On July 18th, the distinct flavors of Suining made a splash in Hangzhou. The authentic "Suining Chong," with its sour, spicy, and pungent kick, drew thumbs-up from Hangzhou locals and evoked nostalgia among Suining natives living there.

Local specialties like Meilin Luncheon Meat, along with nearly 200 other "Suining-branded" products, were showcased at the Xixi Longfor Paradise Walk, using "Suining Canned Goods" to win over Hangzhou's palate.

The taste was just the beginning. The following day, the "Sichuan-Zhejiang Together · Meeting Suining" city promotion conference officially launched. Leading industries including lithium batteries, new energy, electronic information, and food & beverages were showcased centrally. Simultaneously, six industrial name cards were unveiled: "Suining Lithium," "Suining Electronics," "Suining Liquor," "Suining Mushrooms," "Suining Canned Goods," and "Suining Caregivers."

The conference released 47 key projects covering lithium batteries and new energy, electronic information, oil, gas, and chemicals, food and beverages, equipment manufacturing, future aerospace, and artificial intelligence, with a total investment amount nearing 100 billion yuan.

Suining played a strong hand. As the "Lithium Capital," it boasts unique resource advantages. Suining Party Secretary Hui Chaoxu provided key figures at the conference: basic lithium salt production capacity is 80,000 tons, accounting for about 8% of the national total; lithium iron phosphate production capacity is 600,000 tons, accounting for about 14% of the national total, making it the nation's largest production base for lithium iron phosphate. Furthermore, Suining has initially formed an industrial ecosystem with upstream and downstream supporting and cluster synergy in electronic circuits and integrated circuits, possessing all categories of PCB products. These are precisely the key resources for the current AI computing chain.

By 2026, with the comprehensive penetration of AI technology, the computing economy becomes the core foundation. Short-term backup power and peak-shaving lithium battery energy storage have shifted from optional supporting to rigid demand. "Computing-Power Synergy" was written into the government work report for the first time, and the deep integration of lithium batteries and AI computing has become a core trend in current industrial transformation.

As the world grapples with computing anxiety and AI infrastructure investment reaches unprecedented levels, Suining, the "Lithium Capital," has once again positioned itself at the forefront, forming a deep synergy in resource endowment with Hangzhou, which is vying to be the "First City of AI Innovation Development."

The connection between the two cities begins with a piece of celadon. In 1991, 985 pieces of Southern Song dynasty cellar porcelain were unearthed in Suining's Golden Fish Village, the vast majority produced in Zhejiang's Longquan. The national treasure, a green-glazed lotus leaf lid jar, is a masterpiece of Southern Song Longquan ware. Eight hundred years ago, these ceramics traveled from Longquan, through the Grand Canal, into the Yangtze River, then up the Fujiang River, a thousand-mile water journey, arriving in Suining, then known as the "Great Eastern River Town." At that time, Suining's salt and sugar industries were flourishing, and it belonged to the same economic and cultural sphere as the Southern Song capital, Lin'an.

If celadon was the trade link of 800 years ago, lithium batteries and new energy, along with electronic information, are the key to current industrial synergy. Xia Wenjin, founder of Zhejiang Lithium Shield New Energy Materials Co., Ltd., visited Suining for an inspection in April. In his view, Suining's "service philosophy is very close to Zhejiang's: no interference unless needed, always responsive when called."

What attracted Xia Wenjin even more was Suining's complete lithium battery industry chain. His company produces aluminum-plastic film for lithium batteries. Transporting it from Zhejiang to the southwest increases transportation costs by 0.7 yuan per square meter. "As a supporting enterprise, we prefer to cluster within an industrial chain. Being close to upstream and downstream operations allows for faster service response."

Zhou Pengwei, Chairman of Shanghai Xiangfenghua Technology Co., Ltd., also values Suining's industry chain support: "Suining's lithium battery industry cluster advantage is very evident. Without leaving the industrial park, within just a few kilometers, you can find everything from upstream lithium mining companies to midstream battery cell manufacturers and downstream application scenarios—a highly complete supporting system."

It is understood that Shanghai Xiangfenghua Technology Co., Ltd. settled in Suining's Pengxi Economic Development Zone in 2021. Specializing in lithium battery anode materials, it has built an integrated artificial graphite anode material base covering 400 mu with an annual capacity of 60,000 tons. Zhou Pengwei revealed: "We are currently increasing expansion efforts and preparing to build a third phase. Once the third phase is completed, the Pengxi base will cover a total area of 750 mu with a total capacity of 153,000 tons."

Located at the midpoint between the two mega-cities of Chengdu and Chongqing in western China, many enterprises choose Suining because it can not only receive the dual radiation from Chengdu and Chongqing but also leverage its hub advantage to radiate across the entire western region.

Zhou Shengfu, Chairman of Anhui Huachuang New Material Co., Ltd., stated at the promotion conference that the company has landed a project for an annual production of 100,000 tons of high-performance lithium battery copper foil materials in Suining. "Our customers are distributed in Chengdu, Chongqing, and other places. The location between Chengdu and Chongqing allows us to further reduce costs in connecting with customers." He added that the project will reach full production capacity in August. "Suining has provided us with full-line support using the fastest speed, the strongest intensity, and the warmest temperature."

Over the past few years, riding the wave of rapid development in new energy vehicles, Suining's lithium battery industry has achieved "explosive" development with fast landing, fast construction, fast production, and fast results. It has now formed a full life-cycle industry chain from lithium resource development and lithium material production to lithium battery manufacturing and waste battery recycling. It has gathered leading enterprises such as Tianqi Lithium, Hunan Yuneng, and SVOLT Energy.

If the high-growth new energy vehicle market is Suining lithium battery's first growth curve, then the current global focus on AI computing is opening the narrative space for a second growth curve. In recent years, the pricing power of lithium resources has been deeply anchored to the new energy vehicle industry, with the rhythm of policy subsidies and fluctuations in terminal inventory dominating lithium price volatility.

Now, a new variable that cannot be ignored is entering the lithium battery industry—energy storage demand supporting AI data centers, known as "computing power storage." Currently, the computing power storage market prefers the lithium iron phosphate (LFP) route, which features long life and high safety. The amount of lithium carbonate required per GWh for this route is relatively stable, making the demand for lithium strongly linearly correlated with energy storage installation volume.

Tech giants are increasing their capital expenditures, with plans for computing infrastructure investment on an unprecedented scale. Once these projects enter the concentrated delivery and grid-connection phase, demand for lithium resources could see a significant increase. Suining's industrial positioning provides crucial support for the computing power storage segment of the AI computing chain. In this round of the AI wave, its advantages are particularly prominent.

Focusing on the multi-path integration of lithium batteries, sodium batteries, and solid-state batteries, Suining has already signed and landed multiple projects involving sodium-to-dry batteries, sodium battery cell manufacturing, solid-state batteries and key core materials, metal lithium solid-state lithium battery anode materials, and silicon-based anode materials. This lays a solid industrial foundation for seizing the dividends of AI industry development and pioneering the new track of computing power storage.

The city's growth curve is equally robust. During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, Suining's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 6.6%, crossing six hundred-billion-yuan thresholds. In 2025, it broke through the 200 billion yuan mark with a growth rate of 7.1%, ranking among the top in Sichuan Province. The latest data shows that in the first half of 2026, Suining's GDP reached 96.37 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.1%, with the lithium battery and new energy industry growing by 12.7%, showing strong momentum.

Beyond lithium batteries, electronic information is another core sector for Suining. As a collaborative development hub for artificial intelligence, communication, and quantum technology industries in Sichuan Province, Suining's PCB production capacity is 15 million square meters, accounting for 80% of the province's total and 40% of the western region's total. Its semiconductor packaging and testing volume is approximately 20 billion units, making it the largest electronic circuit industry manufacturing base in western China and an important integrated circuit industry base.

With the surge in demand for AI inference computing, LPU chips specifically designed for inference offer higher integration and faster transmission speeds. This has driven a substantial increase in demand for products like high-frequency, high-speed PCBs with over 40 layers and IC substrates. PCB+AI intelligent manufacturing and flexible circuit boards have become niche hotspots, and the PCB industry is entering a cyclical upswing. The intensive global expansion of AI computing infrastructure has once again put Suining's PCB production capacity at the forefront of a trend.

On the ecological map of the AI industry chain, the positioning of cities is becoming clearer. Hangzhou holds a relative advantage with its open-source large model ecosystem and AI application deployment. Suining, on the other hand, secures key resources and the industrial foundation for computing power, providing critical support for AI computing. The two cities demonstrate significant deep synergy, making this promotion conference not just a one-way attraction of investment, but a mutual need and complementary positioning based on their respective advantages in the industry chain.

The celadon that traveled on water eight centuries ago has finally transformed into the driving wind of the lithium battery industry, rising together with the tide of computing power.



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