As the train carrying the festive spirit of the Lunar New Year cut through the lingering chill of late winter and arrived at the Bohai Bay, Dalian greeted the Year of the Horse with a unique blend of warmth and industrial dynamism. The sea breeze, carrying its familiar salty moisture, swept across the morning light at Xinghai Square and the red lanterns adorning the streets. This Spring Festival in 2026 coincides with Dalian's emergence as Northeast China's first city to achieve a trillion-yuan GDP, offering a professional perspective to observe the city's industrial momentum and robust vitality.
During the holiday, Dalian Port remained bustling with activity—large vessels shuttling and cranes operating—far from a typical festive lull. As the largest comprehensive port in Northeast China, its vibrancy is a direct reflection of the resilience of Dalian's traditional industries. According to the Dalian Municipal Government, the port's annual container throughput exceeded 5.4 million TEUs in 2025, with its container port performance index ranking fourth globally. Foreign trade container throughput increased by 3.6% year-on-year, while sea-rail intermodal container volume surpassed 540,000 TEUs, up 5.8% from the previous year. With 106 container routes connecting over 300 countries and regions, the port serves as a critical hub for import and export goods from the three northeastern provinces and Inner Mongolia.
Leveraging its port logistics advantages, Dalian has cultivated traditional industrial clusters centered on petrochemicals and equipment manufacturing, which form the cornerstone of its economy. Traditional industries account for over 80% of Dalian's manufacturing sector, with petrochemicals leading the Northeast region and equipment manufacturing boasting a complete industrial chain. Both sectors exhibit distinct characteristics of large scale, solid foundations, and rapid transformation.
As a traditional pillar industry, Dalian's petrochemical sector has established a comprehensive industrial chain from crude oil processing to fine chemicals. In 2025, the industry's output value continued to grow steadily, laying the groundwork for building a 500-billion-yuan green petrochemical cluster during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. Historically, the sector was characterized by heavy volume but low value-added products. However, recent visits revealed significant upgrades, with a shift from crude processing to fine chemicals and new materials. According to Dalian Bureau of Statistics, the city's industrial added value above the designated size increased by 11.7% year-on-year in 2025, with the petrochemical industry growing by 8.9%. This growth reflects a deeper transformation toward specialization and high-value production. Dalian's "Three-Year Action Plan for Green Petrochemical Cluster Cultivation (2025–2027)" aims to transition the industry from refining to chemical production and from quantity to quality. By the end of 2025, the Songmudao Chemical Industry Development Zone housed 33 industrial enterprises above the designated size, including 2 listed companies, 4 national manufacturing champions, 5 national "little giant" specialized and sophisticated SMEs, 19 provincial-level specialized SMEs, 22 high-tech enterprises, 10 gazelle enterprises, and 5 eaglet enterprises, with 12 provincial-level R&D institutions. The zone focuses on five core industries, including electronic chemicals and catalytic new materials, and has attracted key projects such as the Graphite Valley Carbon Materials Industrial New Town, extending the industrial chain from crude oil processing to fine chemical materials.
Beyond upgrading traditional industries, Dalian's high-quality development relies heavily on scientific and technological innovation, with the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) serving as a core driver. DICP's strengths lie in its pioneering basic research and breakthroughs, particularly in materials science. The institute has achieved significant progress in addressing critical technological challenges: Academician Li Can's team precisely modulated the surface structure of ferroelectric materials, achieving efficient overall water splitting with an apparent quantum efficiency of 4.08%, providing new theoretical guidance for high-efficiency ferroelectric photocatalytic materials. Researcher Chen Ping's team, with over 20 years of research in metal hydrides, developed a "one-pot" method to prepare magnesium-based solid-state hydrogen storage materials and established China's first 100-ton magnesium hydride production line with independent intellectual property rights. The team also published in Nature, proposing a novel material design strategy and developing the first ultrafast hydride ion conductor under mild conditions.
Notably, DICP has established a comprehensive transformation system bridging basic research, engineering, and industrialization, effectively addressing the disconnection between laboratory breakthroughs and production lines and ensuring that scientific achievements fuel industrial upgrades.
Building on DICP's innovation strengths, Dalian's port logistics, and its trillion-yuan economic base, the city is actively nurturing new growth engines to drive industrial upgrading. According to the Dalian Industrial and Informatization Work Conference, the city plans to cultivate seven 100-billion-yuan industrial clusters during the 15th Five-Year Plan period, including a 500-billion-yuan green petrochemical cluster, a 180-billion-yuan specialized equipment manufacturing cluster, three 150-billion-yuan clusters for shipbuilding and marine engineering equipment, and two 100-billion-yuan clusters for mid-to-high-end consumer goods. As a core hub for new materials, the Puwan Economic Zone is accelerating the construction of a new materials industrial park, aiming to become a national-level chemical new materials base. In 2025, technological transformation investment by Dalian's industrial enterprises increased by 14.5% year-on-year, with policy incentives providing strong momentum for the materials industry's transformation.
Dalian in the Year of the Horse embodies both industrial vigor and cultural warmth. As the city advances its industrial upgrades, the vibrant Spring Festival cultural and tourism activities inject fresh vitality, while the construction of the new Jinzhou Bay International Airport continues unabated in the winter cold. Together, these elements paint a promising future for Dalian.
With the new airport's foundation steadily rising above the Bohai Sea and Dalian Port's vessels carrying hopes across the globe, the city's industries are progressing steadily along a path of innovation and green development. Empowered by port-industry synergy and guided by scientific innovation, Dalian is poised to achieve high-quality growth as a trillion-yuan GDP city, marking new breakthroughs in comprehensive revitalization.