Mengyin county builds drilling rig industrial park to strengthen supply chain

The 2026 China Mengyin (first) Drilling Equipment Expo opened on Oct 17 alongside a conference on new quality productive forces in geological survey development, with 13 cooperation intentions reached at the exhibition hall of the county's green intelligent drilling rig industrial park — four companies agreeing on equipment purchases and nine engineering projects signing cooperation intentions.

Drilling rigs are one of Mengyin county's most significant industrial calling cards. The county in the Yimeng mountains has more than 30 years of drilling rig industry history, with more than 100 complete machine and supporting enterprises covering complete machine manufacturing, core components, specialized drilling tools and exploration services. Its down-the-hole water well rigs hold more than 50 percent of the domestic market and its hydraulic exploration rigs more than 80 percent, with products exported to more than 80 countries and regions including Brazil and Australia.

Despite these strengths, the industry suffered from low concentration and weak cluster effects. A single rig has more than 1,000 parts, many of which had to be sourced from outside the province, making supply chain stability the biggest headache for complete machine makers.

The county responded by concentrating resources to build a green intelligent drilling rig industrial park. The project started on April 11 last year, completed land acquisition of 350.35 mu (23.36 hectares) in just 11 days and broke ground on Aug 26. Construction continued through the winter, pausing only on the 27th day of the 12th lunar month and resuming on the third day of the new year, completing 130,000 square meters of production workshops in seven months, all delivered by the end of April this year.

The park has roads and pipe networks, workshops with 9.5-meter eaves that can accommodate overhead cranes, and 30-centimeter-thick floors that support machining centers without cracking or sinking. "The conditions are better than building our own factory," said Li Fei, chairman of Feida Drilling Rig.

The park has brought in two projects extending and strengthening the chain, Yuefei Hydraulic and Jinboao, and attracted six county enterprises including Kaiyue Machinery and Shou'an Machinery. Rather than simply grouping companies together, it fills gaps according to an industry chain map: with Feida Drilling Rig as the chain leader, it identified missing links and brought in supporting enterprises for hydraulic systems, electronic control systems and drilling tool manufacturing, raising the self-sufficiency rate of core components from below 40 percent to 90 percent.

As chain leader, Feida Drilling Rig uses its established brand and market channels to drive nearby suppliers to collaborate, so that all parts of a rig can be sourced within the park.

The county said it will use the park to expand development space through digital and intelligent empowerment, advance digital transformation of production and intelligent supply chain management, and target broader international markets to build a global brand, moving the "Mengyin drilling rig" from a regional cluster to the global market.

Editor：韩蒙蒙