Factories encouraged to build up, not out

To address this, Bowang secured 650 million yuan ($95.56 million) in 2021 through Anhui's bank loan program linked to land-intensification performance, with total credit extended reaching 3.22 billion yuan.

Chen added that the funds supported compensation, demolition of unsafe buildings, and construction of standardized plants with plot ratios rising to 1.5. To date, around 200 hectares of inefficient land have been cleared and repackaged across the district.

Jiang, the general manager at Maanshan Shangdian Electrical, grew up amid the clatter of grinding wheels and stamping presses that once earned Bowang its reputation as the hometown of cutting tools and molds. That strength, however, gradually became a constraint, as decades of scattered, lowrise workshops left little room for expansion.

In the 1990s, Jiang joined the ranks of local salesmen traveling across the country to sell Bowang's blades and molds. He later established a base in Nanjing in neighboring Jiangsu province, founding a business producing copper wire for power transformers.

"When I saw the district was serious about land consolidation (around 2019) and actively supporting emerging industries, I knew it was time to come back," Jiang said.

He acquired a 4,500-sq-m site in a Bowang industrial park in 2019, then successfully applied for one of the newly consolidated plots last year, securing space for expansion.

That original site is now being rebuilt into a 30,000-sq-m facility, with production lines upgraded to serve the national power grid and renewable energy projects. Rooftop photovoltaic panels have been installed to meet 70 to 80 percent of daytime electricity demand. Annual revenue now runs into the billions of yuan.

Jiang attributed the expansion in part to the district's land consolidation measures, which prioritize firms aligned with strategic emerging industries, including high-end electrical equipment.

"Electrification, EVs, energy storage, AI computing, all require transformers," Jiang said. "We're simply riding that current."