Ulsan's Nam-gu seeks industrial ties with top Chinese firms

Ulsan's Nam-gu has embarked on an overseas benchmarking trip to support local small and medium-sized enterprises in automating their production processes, transitioning to smart factories and opening new overseas markets.

Nam-gu is visiting Yancheng, in China's Jiangsu Province — its sister city — alongside representatives of the Ulsan Nam-gu Small and Medium-sized Enterprises Council. The delegation's schedule runs from Tuesday through Saturday.

The trip is a reciprocal industrial exchange marking the fifth anniversary of the two cities' sister-city relationship. It follows a visit to Nam-gu by Yancheng Party Secretary Yan Hanping and others from Oct. 29 to Oct. 30.

On Wednesday, the delegation toured Zhonglian Jisong, an advanced smart logistics and automation equipment company in Yancheng, where members assessed the firm's sophisticated logistics automation technology, including unmanned delivery systems and autonomous inter-process transport.

Zhonglian Jisong is a high-tech manufacturing solutions company that designs and supplies customized autonomous guided vehicles and mobile robots — known as AGVs and AMRs — along with intelligent unmanned warehouse control systems for production lines in the automotive parts, new energy and electronics manufacturing sectors.

The delegation toured the company's core production lines and test labs, observing a fully unmanned, one-stop process covering everything from parts supply to finished-product loading. Members then exchanged views on introducing suitable process designs and logistics robots for Nam-gu's production environment, which is characterized by advanced automotive electronics, machinery and chemical industries.

Nam-gu District Mayor Lim Hyeon-cheol said logistics automation and smart manufacturing capabilities are essential for small and medium-sized enterprises to secure global competitiveness, and that the district would work to help local companies apply lessons from China's best practices to their own process innovation.