Ngawa Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture

Aba was established as a prefecture in 1953 (the Sichuan Tibetan Autonomous Region, renamed the Aba Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in 1955 and later the Qiang-Tibetan Joint Autonomous Prefecture); its traditional economy rested on farming, herding and forestry. The main thread of industrialisation is hydro and minerals: hydro development on the upper Min River (Taipingyi, Zipingpu and others) and the upper Dadu River (the Pubugou reservoir area touches the Hanyuan-Aba boundary) has advanced since the 1990s, making Aba an important source point for Sichuan's outbound hydropower; mining and beneficiation of lithium, gold, silicon and other minerals were developed at scale for a period (geological work on the Ke'eryin lithium belt began in the 1960s). The 2008 Wenchuan mega-earthquake badly damaged the prefecture's industry and infrastructure, and post-disaster rebuilding reshaped its industrial and urban layout; tourism facilities were upgraded again after the 2017 Jiuzhaigou earthquake.

In 2025 Aba's above-scale industrial value added grew steadily, with clean energy the first pillar: the upper-Min hydro cascade generates steadily, and development of the Maerkang-Jinchuan Ke'eryin lithium belt (spodumene mining and beneficiation projects) advances in orderly fashion — seen as Aba's biggest industrial increment; green energy-carrier industry (industrial silicon and others) holds its scale on the hydro resource; tourism (Jiuzhaigou, Huanglong, Mount Siguniang, Dagu Glacier) is the pillar of the tertiary sector, with steady O&M demand for scenic facilities (cableways, eco-buses, smart-scenic-area systems). Under the constraints of ecological protection red lines, industrial project admission is strict.

Operators of the upper-Min hydro project group, the owners of mining and beneficiation projects in the Ke'eryin lithium belt (Maerkang / Jinchuan / Songpan districts), green energy-carrier firms (industrial silicon and others), and the Jiuzhaigou / Huanglong scenic-area operators.

Aba's market structure is similar to Ganzi's, mostly field service on energy and mining projects: hydro station M&E overhauls and preventive testing (in plateau winter windows) are highly specialised; new-build commissioning orders for crushing, grinding-flotation, conveying and drying equipment at lithium mining and beneficiation projects scale up with the Ke'eryin development; upkeep and mandatory annual-inspection rectification of scenic special equipment (passenger cableways, sightseeing vehicles, sewage treatment and smart-scenic-area facilities) is a speciality line; and under ecological red-line constraints, environmental compliance requirements on equipment O&M are high. Our focus: commissioning and upkeep at lithium concentrators, scheduled hydro station M&E inspections, and upkeep of scenic cableways and environmental facilities.