On January 7, 2026, HCD Group’s annual supplier conference, themed “United in Purpose, Striving for a Shared Future,” was grandly held both online and offline simultaneously at its Shanghai headquarters base and Shiyan base in Hubei.Organized by HCD Group’s Procurement Center, the conference brought together approximately 150 representatives from core suppliers across the country. Chen Ze, Vice Chairman and President of HCD Group, along with Group Vice President Xu Xianzhong, heads of various subsidiaries, key project management personnel, and overseas business teams, attended the event. Through Tencent Meeting, real-time interaction between the two locations was achieved—reviewing collaborative achievements, mapping out development strategies, and embarking on a new journey toward the future.

At exactly 3:00 PM, the event commenced simultaneously at both venues. Chen Ze, Vice Chairman and President of HCD Group, took the stage first to deliver the opening address, extending the warmest welcome and most sincere gratitude on behalf of HCD Group to all partners in attendance. He comprehensively reviewed how HCD Group, through resilient business strategies and deep industry expertise, achieved steady revenue growth for three consecutive years in the challenging year of 2025, maintaining its leading position in the industry. With customer needs at the core, HCD Group’s total order backlog has consistently remained above RMB 30 billion, providing sustained momentum for future development.Regarding specific operational and management initiatives, in the financial domain, he highlighted HCD Group’s ample operating cash flow, healthy asset-liability ratio, and substantial bank credit lines. In terms of capital market activities, HCD Group implemented a share repurchase program. In the realm of technological research and innovation, HCD Group entered into strategic partnerships with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, Shanghai Platform for Smart Manufacturing, and Harbin Institute of Technology Asset Management Company, focusing on supporting the industrialization of R&D achievements from HCD Group’s R&D centers and academic institutions. To advance international market expansion, building on the existing U.S. subsidiary, HCD Group increased investment in its Mexican subsidiary and established a European subsidiary, further expanding its global market presence.

Looking ahead, Chen Ze outlined a clear dual-drive strategy for HCD Group, centered on globalization and technological innovation, aimed at enhancing the "Group's Integrated Competitiveness." In 2026, HCD Group will steadfastly advance its internationalization efforts, accelerating the establishment of subsidiaries in Europe and the expansion of investments in subsidiaries in Mexico to build a comprehensive overseas market network covering North America and Europe. On the technological frontier, HCD Group will deepen collaborations with the Shanghai Jiao Tong University Shanghai Intelligent Manufacturing Research Institute, Shanghai Platform for Smart Manufacturing, and Harbin Institute of Technology Asset Management Company. These partnerships will focus on the research and development of embodied intelligence technologies and equipment, drive forward-looking digital research on intelligent products, and achieve breakthroughs in key technologies such as smart spatial algorithms.

Chen Ze elaborated in detail on the pivotal role suppliers play in HCD Group's development—as partners who jointly create value and grow together. HCD Group will continue to advance its strategic supplier cooperation mechanism and leverage digital tools to enhance collaborative efficiency.Emphasizing the principle of "shared responsibility," HCD Group, guided by the three foundational tenets of "quality as the baseline, long-term cost efficiency, and integrity with transparency," and through implementing specific measures such as "optimizing procurement strategies, strengthening financial support, and improving cooperation mechanisms," aims to establish strategic cooperation framework agreements with more partners. This will deepen collaboration in areas such as quality, innovation, delivery, and sustainable development, fostering stronger and more mutually trusting partnerships with all stakeholders.

The speech by Chen Ze, Vice Chairman and President of HCD Group,  not only demonstrated HCD Group's strength and confidence as an industry leader but also clearly conveyed HCD Group’s sincere commitment to sharing opportunities, facing challenges together, and growing alongside its supplier partners. This set a tone of "unity and mutual success" for the entire event.

Xu Xianzhong, Vice President of HCD Group,delivered a speech centered on the core theme of "How to Navigate Multiple Challenges and Achieve Better Development in a Complex Landscape." He provided a detailed overview of HCD Group’s business expansion from traditional domains such as body-in-white, final assembly, and conveying warehouse systems into diversified high-growth sectors, including motors and electric drives, batteries, photovoltaics, healthcare, the low-altitude economy, and construction machinery. Xu Xianzhong emphasized that amid global geopolitical and economic uncertainties, HCD Group has proactively and resolutely pursued an "overseas expansion strategy." Currently, HCD Group serves international clients across the United States, Mexico, Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Italy, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Vietnam, and other countries. In 2026, HCD Group will deepen its presence in these markets, strengthen overseas project delivery and service capabilities, enhance process coordination and resource integration between domestic and international operations, and significantly increase the scale and proportion of its overseas business.

"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." Xu Xianzhong made a special appeal to supplier partners, sincerely proposing to explore a new cooperation mechanism for "joint overseas expansion" to achieve information sharing, resource sharing, and benefit sharing. Whether product suppliers or service providers, HCD Group is willing to serve as a bridge and platform for partners venturing into international markets, collectively delivering Chinese manufacturing technology, products, and services to global customers.

Huang Mei, Financial Director of Shanghai DEMC, a subsidiary of HCD Group, delivered a speech on behalf of HCD Group's Finance Center, further reinforcing partners' confidence from a professional financial perspective. With comprehensive data, she elaborated on HCD Group's solid financial standing and robust risk management capabilities. She also affirmed that Finance Center will continue to optimize processes and enhance efficiency. Furthermore, she outlined three key expectations for collaboration: deepening information exchange, exploring innovative payment methods, and upholding the principle of integrity as the bottom line. HCD Group commits to fulfilling payment obligations in full and on time, and hopes that partners will remain dedicated to quality, ensuring the excellence of products and services. Together, both parties aim to build and share an efficient, transparent, and trustworthy financial cooperation ecosystem.

Xu Guosheng, General Manager of Shanghai Demc, recounted the journey of working alongside supplier partners and expressed gratitude for their outstanding contributions in ensuring stable supply and adhering to quality standards. He emphasized that every successful delivery is a testament to the dedication and expertise of each partner. Looking ahead to 2026, Shanghai DEMC will focus on expanding into emerging sectors such as battery electric drives and chip medical automation, while also vigorously advancing into overseas markets. Xu Guosheng shared further expectations for supplier partnerships, hoping that the collaboration will evolve beyond a transactional procurement relationship into a strategic synergy built on deep mutual trust and shared success—where both parties uphold quality as the baseline, ensure fairness in cooperation, and jointly navigate market competition.

Yi Jiqiang, General Manager of Hubei DMW, a subsidiary of HCD Group, highlighted the competitiveness brought by "excellent collaboration" with supplier partners, citing the successful delivery of iconic overseas projects such as the Berlin and Austin factory modules for T, a global leader in new energy vehicles. Looking ahead, as domestic market competition intensifies, Hubei DMW will resolutely implement HCD Group's internationalization strategy by deepening its presence in existing markets such as the United States, Germany, and Mexico, expanding new product lines in logistics and warehousing, and advancing simultaneously in both the automotive and logistics warehousing business segments. Hubei DMW aims to move beyond the traditional "procurement-supply" relationship and is committed to fostering deeper strategic partnerships with core partners, built on shared risks and mutual value creation, to collectively enhance competitiveness across the value chain. Yi Jiqiang emphasized that Hubei DMW will adhere to a partnership philosophy of "long-termism and value sharing," creating a fair and transparent collaboration environment. Hubei DMW will further refine its supplier classification management system, increase resource support for strategic partners in areas such as technical cooperation, order prioritization, and joint promotion, continuously optimize collaborative relationships, grow together with partners, and strengthen the competitiveness of the entire ecosystem.

The speeches delivered by the heads of Procurement Department from Shanghai DEMC and Hubei DMW were highly pragmatic and actionable. Zhao Zhonghua, Head of Procurement Department at Shanghai DEMC, reviewed how both parties jointly achieved a "dual leap in efficiency and quality" amid the intelligent and electrified transformation of the automotive industry. Looking ahead to the upcoming wave of collaboration, she outlined three core approaches. First, "Standardization as the foundation," which involves optimizing procurement processes, clarifying technical standards, eliminating ambiguous or exclusive clauses, and fostering a fully equitable competitive environment. Second, "United in purpose for long-term success," which emphasizes deepening collaborative innovation in technology by inviting suppliers to participate early in product design and jointly tackling core technical challenges. Third, "Win-win cooperation," which focuses on building long-term strategic partnerships through joint procurement, resource sharing, and other means to collectively reduce costs and improve efficiency, while jointly exploring overseas markets. Li Jing, Head of Procurement Department at Hubei DMW, described the relationship between both parties as a "strategic community with a shared destiny." In 2026, Hubei DMW’s procurement department will prioritize four key initiatives: deepening strategic collaboration to jointly build a high-value ecosystem; strengthening quality and delivery to solidify the foundation of cooperation; establishing a fully integrated digital and intelligent procurement system covering "Demand, R&D, Procurement, and Production"; and adhering to the principle of integrity to foster a transparent procurement environment. The speeches of both procurement heads were grounded in pragmatism, demonstrating a firm commitment to collaborating with supplier partners to jointly build a leading brand in intelligent equipment.

The globalization strategy of HCD Group has been elevated to an unprecedented priority as the core focus for HCD Group's future development. Wang Tiancheng, General Manager of the Overseas Business Department of Shanghai DEMC, delivered a speech emphasizing that expanding into international markets will be HCD Group's foremost mission over the next three to five years. The global manufacturing industry's demand for intelligent, flexible, and green solutions is stronger than ever, opening up a trillion-yuan market space for the automation equipment sector while also presenting unprecedented challenges in terms of collaboration capabilities, responsiveness, technological innovation, and global services. HCD Group is set to establish a subsidiary in Europe and expand the scale and capabilities of its Mexican operations. Competition in overseas markets will no longer be limited to individual enterprises but will extend to the comprehensive competition of entire industrial, supply, and value chains led by core companies. Wang Tiancheng outlined expectations for overseas partners: deepening collaborative innovation to jointly develop next-generation intelligent equipment, strengthening supply chain resilience to build agile and transparent global value chains, upholding quality standards to collectively enhance global brand reputation, advancing compliance and localization efforts to reduce costs and risks associated with international expansion, and practicing shared responsibility to jointly promote the development of green supply chains. This framework clearly defines the path for HCD Group and its supplier partners to advance together on the journey toward globalization.

The voices of partners were an integral part of this conference. Representatives from two industry-leading suppliers—Konecranes Equipment (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. and SMC Automation Co., Ltd.—delivered speeches on behalf of the supplier community. Ren Bingsong, representing Konecranes, spoke highly of Hubei DMW’s technical prowess and industrial vision in areas such as digital factories and intelligent conveying systems. He noted that in modern smart factories, crane equipment has evolved into a key intelligent node integrated into digital workflows. The relationship between Konecranes and Hubei DMW can be defined as "co-creators." With a foundation of excellent technology and quality, extensive global experience coupled with localized support, and a unique commitment to future-oriented collaborative innovation, Konecranes aims to partner with Hubei DMW—using system integrator-level holistic solutions as a blueprint—to jointly envision and realize the full potential of smart factories for end customers. Furthermore, he proposed three recommendations to all suppliers in attendance: "Deep mutual trust and transparent collaboration," "Shared value creation and shared responsibility," and "Embracing change and driving innovation together," calling on everyone to jointly build a new supply chain ecosystem driven by innovation and bound by trust. Chen Qi, representing SMC, reflected on the history of partnership with DEMC since 2011 and the shared growth journey. He shared stories of high-level exchanges and collaborative efforts in serving various customer projects. He emphasized that SMC’s global presence across 83 countries and its localized service capabilities provide strong support for Shanghai DEMC’s overseas expansion. From flexible production in the automotive industry to the large-scale implementation of humanoid robots, and from the升级 of traditional manufacturing to the rise of the new energy sector, every new scenario and technology calls for deeper industrial collaboration. SMC is currently discussing a comprehensive new round of strategic cooperation with Shanghai DEMC, aiming to deepen synergy in technology R&D, supply chain coordination, and market expansion, thereby contributing the strength of a core component supplier to the wave of smart manufacturing. The speeches from these two supplier representatives not only expressed strong willingness and concrete commitments to deepen cooperation with HCD Group, but also offered profound insights into building new types of partnerships from the perspective of the upstream supply chain.

As the concluding segment of the conference, Li Jun, Director of HCD  Group’s Procurement Center, comprehensively summarized the achievements of procurement operations in 2025 and outlined the strategic direction for the Group’s procurement efforts in 2026. Li Jun provided a clear overview of the scale and dynamism of procurement activities by data—in 2025, HCD Group’s total domestic and international procurement amounted to approximately RMB 2 billion, with over 7,000 contracts signed. He highlighted the innovative "Order Factoring Service" developed in collaboration with Shenzhen High-Tech Investment Group. This initiative has already served more than 10 suppliers, with factoring transactions exceeding RMB 30 million, effectively alleviating financial pressure across the supply chain and achieving genuine "win-win-win" outcomes for all parties involved. In terms of supplier management, HCD  Group has fully implemented a supplier classification and evaluation system, conducting dynamic assessments of over 400 suppliers. In 2025, the Group signed Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreements with seven suppliers. These partners serve as the "anchor" and "source of innovation" for our supply chain, and HCD Group deeply values the hard-earned trust and commitment they represent. In 2026, HCD Group will continue to advance the screening and evaluation of strategic cooperative suppliers, forging a community of shared destiny with more supplier partners to navigate challenges and achieve mutual growth.

Looking ahead to 2026, HCD Group's procurement efforts will focus on four core objectives: cost reduction and efficiency improvement, supply assurance, collaborative innovation, and risk control. To achieve these goals, four key strategies will be advanced. Digitalized and Transparent Procurement: Launch the "Procurement Quotation Management System," integrated with the OA platform, to optimize supplier management processes. Intelligent Risk Control: Incorporate "Business Credit Information" into the procurement management framework to strengthen supply chain risk management. Global Network Collaboration: Prioritize the establishment of an overseas supply chain system and actively support capable domestic suppliers in expanding globally, enabling them to seize international market opportunities together. Deepening Strategic Partnerships: Continuously enhance mechanisms for in-depth collaboration with strategic partners in technology, market development, cost optimization, and long-term agreements, while exploring more diversified cooperation models. With resounding conviction, Li Jun concluded that the achievements of 2025 were the fruits of "unity in purpose," and the accomplishments of 2026 will be forged through "shared success" in partnership.

The grand awards ceremony marked another highlight of the event. To recognize partners who made outstanding contributions over the past year, HCD Group established and presented five distinguished awards:

Intelligent Equipment Innovation Pioneer Award: Honoring partners who achieved breakthroughs in technological innovation and product development, contributing to the leadership of HCD Group’s solutions.

Strategic Partnership Commitment Award: Recognizing cornerstone partners who have stood firmly with HCD Group through challenges, fostering deep long-term collaboration and mutual growth.

Digital Manufacturing Collaboration Benchmark Award: Celebrating partners who set exemplary standards in digital delivery, data interoperability, and smart manufacturing collaboration.

Localization Breakthrough Pioneer Award: Paying tribute to partners who took on significant responsibilities and achieved substantial results in the localization of critical components and core technologies.

Service Empowerment Gold Partner Award: Commending partners who demonstrated excellence in responsiveness, on-site support, and full lifecycle services.

Amid resounding applause from both venues, award trophies and certificates were presented simultaneously to the representatives of the honored suppliers. This moment not only acknowledged their dedicated efforts but also expressed anticipation for even closer collaboration in the future. All agenda items of the conference concluded successfully in a warm, pragmatic, and forward-looking atmosphere. Following the event, attendees proceeded to the hotel banquet hall. In a relaxed and enjoyable setting, HCD Group’s management and supplier partners raised their glasses, engaging in open and in-depth exchanges on industry trends, technological pathways, and collaborative details.

Amid the global wave of digital economy and smart manufacturing, collaborative innovation and strategic win-win partnerships in the supply chain have become core drivers for enterprises to navigate change and achieve sustainable growth. The "United in Purpose, Striving for a Shared Future" supplier conference clearly conveyed the business philosophy and strategic vision of HCD Group as a technology-driven, international enterprise. It also vividly showcased a modern supply chain ecosystem—led by core enterprises and characterized by deep upstream-downstream collaboration, shared value creation, and joint risk management. As the conference theme aptly signifies, only through unity can we journey far with steadiness, and only through mutual success can we secure the future. The ship of partnership between HCD Group and all its supplier partners has set sail with full vigor, advancing toward a broader and more magnificent new era of intelligence.