(Yicai Global) May 15 -- Multinational medical behemoths are raising their local production of parts even for high-end devices in China to reduce costs.

In the past, multinationals were mostly making their medium and low-end products in China but since last year, the manufacturing of Siemens Healthineers' high-end products has also been localized, Huang Yi, vice president of the Chinese arm of the German medical device giant, said to Yicai Global during the ongoing 87th China International Medical Equipment Fair in Shanghai.

For some medical products of Siemens, the localization ratio of component manufacturing has risen to about 80 percent, Yicai Global learned.

The firm is debuting more advanced technologies. A photon-counting CT scanner, a next-level device that can improve the quality of X-rays, entered China's special review procedure for innovative medical equipment in February 2022. Moreover, several hospitals have ordered the company's brand new 7-Tesla MRI machine since the imaging device that is used to detect brain injury was approved to enter the market last year.

During the CMEF, Siemens Healthineers is celebrating a series of homegrown debuts, including devices for high-end Dual Source CT scans, 3T MRI, positron emission tomography, X-ray, and angiography. Almost 20 China-made products are expected to hit the market this year, VP Wang Tao said.

GE Healthcare, which was spun off from the American conglomerate last month, is unveiling 23 innovation outcomes at the event, including equipment for molecular imaging, magnetic resonance, angiography, and ultrasound, and 18 of them are developed and manufactured in China.

Carestream Health, a New York-headquartered radiology giant, is also seeing potential. China has overtaken the United States to become the firm's biggest market worldwide, per Liu Jie, president of the company's China arm. Carestream has been able to slash its costs by about 40 percent by establishing local supply chains and the localization ratio of some products now exceeds 90 percent, Liu added.

Editors: Xu Wei, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi