Relocation of Surface Treatment Enterprises into Industrial Parks in the Pearl River Delta: Current Status and Experience Sharing

Surface treatment—including electroplating, anodizing, phosphating, and related processes—is an essential supporting link in manufacturing. However, the heavy metal wastewater, acid-base exhaust gases, and hazardous waste generated during production have long subjected this industry to significant environmental regulatory pressure. In the Pearl River Delta, as environmental standards continue to rise and land resources become increasingly scarce, promoting the relocation of surface treatment enterprises into industrial parks has become a core strategy for local governments to optimize industrial layout and implement centralized pollution control.

I. Policy Background and Park Entry Requirements

Guangdong Province has clear policy basis for the park-based management of electroplating and surface treatment projects. The “Guangdong Province ‘Three Lines and One List’ Ecological and Environmental Zoning Control Plan” explicitly stipulates that electroplating projects should be centrally managed within parks. In 2022, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment issued a regulation requiring specialized electroplating enterprises in Guangdong and five other provinces to achieve a 75% park entry rate by the end of 2025. At the operational level, traditional policies impose strict restrictions on the siting of electroplating projects, allowing them only in industrial parks that have been legally planned and have undergone environmental impact assessments. Metal surface treatment and metal products projects involving acid washing and phosphating are also required to enter specialized parks with centralized pollution treatment capabilities.

Notably, the “Guangdong Province Construction Project Environmental Impact Assessment Classification Management Directory (2026 Edition),” implemented in March 2026, provides differentiated categorization for surface treatment projects: electroplating nickel with passivation falls under the report category with a longer approval cycle, while aluminum alloy anodizing (without heavy metal coloring) is downgraded to the registration form category, reducing the approval timeline from 60 days to 5 working days. This differentiated management provides policy space for enterprises to choose their park entry path based on their specific process characteristics.

II. Major Surface Treatment Industrial Parks in the Pearl River Delta: Distribution and Current Status

After years of development, the Pearl River Delta has formed a number of large-scale, well-equipped specialized surface treatment industrial parks.

Huizhou Boluo has one of the highest concentrations of surface treatment enterprises in the Pearl River Delta. The Jinmaoyuan (Huizhou) Surface Treatment Circular Economy Industrial Park in Longxi Subdistrict, Boluo County, covers 450,000 square meters and has gathered over 130 upstream and downstream enterprises, making it the largest surface treatment industrial cluster in the province. The park's surface treatment processes cover multiple plating types including copper, nickel, zinc, tin, silver, gold, and chromium, serving industries such as military, aerospace, aviation, high-speed rail, automotive, electronics, and hardware. The park has a wastewater treatment capacity of 15,000 tons per day, with all wastewater, exhaust gas, and solid waste generated by park enterprises managed and treated centrally within the park. As of January 2025, 102 qualified enterprises had entered the Longxi Electroplating Base. In 2025, the Boluo County surface treatment industrial cluster was selected as a Guangdong Province SME characteristic industrial cluster, with an annual output value exceeding 5 billion yuan.

Foshan Shunde has pioneered an intensive vertical factory model for industrial production. The AobaiDa Surface Treatment Environmental Protection Technology Industrial Park in Jun'an Town consists of six multi-story industrial buildings—the first floor houses centralized wastewater treatment, the upper floors serve as production workshops, and the rooftops are equipped with centralized exhaust gas treatment facilities. The park promotes a model of “production upstairs, classified collection, overhead piping, and centralized pollution treatment,” with wastewater from all enterprises uniformly collected by category and treated centrally. According to the 2024 assessment results, the total discharge of major pollutants in the park's wastewater and exhaust gas met the planning environmental impact assessment requirements, with significant environmental quality improvement. Enterprises within the park have seen notably lower environmental treatment costs compared to those outside.

Zhaoqing Gaoyao's Zhaoxing Electroplating Park has completed a comprehensive upgrade. The upgraded park covers a total area of 385 mu (approximately 25.7 hectares), with a total constructed electroplating workshop floor area of 720,000 square meters. The supporting Xinsheng Zhaoxing wastewater treatment plant represents an investment of 515 million yuan, with a daily treatment capacity of 24,000 cubic meters of electroplating wastewater. The park's wastewater collection network features seven classification pipelines based on wastewater characteristics.

Additionally, the Machong Environmental Protection Professional Base in Dongguan covers 1,500 mu (100 hectares) and houses nearly 350 electroplating and printing and dyeing enterprises. The Yamen Xincaifu Environmental Protection Industrial Park in Jiangmen and the Qingyuan Longwan Surface Treatment Demonstration Base are also important surface treatment industry clusters in the Pearl River Delta.

III. Practical Experience in Enterprise Relocation

Regarding site selection decisions. Enterprises face the site selection issue first when relocating to parks. The case of Shenzhen Bolan Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is illustrative. When the company transferred its electroplating operations from Shenzhen to the Huizhou Jinmaoyuan Park in 2009, the primary consideration was logistics radius—“the park is about an hour's drive from Shenzhen, which controls logistics costs while keeping goods damage rates within acceptable limits”. It was not until 2021 that the company decided to relocate its entire factory from Shenzhen into the park, driven primarily by the local business environment and the park's supporting services. This case demonstrates that relocation can be a phased process—first moving polluting processes into the park, then completing the full migration when conditions are ripe.

Regarding cost estimation. The cost of relocation includes not only equipment moving and factory rent but also requires a comprehensive assessment of changes in environmental treatment costs. The experience of Foshan Jinshanghua Coating Technology Co., Ltd. is noteworthy. Before moving into the AobaiDa Park, the company purchased its own equipment to treat production wastewater, incurring “high treatment costs with less effective results”; after moving into the park, wastewater is treated centrally by the park, with “more professional equipment and better results. Most importantly, it's worry-free—we can focus solely on production without worrying about whether we meet environmental requirements”. Data shows that enterprises in parks can save 10% to 20% in comprehensive costs compared to before. Shenzhen Bao'an District has also introduced special subsidy policies, offering factory rent subsidies (45% to 50% of rent paid, for three years) and wastewater discharge quota subsidies for park-entry enterprises.

Regarding production continuity. How to maintain uninterrupted production during relocation is a common concern. Experience suggests that choosing a specialized, large-scale park can eliminate enterprises' worries about environmental compliance, professional services, and supporting facilities. Some parks also provide financial services and technical talent support to help enterprises address funding and talent challenges during transformation and upgrading. The Huateng Industrial Park in Ronggui, Foshan Shunde, as a specialized metal surface treatment park, has built supporting production, living, and pollution treatment facilities, implementing centralized water and gas supply and centralized collection and treatment of wastewater and exhaust gas.

Regarding policy utilization. Enterprises should proactively understand local park-entry support policies. In early 2026, Shenzhen Bao'an District specifically convened a promotion meeting for professional electroplating enterprise park entry and governance, accelerating enterprise upgrading, renovation, and acceptance work. Qualified enterprises should actively seek inclusion in the park's positive list or access relevant subsidies. Enterprises should also be aware of park admission thresholds—some parks have clear requirements for the automation level, equipment energy efficiency, and process advancement for enterprises operating in the park.

IV. Challenges and Response Recommendations

Although park entry has become a clear direction, enterprises still face practical challenges in implementation. First, the environmental impact assessment approval cycle is relatively long—in the core Pearl River Delta region, the average electroplating EIA approval cycle is 18 to 24 months, with a pass rate below 15%. Second, there are risks of production losses and customer attrition during the relocation period. Third, some enterprises have concerns about the long-term operational stability of park management.

To address these challenges, it is recommended that enterprises conduct thorough due diligence before relocation: inspect the operational status of target parks' environmental facilities, understand the parks' long-term development plans and management systems, and exchange experiences with enterprises already operating in the parks. Enterprises should also pay attention to Guangdong Province's green channel policies for “zero-land-increase” technical transformation projects, as well as various subsidy and support measures available to park-entry enterprises, and plan the relocation timeline reasonably to mitigate transition risks.

In conclusion, the relocation of surface treatment enterprises into industrial parks in the Pearl River Delta has moved from the policy discussion phase of “whether to relocate” to the practical implementation phase of “how to relocate and where to relocate.” For enterprises that have not yet completed park entry, initiating site selection assessment, cost estimation, and policy engagement as early as possible will not only help mitigate environmental compliance risks but may also provide greater leverage in securing park resources.