The added value of the pump and motor industry in Wenling, a county in Taizhou, East China's Zhejiang province, saw a year-on-year increase of 10.2 percent to 1.84 billion yuan ($259.91 million) in the first five months of this year, local media reported on June 26.

The pump and motor industry is the largest industry in Wenling, which currently houses more than 2,700 relevant companies, including 220 above designated size. In 2019, the output value of the industry exceeded 45 billion yuan.

The yield of small-sized water pumps in Wenling accounts for two thirds of the domestic market and one seventh of the global market.

However, due to the COVID-19 outbreak earlier this year, the pump and motor industry in the county came to a sudden standstill.

After these companies resumed operations in mid-Februray, they have sought to upgrade their products in a bid to expand their market.

For example, Zhejiang EiiMan Technology Co Ltd has cooperated with a technological team from Shenzhen to develop frequency changers for water pumps, which immediately gained great popularity among its customers.

"An ordinary water pump will become a variable frequency water pump after being equipped with our frequency changer," said Wang Shaohua, president of EiiMan. "The variable frequency water pump's work efficiency will also be improved by six or seven percent."

According to Wang, their production bases have been running at full capacity since resuming operations and their output value in the first five months of this year is equivalent to that of last year.

Jiang Sheng, secretary-general of Zhejiang Wenling Pump and Motor Technological Innovation Service Platform, believes that the variable frequency water pump can better satisfy customer demand than ordinary ones in the present climate.

"Permanent magnet motors represent the future trend," noted Jiang. "To equip pumps with a permanent magnet motor is the development trend in the pump and motor industry."

According to Jiang, pump and motor manufacturers in Wenling have successfully developed several relevant products.