Catalonia strengthens business ties with China in Industry 4.0 technologies

Fourteen Catalan companies and organizations have travelled to China this week to learn about the country’s Industry 4.0 ecosystem and to analyze best practices from this market with the aim of applying them later in Catalonia. The agenda of the Catalan delegation’s trip has focused on the cities of Shenzhen, considered the world’s leading innovation cluster; Shanghai, with prospecting visits and meetings with companies and infrastructure specialized in robotics and artificial intelligence; and Suzhou, an emerging ecosystem for smart manufacturing and life sciences.

This business mission has been organized by ACCIÓ-Catalonia Trade & Investment, the agency for business competitiveness of the Ministry for Business and Labour, through its headquarters and its International Trade and Investment Offices in China. The Catalan delegation is made up of companies from the field of industrial manufacturing (metal stamping, 3D printing, etc.) as well as technology providers: Cashkeeper, the College of Industrial Engineers of Catalonia, Grup Saltó, the Eurecat technology centre, Forminsa, General Servei, Intech3D, Meleghy Automotive, Nexiona, Nutai, Saplex, Sedal, Some, and Tai Smart Factory.

In Shenzhen, among the most notable visits, the fifteen Catalan companies and organizations visited the Seeed Studio–Agile Manufacturing Center, a facility that combines modular production with a wind tunnel laboratory equipped with cutting-edge technology for performance testing and complex simulations. The delegation also visited the E-hub, another center with incubation and acceleration programmes and industrial facilities in the field of Industry 4.0.

The Catalan delegation also met with representatives of Tencent, one of the world’s leading technology companies and creator of WeChat, as well as with BYD, one of China’s first manufacturers of electric vehicles and batteries. They also visited Ubtech Robotics, a global leader in robotics that has developed industrial and service humanoid robots, and Unilumin, one of China’s main companies specializing in LED technology and smart lighting solutions, among others.

In Shanghai, the delegation visited Zhangjiang AI Robot Valley, a part of Zhangjiang Science City, one of the most active platforms in the region in embodied intelligence and Industry 4.0.  Its ecosystem includes smart manufacturing, collaborative robotics, autonomous systems, IoT, and data analytics. In AI Robot Valley, the delegation visited the company Fourier Intelligence. The delegation also visited West Bund in Xuhui district, including the Z·Pilot AI Cutting-Edge technology experience center, as well as the Shanghai Foundation Model Innovation Center. In Xuhui, the delegation also visited SenseTime and the Shanghai Embodied Intelligence Innovation Center, a benchmark hub in artificial intelligence.

During the trip, the Catalan companies and organizations also took part in a roundtable in Suzhou with Chinese firms working in these technologies at the Suzhou Industrial Park, one of China’s main industrial parks. They also visited the facilities of Elite Robots, a leading manufacturer of collaborative robots (cobots), and Beiren Smart Manufacturing Technology, an integrator of industrial robotic systems.

Artificial intelligence is a technology in which Chinese companies lead globally. Twenty percent of the world’s main AI companies are Chinese, including Alibaba, Baidu, ByteDance, and Tencent. At the same time, China is also home to 30% of the world’s leading robotics companies, such as Estun Automation, Roborock, and Ubtech. Furthermore, the country accounts for 51% of all new industrial robots installed worldwide each year.

Industry 4.0 in Catalonia

According to an ACCIÓ study, there are 1,447 companies specialized in Industry 4.0 in Catalonia, an increase of 30.2% since 2021, the last year this sector was analyzed. Together, these companies generate just under €7.2 billion in annual turnover (+29.3%), representing 2.6% of Catalonia’s GDP, and employ more than 37,200 people (+41%).

It is an internationally oriented sector where 36.8% of these companies are exporters and 16.9% are subsidiaries of foreign firms. 

Over a quarter (27.5%) are less than ten years old, and 14% are startups. In fact, 62% of the 2,285 startups currently active in Catalonia, according to ACCIO’s figures, work with technologies linked to Industry 4.0. The most prominent are those the 29% working with artificial intelligence and big data as a main technology (29%), followed by 14% working in sensor and cloud-based technologies.