuan ($1.41 billion) investment that combines over 1,800 robots with a 5G-enabled digital platform. It is also the first Anhui car to utilize Huawei's intelligent driving system.

Each step of its production process demonstrates Anhui's shift toward new quality productive forces, a policy priority emphasized by the country to spur new economic growth.

From one-piece hot stamping of ultra-strong steel to AI-powered dual-tone paintwork with sub-millimeter precision, the factory is designed not just for speed, but also for resilience in the luxury EV market long dominated by foreign firms.

"The MAEXTRO S800 is about breaking the monopoly," Wei said. "For decades, million-yuan luxury cars came from abroad. Now we can do it here."

If cars embody Anhui's industrial muscle, robots show its technological finesse. At a cleanroom facility in Hefei, Youibot Robotics deploys autonomous mobile robots capable of handling fragile wafers just 0.2 millimeter thick.

The same robots starred in the sci-fi blockbuster The Wandering Earth. In reality, they are entrusted with carrying semiconductor wafers between production stages in fabrication plants run by China's largest chipmakers.

"In one minute, our robots can safely move a wafer that would cost over a million yuan to replace," said Wu Shaoping, Youibot's head of technology. "It's precision and efficiency rolled into one."

The firm also makes inspection robots for power plants. One model, nicknamed "Big-Small Eye", can run 12 checks per minute in high-risk substations, sparing workers from dangerous, repetitive labor.

These incremental minutes matter. China's chip sector faces global headwinds, from US export controls to rising competition. By automating wafer logistics and inspections, Anhui is embedding its robotics into the global semiconductor supply chain.

"Every safe, precise movement of a robot here is another brick in the wall of China's semiconductor security," Wu said.

Founded in 2017, Youibot applies autonomous mobile robots and integrated solutions across industrial logistics and inspection operations, building what it calls "stable, continuous and efficient productivity". Its products serve sectors from semiconductors to lithium batteries, power plants and data centers.

The company's footprint is expanding rapidly. Globally, it has exported to more than 30 countries and regions including Japan, Germany, Italy and Singapore.

Youibot's global headquarters opened in Hefei in late 2024, with a 7,000-square-meter base that integrates R&D, intelligent manufacturing and an embodied intelligence innovation hub.

Contact the writers at chengyu@chinadaily.com.cn