The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization, along with other departments, jointly issued an implementation plan on Nov 12 for promoting the high-quality development of the new materials industry in Shanghai (2025-2027). The plan outlines 15 key measures.

Ⅰ. Overall requirements

The plan aims to promote the construction of a new materials industry development system. This will encompass three major innovation hubs, focusing on fiber, membrane and bio-manufacturing. That’s in addition to developing five key industrial clusters, namely, composite materials, catalytic new materials, electronic chemicals, high-temperature superconductors and graphene. Additionally, the plan highlights the application of intelligence technologies.

Ⅱ. Directions for enhancing industry

1. Strengthening new growth areas to boost industry momentum.

(1) Accelerating the commercialization of frontier materials.

Focus on the application of superconducting materials and graphene in the fields of electricity, magnetism and high conductivity.

Promote breakthroughs in smart materials, mesoporous materials and quantum dot materials.

(2) Advancing bio-manufacturing industry.

Develop at least five alternative synthetic biology products.

Promote the applications of bio-based polymers in industrial sectors.

(3) Developing future materials.

Focus on breakthroughs in raw materials, fabrications and structural designs for membranes and fibers

Accelerate the development and application of intelligent fibers and advanced separation membranes.

2. Addressing weakness to improve industry resilience.

(1) Driven by application needs

Strengthen and complement the materials supply chain for key sectors such as integrated circuits, new energy vehicles, civil aviation, shipbuilding, marine engineering and energy equipment.

(2) Driven by advanced fabrication.

Support processing technological innovations in raw materials purification, composition designs, organizational control, precision processing and 3D forming to drive breakthroughs in the extreme performance of new materials.

3. Strengthening leading areas to fortify the foundations.

Focus on enhancing six leading materials that are essential for various industries – new functional coatings, high-performance resins, polyurethane materials, light alloys, precious metal materials and high-end energy steel.

4. Accelerating the transformation of research and development paradigms.

Establish five smart materials labs that integrate high-throughput experiments with technologies such as AI, robotics and computational modeling.

Develop three to four vertical models for high-polymer resins, specialty alloys, inorganic materials and organic compounds.

Cultivate 20 AI-driven research and development entities and promote the development and application of 10 new materials products.

Ⅲ. Cultivating leading enterprises and building brands

5. Strengthening regional characteristics.

Boost the industrial development space centered around three key bases and five special parks.

The three bases refer to the chemicals new materials base in Jinshan and Fengxian districts, the advanced metal materials base in Baoshan district and the semiconductors materials base in Jiading district and Lin-gang Special Area.

The five special parks refer to the Super Science and Innovation Park in Baoshan, Carbon Valley Green Bay Industrial Park in Jinshan, Fengxian New Chemical Material Industrial Park, Shanghai Electronic Chemicals Zone and the Shanghai International Chemical New Materials Innovation Center (InnoGreen).

6. Bolstering quality enterprises.

Strengthen the industrial supply chain. Encourage steel and chemicals enterprises to integrate upstream and downstream resources and develop new sectors like lightweight alloys and synthetic biology, with the added output value expected to reach 10 billion yuan.

Foster innovation entities. Support city-level enterprises to achieve national-level recognition and establish 20 new enterprise technology centers and 25 national-level “little giant” enterprises.

Promote transformation and upgrading. Accelerate the products upgrades, process digitalization and green manufacturing transformation and establish two to three factories included in the Global Lighthouse Network.

7. Expanding brand products.

Launch leading products with market dominance. Continue to enhance the market share of specific new materials products and foster six to eight national-level manufacturing single-product champions and model enterprises.

Develop high-tech flagship products. Promote the technological advancement of new materials products to achieve international excellence or leadership, meeting the strategic needs of critical national infrastructure and key sectors.

Ⅳ. Building platforms and broadening empowerment

8. Constructing collaborative innovation platforms.

Establish innovation platforms across several critical fields such as carbon fiber composites, frontier materials, electronic chemicals and advanced automotive materials – and platforms that provide materials data public services and develop AI models for specific materials sectors.

9. Establishing tiered validation platforms.

Support the development of third-party validation platforms for materials used in integrated circuits and aerospace, aviation, automobiles, marine and energy sectors

10. Creating functional testing platforms.

Develop municipal-level quality inspection centers for structural and functional ceramics, engineering polymers and composite materials. Support the development and early application of critical characterization instruments and equipment for new materials.

Ⅴ. Optimizing transformation and strengthening applications

11. Overcome bottlenecks and accelerate pilot test transformations

Establish 12 pilot test bases for new chemical materials, alloys, green bio-manufacturing and inorganic materials and serve the implementation of more than 50 pilot test projects.

12. Driving applications and expanding user cases

Provide support for implementation scenarios and foster 50 core new materials companies within supply chains.

Support companies to participate in the supply chain of key industries and encourage them to obtain relevant management system certification and voluntary product certification.

Ⅵ. Ensuring the provision of essential elements

13. Enhancing organizational support.

A dedicated work team for the new materials sector will be established to upgrade to a more streamlined and effective coordination network.

14. Strengthening resource support.

Support the implementation of small-scale and minor new, modified and expanded chemicals-related projects in compliant areas. Promote the “industrial production in high-rise buildings” initiative for eligible new materials companies.

Support enterprises to improve inherent safety standards and foster core talent.

15. Deepening exchanges and cooperation.

Establish an alliance of new materials entrepreneurs and create brand activities. Strengthen the introduction of overseas high-profile talents to deepen cooperations in the new materials industry.

Source: Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economy and Informatization

Note: The English version of the implementation plan is for reference only; the official Chinese document shall prevail.