PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2018, Vol. 37 ›› Issue (9): 1291-1302.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2018.09.011

• Articles • Previous Articles    

Manufacturing industry agglomeration characteristics in the Pearl River Delta and evolution based on growth data

Hanqing LI1,2(), Wen YUAN1,*(), Mingqing MA1,2, Wu YUAN3   

  1. 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
    3. Computer School, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China
  • Received:2018-01-09 Revised:2018-05-07 Online:2018-09-28 Published:2018-09-28
  • Contact: Wen YUAN E-mail:const_lhq@126.com;yuanw@lreis.ac.cn
  • Supported by:
    Independent Innovation Project of State Key Laboratory of Resources and Environmental Information System, No.O88RA20DYA

Abstract:

Traditional industrial agglomeration research methods based on macroscopic statistical data use mostly administrative divisions as spatial statistical units, and it is difficult to reflect the spatial continuity of industries. The emergence of enterprise data sets on open data platforms makes it possible to study industrial agglomerations at the micro level. This study collected industrial and commercial registration data of manufacturing enterprises in the Pearl River Delta region and adopted a distance-based index system and nuclear density analysis methods to analyze the manufacturing clustering characteristics of the Pearl River Delta region in 2008 and the manufacturing aggregation growth based on increments from 2008 to 2014. Based on the analysis, the following conclusions are drawn: The Pearl River Delta region's manufacturing industry is concentrated in five cities, including Shenzhen, Foshan, Guangzhou, Dongguan, and Zhongshan, in northwest-southeast direction. The manufacturing density of the surrounding cities is relatively low. The degree of agglomeration and industry attributes are closely related—technology-intensive industries have the highest degree of agglomeration, capital-intensive industries have the highest degree of dispersion, labor-intensive manufacturing industries have a weak concentration, and resource-intensive industries have no obvious agglomeration or dispersion characteristics. The number of newly established enterprises increased from year to year in 2008-2014, and there were significant differences between different cities. Among them, the newly established manufacturing enterprises in Shenzhen have decreased year by year, the newly established manufacturing enterprises in Dongguan, Zhongshan, and other places have increased significantly, and other cities have remained stable or increased slowly. The newly established manufacturing industry has gradually shifted its focus from Shenzhen to Dongguan and Zhongshan. Among them, the proportion of technology-intensive manufacturing enterprises has decreased, while the number of labor-intensive manufacturing enterprises has increased. The agglomeration index also shows the same trend, indicating that technology-intensive manufacturing and labor-intensive manufacturing is undergoing structural and spatial changes.

Key words: industrial agglomeration, manufacturing industry, spatiotemporal evolution, Pearl River Delta