Over the past several days, the roar of machinery in Hong'an High-tech Industrial Park has sounded like a horn urging an all-out sprint for a strong start in the first quarter.

Entering Hubei Ningfeng New Materials Co., Ltd., before even reaching the workshop, the reporter was struck by a raw-material yard covering more than 100 mu. More than ten-meter-high "wood mountains" rose one after another, while three grab loaders stretched out their steel claws and carefully picked timber from the "mountains."

A closer look shows that the wood here is different. It is not the neat trunks favored by traditional board mills, but branch material of mixed thicknesses and species. Some pieces are as thick as a bowl, others as thin as a thumb, with many local tree species piled together.

"The offcuts that villagers used to burn as firewood have all become treasures here," said the person in charge of the plant. Ningfeng's ultra-strong particleboard uses a special process that increases the board structure from three layers to five. It is lightweight, strong, moisture-resistant and durable, turning scraps into high-end products. Each year, the factory "consumes" 1. million tons of offcuts and produces 700,000 cubic meters of high-quality boards. About half are supplied to local enterprises, making it a true "leader" of the industrial chain.

As he spoke, a grab loader lifted a full load of branches and fed them into the log processing machine. The wood then began its remarkable journey: chipping, screening, drying, glue mixing and mat forming, before finally entering a 200-ton hot press. Loose material five centimeters thick was compressed into solid board less than 20 millimeters thick. At the other end of the workshop, boards still carrying residual heat were "spit out" one after another on a production line more than 100 meters long. A turning machine helped flip and cool them. After standing for one or two days until they fully "woke up," they returned for sanding, cutting and packing. In a workshop covering tens of thousands of square meters, only a dozen workers moved around for inspection, and the automation rate exceeds 85%.

"As the chain owner, we have to get moving first so downstream furniture factories can start work," the person in charge said. The company fully resumed operations on the sixth day of the first lunar month, with all 200 employees back at their posts and daily board output exceeding 3,000 cubic meters.

Just then, several heavy trucks loaded with boards drove out of the plant. Their destination was right next door: Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet. What had once been upstream and downstream enterprises have become neighbors facing each other across the gate.

Inside the Gold Medal Kitchen Cabinet workshop, the production lines were already running at full speed. A huge electronic saw followed computer-optimized drawings to cut raw boards from Ningfeng with extremely small tolerances. Automatic edge banding machines and drilling machines worked in sync, while robotic arms seemed to have eyes, accurately delivering workpieces to the next station. "This line has more than 90 people on one shift and can produce 22,000 door panels a day. In the past, without automation, fewer than 170 or 180 people would never have been enough," the production manager calculated on his fingers.

With Ningfeng and Gold Medal, the two leading companies, taking the lead, the entire industrial chain has been driven into motion. After the eighth day of the first lunar month, batches of products such as wooden doors from Qianchuan Doors and Windows, foam from Xinjiayuan, and wires from Baoluo Cable rolled off the lines and were shipped across the country.

Behind this bustle is the long-term accumulation of Hong'an's pan-home furnishing industry. According to a relevant person in charge of the Hong'an High-tech Zone Management Committee, the park has gathered 259 pan-home furnishing enterprises, including 90 enterprises above designated size. In 2025, it achieved 11.575 billion yuan in industrial output value above designated size, generated 636 million yuan in tax revenue, and created more than 20,000 jobs. From upstream board processing to midstream custom home furnishings and downstream logistics and sales, a complete industrial chain has already taken shape.

Source: Hubei Daily