Honeywell International, a Fortune 500 company, set up its largest production base of friction materials in Chongqing with the aim of providing brake pads for the nation’s fast-growing automobile industry.

The production plant, located in Yufu Industrial Park in Chongqing's Liangjiang New Area, with a production area of 23,000 square meters, is only staffed by a few workers due to the company's highly automotive equipment. One employee can monitor and manage a whole warehouse with the help of Honeywell's computer auto-management system.

The production base was established following cooperation between the management committee of the Liangjiang New Area and Honeywell. In September 2010, senior executives from the company inspected the new area and Chongqing's emerging laptop industry and planned to move Honeywell's IT service business to the area.

The construction of the base started in November 2010 and operation started in May 2012. It has an annual output capacity of about 7 million brake pads.

Once the project's first and second phases are completed, the annual output capacity is expected to reach 21 million and 42 million, respectively.

Four months after the brake pad base started operation, the company signed another strategic cooperation memorandum involving the new area's general aviation industry, with the two sides agreeing to set up an industrial and general aviation industry technology research and development center in the area.

According to the memorandum, the company will help the area to set up west China's aviation industry chain with a research and development base, production base, maintenance center, and airport construction project, with the aim of transforming the area into an aviation industry highland in west China.

The company also decided to sign more cooperation agreements with the new area relating to a "smart" city, cloud computing, energy saving and environmental protecting.