On December 26, 2025, the National Conference on Industry and Information Technology was convened in Beijing. The meeting explicitly outlined efforts to consolidate the foundation for the 15th Five-Year Plan and deployed key tasks for 2026. Many of these initiatives are closely linked to the transformation and upgrading of the cable industry. As the blood vessels and nerves of the national economy, the cable industry must seize policy dividends and achieve high-quality development through industrial upgrading, technological innovation and green transformation.
Solidify Fundamental Position and Accelerate Supply-Side Reform
The first priority of the meeting, consolidating the steady upward trend of the industrial economy, proposes expanding the supply of green products, elderly-friendly products and other categories while fostering a number of renowned Chinese consumer goods. As a basic industrial material sector, the cable industry should focus on areas including new energy cables, smart grid cables and environmentally friendly special cables. Examples include high-voltage cables for new energy vehicles, special cables for offshore wind power and low-smoke halogen-free flame-retardant cables, all of which align with the direction of green product supply and can form new growth drivers. Meanwhile, under the policy supporting major industrial provinces to take the lead, key cable-producing regions such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Shandong and Guangdong will receive enhanced resource allocation, facilitating regional cluster development.
Dual Enhancement of Industrial Chain and Accelerated Domestic Substitution
Strengthening the resilience and security of the industrial chain focuses on implementing a new round of high-quality development initiatives for key industrial chains. Upstream raw materials of the cable industry such as copper, aluminum and plastics, as well as midstream processes including drawing, stranding, cabling and sheathing, need to achieve self-reliance through the industrial foundation reconstruction project. Key links such as high-precision oxygen-free copper rods, low-loss insulating materials and intelligent optical fiber composite cables must break through technical bottlenecks to reduce import dependence. Additionally, organizing industrial transfer and development matching activities will promote the gradient transfer of the cable industry to central and western regions, optimizing capacity distribution.
Innovation-Driven Leap Towards Smart Manufacturing
Accelerating the improvement of industrial technological innovation capabilities requires breakthroughs in core technologies and the strengthening of manufacturing pilot platforms. The cable industry needs to make advances in cutting-edge areas such as ultra-high voltage cables, high-temperature superconducting cables and graphene composite cables. For instance, domestic production of 500kV and above ultra-high voltage cables can break foreign technological monopolies. Digital and intelligent empowerment of smart cables will enable real-time production process monitoring, quality traceability and fault early warning, enhancing smart manufacturing levels. Furthermore, promoting the artificial intelligence plus manufacturing special initiative will drive cable enterprises to adopt AI visual inspection, intelligent warehousing and logistics, and digital twin factories, realizing an upgrade from manufacturing to smart manufacturing.
Optimize Traditional Industries and Expand Future Tracks
Optimizing traditional industries and cultivating and expanding emerging and future industries explicitly calls for building pillar sectors including integrated circuits, new displays, new materials, aerospace, low-altitude economy and biomedicine. These fields generate strong demand for special cables. Examples include high-precision lead frames for integrated circuits, high-temperature wires for aerospace, lightweight cables for low-altitude economy and clean cables for biomedicine, all of which will create new demand in the cable industry. Meanwhile, strengthening 6G technology research and development will drive cables to evolve toward high frequency, high speed and low loss, supporting the construction of future communication networks.
Promote Green and Low-Carbon Development and Foster High-Quality Enterprises
Advancing green and low-carbon development in the industrial sector requires formulating carbon footprint calculation rules for key products and cultivating green factories and green parks. The cable industry must reduce energy consumption during production, promote the use of environmentally friendly insulating materials and recyclable sheath materials, and achieve full-life-cycle green development. Strengthening the cultivation of high-quality enterprises emphasizes nurturing a new batch of little giant enterprises, manufacturing single-champion enterprises and national-level characteristic clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises. This will directly drive cable enterprises to transform toward high-end, intelligent and green development, providing solid support for the high-quality development of the cable industry.
The cable industry must firmly grasp the main theme of stabilizing growth, enhancing innovation, promoting integration and optimizing governance. Continuous efforts should be made in green supply, industrial chain security, technological innovation, emerging industries, green and low-carbon development, and the integration of digital and real economies. This will facilitate the transformation from scale expansion to quality improvement, contributing cable industry strength to the construction of a modern industrial system.
