The world's largest cotton yarn cone dyeing intelligent plant starts its construction in Xintai, a county-level city of Tai'an, Shandong province on July 22. [Photo/WeChat account: taianfabu]

The world's largest cotton yarn cone dyeing intelligent plant with an annual output of 200,000 tons started its construction in Xintai, a county-level city of Tai'an, Shandong province on July 22.

The plant, a national smart manufacturing demonstrative project, is being co-established by the Xintai government and Shandong Companion Group, which won the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2015 for its digital automatic cotton yarn cone dyeing technologies and equipment.

The digital automatic cotton yarn cone dyeing equipment is developed by Shandong Companion Group, which won the National Science and Technology Progress Award in 2015. [Photo/WeChat account: taianfabu]

With a total investment of 3.15 billion yuan ($456.56 million), the plant will cover a combined floor area of 330,000 square meters and its construction will be carried out in three stages within five years.