Gasgoo Munich- Panasonic unveiled a new regional strategy for China on Nov. 6 during the 9th China International Import Expo. Masaharu Nakayama, Executive Officer of Panasonic Holdings, Group Regional Head for China & Northeast Asia, announced that the company will zero in on three sectors: AI infrastructure, advanced manufacturing, and smart healthy living spaces. The move aligns with China's 15th Five-Year Plan priorities and Panasonic's own global growth targets for 2032.
Image Source: Panasonic
Advanced manufacturing, in particular, is emerging as a key pillar of Panasonic's China expansion. Leveraging its high-speed surface mounters, welding equipment, and automated control tech, the company is pushing deeper into applications spanning electronics, new energy vehicles, shipbuilding, and heavy equipment.
Image Source: Panasonic
In electronics manufacturing, Panasonic's NPM-series high-speed mounters blend micron-level motion control with high-precision visual recognition. The NPM-GW line, showcased at this year's expo, handles printed circuit boards up to 1,500 mm long and weighing 10 kg — ideal for producing large AI server boards and automotive power boards. Panasonic also tracks fluctuations in 5M production factors in real time, pairing automation with AI-driven logic to keep factories running autonomously and stably.
Image Source: Panasonic
On the automotive side, Panasonic is fusing its core arc-welding technology with digital and AI tools. The push aims to deploy smart welding robots across the new energy vehicle and heavy-equipment sectors, using interconnected devices and automated controls to sharpen weld quality and boost production efficiency.
As for capacity, the second phase of Panasonic's Suzhou Production Technology factory — built with a 240 million yuan investment — will be completed in 2025, doubling output. Meanwhile, the Tangshan Panasonic plant is on track to hit 2 billion yuan in sales for fiscal 2026.
Image Source: Panasonic
The AI infrastructure business is also scaling up. Panasonic aims to double global capacity for its MEGTRON high-performance multilayer substrate materials by 2030, having already poured roughly 2.2 billion yuan into its Guangzhou and Suzhou hubs. At the new Suzhou electronic materials plant, Phase 1 is slated to begin mass production this December, with Phase 2 following in August 2028. These substrates are chiefly used in AI servers and high-speed telecom gear.
Beyond that, Panasonic will grow its smart healthy living space business and push products developed locally in China into global markets.
