A workshop in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/WeChat account: nbfb0574]

Twenty companies from Ningbo were recently listed among China's seventh batch of manufacturing enterprises with the highest share in their niche markets in the nation, bringing the total number of such companies in the city to 83.

The city in East China's Zhejiang province has retained its top position in China in terms of the number of such manufacturing champions. It is followed by Shenzhen (67), Beijing (56), Shanghai (38) and Hangzhou (34), according to lists previously released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Of the 20 newly listed companies from Ningbo, eight are engaged in the auto parts sector and four specialize in the new materials sector.

As for geographical distribution, both the county-level cities of Cixi and Yuyao have four such manufacturing champions, while the rest are found in Zhenhai district and Yinzhou district evenly.

According to an action plan released by the local government earlier this year, Ningbo aims to increase this figure to 100 by 2025.

The city has also set the goal of making breakthroughs in more than 100 core technologies and developing more than 1,000 key new products annually by the end of 2022.