Why did Huawei invest in this glass company in Chongqing?

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The ATG factory in Chongqing. /CQNews.net

The ATG factory in Chongqing. /CQNews.net

Editor’s Note: This report features Chongqing as part of our special series, “Rising Star Cities”, about Chinese cities whose annual GDP exceeds 1 trillion yuan ($ 155.4 billion, or more of Qatar’s GDP). At the end of 2020, there were 23 of these cities. Click here for more Chongqing stories. You can also explore our previous coverage of Ningbo and Changsha.

Not long before Huawei revealed its latest P50 flagship in July, the Chinese phone maker invested in a lesser-known glass company in southwest China’s Chongqing Municipality, leveraging its “nanocrystalline” technology to harden. the front glass of smartphones.

The Chongqing company, named Aureavia Hi-tech Glass (ATG), is one of the latest results of the local government’s efforts to promote sci-tech innovation in the municipality.

Founded in July 2014, ATG specializes in building custom glass materials, including those used on smartphone screens and aircraft windows.

Their high alumina glass is made with “100% original technology” which can “replace imported products,” said Lu Peng, deputy general manager of ATG.

Nobody has managed to put it into mass production in China before, he added.

The Huawei P50 Pro smartphone was seen in a store in Xi’an, Shaanxi province in northwest China on August 26, 2021. / CFP

The Huawei P50 Pro smartphone was seen in a store in Xi’an, Shaanxi province in northwest China on August 26, 2021. / CFP

The most important part of the technology is to make the glass stronger by mixing it with crystalline aluminum oxide while maintaining its transparency.

The company said its glasses contain more than 18% aluminum oxide, a percentage higher than the industry average of around 13%, meaning their product can withstand harder scratches and bumps.

Huawei has not commented on the reason for its investment, while many market speculators in China have said that the phone maker is looking to secure a local replacement for similar products made by the US company Corning, whose Gorilla Glass has been widely applied to the surface. of the mainstream smartphone.

Corning recently partnered with Apple to cover the iPhone 12 and 13 series with a new type of glass dubbed the “Ceramic Shield” – using nano-ceramic crystals to strengthen the strength of the glasses, which is similar to ATG’s nanocrystalline products.

ATG told local news site CQNews.net that its products are on par with top foreigners.

ATG is based in Chongqing not only because of the desire of his hometown CEO Bai Yibo, but also because of the housekeeper-style service provided by the local government.

“The new Liangjiang area provided us with a list of source material suppliers right after the completion of our initial steps,” Cao Jian, head of the ATG CEO’s office, told local media. “They also helped us build the industrial chain by finding markets for our products.”

Established in 2010, Liangjiang New Area is China’s first nationwide new area located in inland areas. The area is home to automotive and computer industries, both of which have surpassed 100 billion yuan (about $ 15 billion).

A night view of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing Municipality, in southwest China. / CFP

A night view of Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing Municipality, in southwest China. / CFP

After checking out an IT-related company, CGTN Digital found another auto business in the new Liangjiang area.

One of Liangjiang’s leading automotive companies, SAIC Iveco Hongyan, exported 1,500 heavy trucks in 2020, mainly to Southeast Asia. Their plan for 2021 is more ambitious – 3,000 vehicles – as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to fade.

This company, a subsidiary of SAIC Motor, has built a cross-border logistics platform between China and ASEAN with customs in Pingxiang, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, to reduce logistics costs in Southeast Asia.

Hongyan benefited from Liangjiang’s entire automotive industry chain to expand overseas. Total import and export of vehicles and components exceeded 10 billion yuan (US $ 1.5 billion) in 2020.

According to the new area’s official website, it has also reached emerging industries such as biomedicine and service industries, including finance, logistics, tourism and exhibitions.

Liangjiang is also home to half of Chongqing’s Fortune Global 500 companies and contributes two-thirds to Chongqing’s cross-border e-commerce.

There are more than 2,200 sci-tech companies such as ATG and Hongyan in the new area, contributing 197 billion yuan to the municipality’s GDP in 2020 alone.

With the latest Chengdu-Chongqing strategic cooperation plan, more sci-tech innovators such as ATG and Hongyan can be expected to be incubated in the Liangjiang area.

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