Industrial-Park Investment Promotion: How to Find Factory Prospects Among 22,000 Electronics, Electrical, Machinery and Auto-Parts Plants in 8 Core Cities

Xiao Deng works in investment promotion at a development zone in central China; this is his third year. Every year he tags along with his boss to promotional events in Shenzhen and Suzhou -- the venues are packed, but more than half of the business cards collected afterward turn out to be from trading companies, consulting firms, and intermediaries; there are hardly any real factory owners. The one manufacturing project he closed this year came through an old classmate: the other side's leased workshop in Dongguan was about to expire, they wanted to add a production line, and couldn't find a suitable spot nearby. Xiao Deng eventually realized that most of the people sitting in those promotional events are there to hear about policy -- factories actually stuck on workshop space and capacity rarely have time to attend, and this batch of factories has to be found one by one, sorted by city, size, and years in operation.

The List First: 8 Core Cities, 21,944 Factories

On Tianxia Gongchang I selected the five industries that industrial-park investment-promotion staff watch most closely: computers, communications, and other electronic equipment; electrical machinery and equipment; general equipment; special equipment; and automotive parts and components. Nationwide, active factories with 50+ insured employees in these five industries break down by industry as follows: general equipment 21,913, computers/communications/electronics 19,240, special equipment 18,674, electrical machinery 15,161, and auto parts 11,744. A single factory may fall under more than one industry, so the sum across industries exceeds the actual number of factories.

Ranked by city, the cities with the most such factories are Suzhou (4,794), Shenzhen (4,151), Dongguan (3,890), Ningbo (2,872), and Shanghai (2,750). I picked 8 core manufacturing cities and, for each city's list, looked at two metrics: how many factories have 50 to 299 insured employees, and how many have been operating for 10+ years.

The 8 cities total 21,944 factories. Of these, 18,059 have 50 to 299 insured employees -- 82.3% -- and 18,013 have been operating for 10+ years, or 82.1%. The two figures are counted separately and overlap with each other.

The differences between cities are small: for the share with 50 to 299 insured employees, Beijing is lowest at 78.2% and Ningbo highest at 85.3%; for the share operating 10+ years, Dongguan is lowest at 74.0% and Beijing highest at 91.5%.

Which Factories Should Investment-Promotion Staff Approach First

The factories a park's investment-promotion team wants generally need to meet four conditions at once: located in a core city, mid-sized, long-established, and under pressure to expand capacity or cut costs. The first three can be screened for on Tianxia Gongchang; the fourth you have to ask about.

Located in a core city. A March 2025 report by 21st Century Business Herald noted that as land grows scarcer and industry keeps upgrading, the spillover of industry out of Shenzhen has kept accelerating, with Dongguan the key city absorbing that spillover. It's getting harder and harder for factories in core cities to get an extra plot of land or put up another workshop where they already are -- that's exactly where the opportunity for out-of-town parks lies.

Mid-sized. For a factory with insured headcount in the low teens, moving or expanding even once is a major upheaval, and it can rarely meet a park's requirements for investment and output value. For a large factory with insured headcount in the hundreds or thousands, site selection for a new project is usually decided through a group-wide comparison process, and it's hard for an investment-promotion staffer to get in through a single phone call. For a factory with 50 to 299 insured employees, order volume can support a new block of capacity, site selection is mostly the owner's own call, and a single investment-promotion staffer can close the deal.

Long-established. A factory that has been running for 10+ years tends to have relatively stable customers and orders, and its equipment and workshop are due for an upgrade. A factory only two or three years old is still hunting for orders, and it's too early to talk about expansion.

The table above only tells you where these factories are, how many there are, how big they are, and how long they've been operating. Which ones actually plan to expand or relocate has to be found out one by one, on the phone and in person. So these 18,059 factories with 50 to 299 insured employees are the list investment-promotion staff should approach first.

There's policy backing for this too. The Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Orderly Transfer of Manufacturing, jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other departments in January 2022 (MIIT document Gongxinbu Lianzhengfa [2021] No. 215), calls for "promoting the transfer of technology-intensive industries to central cities, provincial sub-center cities, and other areas in the central, western, and northeastern regions that are rich in innovation factors and have a solid industrial base," while also "supporting eastern regions in helping develop the central, western, and northeastern regions through arrangements such as trusteeship and joint development." The first clause is about what to take on and where to take it on; the second is about eastern cities and parks jointly developing projects together -- spelling out that kind of cross-region cooperation during a pitch will give the owner more confidence.

Choosing Which Cities to Visit Based on a Park's Lead Industry

The five industries are distributed very differently across the 8 cities (50+ insured employees, unit: factories; a single factory may fall under more than one industry, so a row's total can exceed the city's actual factory count):

A few ways to read this:

• For electronics-focused parks, start with Shenzhen and Dongguan. Of Shenzhen's 4,151 factories, 2,562 are in electronics -- 61.7%; of Dongguan's 3,890, 1,928 are -- 49.6%. The report cited above also flags something worth noting: when Shenzhen factories move out, nearby Dongguan has consistently been the one picking them up. Before you pitch in Shenzhen, be ready to answer "why not just go to nearby Dongguan."
• For equipment-focused parks, start with Suzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai. Suzhou has 1,567 general-equipment factories and 1,357 special-equipment factories; Ningbo has 961 general-equipment factories; Shanghai has 871 general-equipment and 867 special-equipment factories, the two nearly even.
• For auto-parts parks, don't spend too much time in Shenzhen or Dongguan. These factories are concentrated in Suzhou (678), Ningbo (642), Shanghai (536), and Guangzhou (279); Shenzhen has only 87 and Dongguan 101.
• Beijing's list is the shortest -- and the oldest. Of its 638 factories, 260 are special-equipment; 91.5% have been operating for 10+ years, the highest share among the 8 cities.

Beyond these 8 cities, Wuxi (2,261), Chongqing (1,805), Foshan (1,728), Changzhou (1,701), and Wenzhou (1,607) all have more than 1,600 such factories with 50+ insured employees. If your park is located in or near the Yangtze River Delta, the Chengdu-Chongqing area, or the Pearl River Delta, these cities' lists are worth pulling as well.

Three Things to Nail Down on the First Call

Once you've pulled the list, the goal of the first call is to judge whether this factory has any chance of "moving" right now. Three things are enough to ask.

1. Is the workshop owned or leased, and how many years are left on the lease. The one to two years before a lease expires is when an owner most seriously considers moving. For a factory that owns its workshop, the first thing it usually considers when expanding is building on-site -- ask whether there's still land available on-site.
2. Is current capacity enough. Are there orders it can't fit in, is it farming work out to other factories, is it thinking about a new production line. Expanding capacity, relocating, and adding a new production line are all demand-window signals listed in Lesson 7 of the methodology series: When Is a Factory Most Likely to Buy -- Watch These 6 Demand-Window Signals.
3. Who decides on new capacity. The owner alone, the owner together with partners, or does it need group-level sign-off. The answer determines who you set up your next meeting with.

If even one of the three answers is "interesting," it's worth setting up a meeting; if all three come back crisp and clean with no give, mark it on the list and ask again in six months.

A Sequence You Can Run Right Away

1. Pick the industry first: based on the park's lead industry, choose one or two of the five categories -- don't cast a net across all five at once.
2. Then pick the cities to visit: check the distribution table above and choose two or three cities. For electronics, look at Shenzhen and Dongguan; for equipment, look at Suzhou, Ningbo, and Shanghai; for auto parts, look at Suzhou, Ningbo, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
3. Pull the list: on Tianxia Gongchang, screen by industry, city, insured headcount, and years in operation. For an equipment-focused park, for example, you can screen directly for Suzhou general-equipment and special-equipment factories with 50+ insured employees and 10+ years in operation; for an electronics-focused park, screen for Shenzhen electronics factories with 50+ insured employees and 10+ years in operation.
4. Find the person who can decide: more than 3 million factories on Tianxia Gongchang carry direct contact details for the owner or decision-maker -- check "decision-maker contact details: yes" when screening the list, and call straight through to the person who can decide on site selection. Tianxia Gongchang only covers manufacturing factories, so trading companies and intermediaries never make it onto the list -- the old business-card problem from promotional events gets filtered out right here.
5. Visit city by city: for factories the phone screen shows some give in, group the ones in the same city into a single trip and see five or six in one go.

You can also just ask Tianxia Gongchang's AI something like "Dongguan electronics factories with 50+ insured employees and 10+ years in operation," and it will break the conditions down into filters and list the factories.

Three Questions to Bring to the First Meeting

When you meet the owner, don't rush to flip open the park's policy handbook. Ask three questions first, and decide which pages to bring out only after hearing the answers.

First: "If you added a block of capacity next year, what would you get stuck on first -- land, people, power, or money?" If it's land, talk about standard workshops and delivery timelines; if it's power, talk about the park's supply capacity and how long it takes to get connected; if it's people, talk about recruiting and staffing arrangements around the park (on how labor-dispatch companies find factories, see How to Find Factory Customers for Labor Dispatch and Outsourcing); if it's money, talk about installment options for equipment and any leasing institutions you can connect them with (see How to Find Factory Customers for Equipment Finance Leasing and Equipment Loans).

Second: "Where are your main customers and suppliers, and how far could a new plant be from them at most?" This answer draws the radius within which a park can even make the shortlist. If your park sits near the edge of that radius, work out the freight timing and cost for the owner (on how to run these freight numbers, see How to Find Factory Customers for LTL Dedicated-Line Freight and Industrial Freight Sales).

Third: "Is the new capacity a full relocation, or will R&D and headquarters stay put while only the production line moves out?" A full relocation needs land and supporting infrastructure; moving only the production line needs workshop space and fast delivery -- and it also opens the door to talking about joint development between the two locations.

Once you've asked all three questions, you'll know which bucket this factory belongs in: propose a plan right away, follow up again in a few months, or set aside for now.

→ Screen electronics, electrical, equipment, and auto-parts factories with 50+ insured employees across the 8 core cities on Tianxia Gongchang ｜ → Get a Tianxia Gongchang membership

Published by the Tianxia Gongchang Research Institute. Data notes: factory counts are from Tianxia Gongchang, covering manufacturing factories with active status as of September 2026; the policy text is from the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Orderly Transfer of Manufacturing, jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and nine other departments (MIIT document Gongxinbu Lianzhengfa [2021] No. 215, issued January 2022); the description of industrial spillover from Shenzhen to Dongguan is from 21st Century Business Herald (March 2025).