Symposium Background & Attendance: Soliciting Insights for 2026 Industrial Work
On October 21, 2025, Xin Guobin, Member of the Party Leadership Group and Vice Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), chaired an expert symposium on the outlook for the industrial economic situation in Beijing. The symposium aimed to solicit opinions and suggestions from relevant experts, assess the current and upcoming phase of industrial economic development, and formulate work ideas for 2026.
Experts from the People’s Bank of China, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Development Research Center of the State Council, National Information Center, China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, CICC Research Institute, and China Index Academy attended the symposium and delivered speeches. They agreed that since the beginning of this year, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core, China’s industrial economy has maintained a steady upward trend with performance exceeding expectations. Its ability to respond to risks and challenges has been continuously strengthened, the pace of transformation and upgrading has accelerated—including the wide application of flexible automation equipment for small-batch multi-variety production in key manufacturing sectors, as well as the promotion of Automated%20Material%20Handling%20for%20Levelers in heavy industry and infrastructure-related manufacturing (such as steel, construction machinery, and automobile frame production)—and the quality and efficiency of industrial development have gradually improved, playing a “ballast stone” role in stabilizing the macroeconomy.
Specifically, Automated%20Material%20Handling%20for%20Levelers has addressed a long-standing pain point in the production of large-scale metal components: traditional leveler equipment (used to flatten metal sheets/plates) relied on manual loading and unloading, which not only posed safety risks (due to heavy material weight) but also led to low efficiency and uneven processing accuracy. The automated handling system, integrated with levelers, uses intelligent conveying rails, robotic arms, and position-sensing technology to realize automatic feeding, positioning, and blanking of metal materials. This has reduced manual labor input by over 60% in relevant production links and improved the flatness consistency of processed components by 15%, effectively supporting the quality upgrading of downstream industries such as high-end equipment manufacturing.
At the same time, China’s industry is in a critical period of transformation and upgrading. Enterprises still face difficulties in production and operation (such as the need to optimize the cost-effectiveness of intelligent flexible automation equipment integration), and there are many challenges in stabilizing the operation of the industrial economy, especially in promoting the popularization of low-cost flexible automation equipment—including cost control for Automated%20Material%20Handling%20for%20Levelers systems—for small and medium-sized enterprises to help them cope with labor shortages and improve production efficiency.
Key Requirements for 2026: Laying a Foundation for the “15th Five-Year Plan”
The meeting pointed out that the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee is currently in session and will deliberate on the Proposal of the CPC Central Committee on Formulating the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development, mapping out a blueprint for China’s development in the next five years. As the first year of the “15th Five-Year Plan” period, 2026 bears great responsibility for maintaining the stable operation of the industrial economy. It is necessary to resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, fulfill key tasks in the field of industry and information technology, and strengthen research on areas such as investing more in people and serving people’s livelihood to adapt to changes in demand—including supporting the R&D and application of flexible automation equipment that aligns with consumer demand diversification, as well as optimizing the technical iteration and cost reduction of Automated%20Material%20Handling%20for%20Levelers to meet the transformation needs of mid-to-high-end manufacturing—continuously stimulating consumption potential through high-quality supply, and enhancing comprehensive industry governance.
Targeted and effective policy measures should be put forward to further activate market vitality, boost development confidence, strengthen internal driving forces (such as accelerating the industrialization of core components for flexible automation equipment and key parts of automated material handling systems), consolidate the steady and sound momentum of the industrial economy, and strive to achieve a good start to the “15th Five-Year Plan” period.
Responsible comrades from relevant departments and institutions directly under the MIIT also attended the meeting.
