Drawing on its strong foundation in traditional industries, Shuyang is driving the board‑material sector to transform from “quantity‑driven” to “quality‑oriented.”

2026-06-29 Source: Xinhua Daily

On the afternoon of June 16, at the Fuxing Wood Industry plant in Qingyi Lake Town, Shuyang County, a heavy-duty truck loaded with LVL structural lumber slowly rolled out through the gate. This batch of high-end panels, destined for Japan, is Fuxing Wood Industry’s flagship product—often referred to as the “reinforcing steel of wood construction.” The company ranks among the top domestic producers in both total export volume and market share in Japan for this type of product.

However, at a recent “Entrepreneurs’ Meet-and-Greet” event in Shuyang County, Chen Changfu, chairman of Jiangsu Fuqing Group, voiced his long-standing frustrations and sense of dissatisfaction: “Our products are of high quality—competitive on the global stage—but we consistently lack brand recognition. Many local companies manufacture for leading market brands; their products are in no way inferior, yet they struggle to build their own brands and fail to realize their full value.”

This is not a challenge unique to Fuqing Wood Industry. The wood‑based industry in Shuyang is the largest and most fully integrated timber‑industry cluster in the province, currently accounting for roughly 15% of the county’s industrial output. However, its product mix remains dominated by intermediate goods such as wood panels, with a limited variety and scale of end‑use products and few flagship offerings.

The 11th Plenary Session of the 14th Provincial Party Committee called for accelerating the development of a modern industrial system and guiding traditional industries toward the high‑end segments of the value chain. Shuyang is nationally renowned as the “Hometown of Wood Panels,” and the growth of its wood‑based sector is not only vital to economic development but also closely tied to people’s livelihoods. Revitalizing the wood industry has become an urgent priority.

How can we ensure that high-quality products fetch premium prices? How can we drive the upgrading of the industry’s value chain? A decisive battle to revitalize the wood‑based industries has already been fully launched, with party members and cadres across the county stepping up to lead the way.

To revitalize traditional industries, it is essential first to take stock of their current state and identify key challenges, so that targeted measures can be implemented.

The departments of Industry and Information Technology, Ecology, Market Supervision, and township governments—along with Party members and cadres from across the county—have formed multiple specialized research teams. These teams have gone straight to the front lines of board‑manufacturing enterprises, entering workshops, inspecting production sites, and listening to briefings to gain a thorough understanding of each company’s production scale, product portfolio, technological processes, market share, brand development, and other key aspects.

“The prevalence of family‑run workshops, their scattered spatial distribution, and weak industrial support systems are the pain points of Shuyang’s wood‑processing sector—and also the challenges that must be addressed to drive its upgrading,” said Li Xiao, Director of the Shuyang County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology, after visiting every wood‑processing enterprise in the county. He believes the key to overcoming these issues lies in “industrial clustering and park‑based spatial planning.”

Today, Shuyang County has fully completed the planning for its “one core, five nodes” township‑level industrial park layout and the overall scheme for park‑level infrastructure. Throughout the year, 380,000 square meters of standardized factory space will be built, with 70 percent of enterprises concentrated within the “one core, five nodes” parks, and the quality of the industry continues to improve.

Following Li Xiao’s footsteps, the reporter entered the Qingyi Lake Town Wood Industry Revitalization and Development Park. Before them, 150,000 square meters of standardized factory buildings stood neatly aligned; Lvdong New Energy had just installed a new boiler, district heating now covers the entire park, and wastewater and flood‑water management have been comprehensively upgraded. The once‑scattered, dim, and stuffy “family‑workshop‑style” small board‑making workshops are gone, replaced by clean, well‑lit, state‑of‑the‑art production facilities.

Within the park, Jiangsu Yimei Aige New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. primarily engages in… Linden wood Craft boards, toy boards, and a range of wooden cultural‑creative products lead the industry in both domestic and international markets, earning them the title of “hidden champions” in their niche segments. “The introduction of Yimei Aige has spurred a comprehensive revitalization and upgrade of the town’s entire wood‑working sector—going beyond mere equipment modernization to encompass a thorough overhaul of mindsets and industrial models,” said Sun Hongliang, mayor of Qingyi Lake Town, his excitement evident.

Space is being restructured, and the foundational groundwork is steadily being strengthened. The county has completed four rounds of “comprehensive inventory, thorough rectification, and significant improvement,” phasing out all 577 boilers with a capacity of 2 steam tons per hour or less, fully dismantling 92 illegally operated glue‑making workshops, and bringing two green‑island adhesive production facilities into operation. Furthermore, all 493 operating panel‑board enterprises in the county have successfully transitioned to clean raw materials. To tackle persistent safety hazards, the County Emergency Management Bureau launched a special campaign to prevent dust explosions in the panel‑board processing sector, implementing ongoing, routine inspections and remediation at 189 wood‑dust‑related enterprises.

In Sangxu Town, within the workshop of Shuyang Botong Musical Instruments Co., Ltd., eight intelligent basswood‑processing production lines and 37 fully automated CNC machines operate around the clock, producing 20,000 cubic meters of piano soundboards annually and exporting to more than 30 countries and regions across Europe and North America. As the nation’s largest base for manufacturing basswood piano soundboards, Botong Musical Instruments accounts for over 30% of China’s domestic market share in wooden toys and craft‑grade panels. “With robust policy support and a complete industrial chain, we are fully confident in competing in the high‑end market,” said Ding Yuebin, the company’s head.

From wood panels to musical instruments, and from intermediate goods to consumer products, the transformation of Botong Musical Instruments epitomizes Shuyang’s concerted efforts to revitalize and upgrade its wood‑based industries. Today, Shuyang is leveraging its “Three-Year Action Plan for the Revitalization of the Wood Industry” to develop three key sectors: modern timber‑frame construction, modular panel‑style home furnishings, and wood‑based cultural‑creative products. Construction formwork “The share of output value has declined from a peak of over 50% to 16%, and Shuyang’s wood‑based industrial structure is quietly undergoing adjustment and optimization,” said Li Xiao.

To revitalize the industry, it is essential to strengthen its “soft power.” “Most wood‑based enterprises still grapple with inadequate brand development, low product value‑addition, and limited influence in shaping industry standards,” said Zhang Jie, Director of the Shuyang County Market Supervision Bureau. “We have submitted a quality‑certification‑driven project to the provincial and municipal market supervision authorities aimed at elevating the quality of the panel‑and‑furniture sector, while also guiding companies through comprehensive trademark registration and strategically pursuing international trademark filings abroad. ‘Before the market moves, trademarks must lead—we must ensure that businesses do not suffer losses on the branding front,’ Zhang Jie added.”

Driven by policy guidance, spearheaded by enterprises, and supported by targeted services from Party members and cadres, this county in northern Jiangsu is steadily advancing its industrial revitalization journey—from “a single plank” to “a single brand.”

Reporter’s Notes >>>

During reporting in Shuyang, the word the journalist heard most often was “anxiety.” Despite solid quality and a leading export position, the industry has long remained in the shadow of others’ brands; its homegrown, pillar‑level sector produces goods with limited value‑added, and without renewal, there is no way forward. This is not the predicament of a single enterprise—it is the challenge that a county‑level industrial mainstay must confront as it strives to move up the value chain toward the mid‑to‑high end.

In Shuyang’s strategy for breaking through, the resilience it demonstrates is particularly noteworthy. After four rounds of remediation, 577 boilers have been phased out, and the share of building‑formwork output value has dropped from over 50% to 16%... Behind these cuts lies the addition of new growth drivers: rather than abandoning traditional industries outright, the city has adopted systems thinking to guide their revitalization. From a single wooden board to a ukulele, from construction materials to cultural‑creative products, Shuyang is proving through concrete actions that traditional industries are not a burden but a valuable asset.

By gaining a deep understanding of the industry, cultivating its value chains, and delivering targeted services, the Party members and cadres of Shuyang have carried forward the work from one term to the next, advancing steadily, step by step. They are transforming traditional strengths into competitive advantages and turning industrial scale into quality‑driven performance.

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Editor: Fang Fen