As a world-leading service provider and supplier of new chemical materials, Wanhua Chemical has always been committed to independent research and development, continuous innovation, and constantly expanding its business fields relying on its scale, technology and R&D advantages. At present, Wanhua Chemical not only has outstanding strength in the full range of polyurethane products, but also has great advantages in petrochemical products such as acrylic acid and esters, as well as rich functional materials and specialty chemicals.
As a new field that Wanhua Chemical focuses on development, Wanhua’s super absorbent resin (SAP) team has successively gone through process research and development, pilot plant design and start-up since 2010, and now the industrialized plant has been successfully put into production. It embodies Wanhua people’s core values of pragmatism and innovation, pursuit of excellence and team success. Tiantian Chemical Network conducted an exclusive interview with Zhang Lei, Deputy General Manager of Wanhua Chemical’s New Materials Division, on the status quo, future development and related businesses of the SAP industry.
Z: Mr. Zhang Lei, Deputy General Manager of New Materials Division, Wanhua Chemical Group Co., Ltd.
1. According to relevant data and statistics, there is excess SAP production capacity in the world, including the Asia-Pacific region. Recently, the “13th Five-Year Plan” also emphasized the goal of “de-capacity” in the chemical industry. Why did Wanhua choose to invest hundreds of millions do this project?
Z:At present, the global SAP production capacity is close to 4 million tons, and the production capacity in China alone has reached about 1.3 million tons, far exceeding the current actual consumption capacity. On the surface, there is indeed a problem of overcapacity, but after careful study It is found that existing SAP manufacturers are quite different in terms of product quality, innovation ability, technical service level, and stable supply ability. It’s actually very tight. Therefore, overcapacity does not mean that market demand has been effectively met. Eliminating overcapacity is a key task of the government’s supply-side reform, and this is also true in the domestic SAP industry. Wanhua has a very clear goal since the initial establishment of the SAP business project, which is to become a world-class professional SAP supplier with the core capabilities required by the above-mentioned markets.
On the other hand, the demand for SAP will continue to grow rapidly in the future, especially in the Chinese market. In 2016, the Chinese government fully implemented the two-child policy, which means that millions of new births are added every year. This is a great benefit for SAP’s most important downstream application market – the baby diaper market. Secondly, the early arrival of China’s aging population is also an opportunity for SAP’s downstream adult incontinence product market. The population will reach 400 million, accounting for more than 30% of the total population. Third, with the upgrading of people’s consumption concept and the growth of purchasing power, the penetration rate of these application markets will gradually increase. Therefore, we believe that the SAP market has huge potential in the future, and Wanhua is very confident in this.
2. Wanhua’s future goal is to become the world’s top SAP supplier. Compared with mature and experienced competitors (such as leading foreign chemical companies), what are Wanhua’s competitive advantages? Can you tell us about the future planning and layout of the project?
Z: Wanhua’s goal of becoming the world’s top SAP supplier is based on the company’s existing resources and advantages. First of all, Wanhua Chemical’s 750,000-ton/year world-class PDH plant has been successfully operated in 2015. The complete propane-propylene-acrylic acid-SAP integrated industrial chain has given Wanhua a great competitive advantage and guaranteed continuous and stable supply to customers. Ability to produce quality products.
Secondly, Wanhua Chemical independently researches and develops SAP core technology, and continuous and professional technological innovation is the source of Wanhua’s SAP competitiveness. Wanhua Chemical has always attached great importance to independent research and development. In 2015, under the background of the economic downturn, the company still invested heavily in technological innovation. For the SAP business, our product R&D and technical service teams will continue to carry out SAP product innovation and solution research according to the development trend of the sanitary materials market and other market segments, so as to ensure that we grow together with our customers. To meet the needs of the downstream consumer market.
The third advantage I think is that Wanhua has accumulated rich experience in fine polymer material manufacturing technology over the years. Taking thermoplastic polyurethane elastomer WanThane as an example, Wanhua Chemical has grown into the largest supplier in Asia and the top three suppliers in the world after just 10 years of history. reference and support. Furthermore, Wanhua is a very successful company specializing in new chemical materials that has been on the market for nearly 20 years.sp; Z:With the improvement of living standards and the upgrading of consumption concepts, consumers pay more and more attention to product quality, and have higher and higher requirements for product safety, health, and environmental protection. This in itself is social progress , A good sign of consumption upgrading. However, in this process, due to some generalized publicity, some incidents have not been investigated in depth, which is easy to mislead consumers to a certain extent. For example, in the case of fluorescent whitening agents, it is necessary to clarify the background knowledge of fluorescent substances, fluorescent reactions, and the properties of additives for consumers, and then clarify the amount of fluorescent whitening agents in feminine hygiene products and whether they can migrate. In order to have an accurate judgment on the event.
The hygiene product incidents that broke out in recent years have basically nothing to do with SAP, mainly due to the safety and health characteristics of SAP products themselves. For product testing, Wanhua Chemical has very strict standards, combined with advanced equipment and scientific and rigorous testing methods, to ensure the excellent quality of Wanhua SAP in terms of health, environmental protection and safety.
8. In recent years, the Chinese government has vigorously advocated Internet +, and vertical commodity trading platforms have emerged in an endless stream, among which steel and chemical industry are the main representatives. What is Wanhua’s opinion on the emergence of this business model? Will specific businesses try to get involved?
Z:The Internet + model has caused profound changes in various industries and fields. This is an irreversible trend in the development of the times. Traditional industries need to complete their own transformation in this wave and forge ahead OK.
Wanhua’s management theme this year is “Industry 4.0 Introduction Year”, and intelligent manufacturing is slowly infiltrating Wanhua’s production and logistics links. In fact, Wanhua has already built an official flagship store of Wanhua Chemical on the Alibaba e-commerce platform, and each business unit has also set up its own branch stores. Taking SAP products as an example, customers can find our products in the official flagship store of Wanhua New Materials Division on the Alibaba platform, and get products of the same quality and the same convenient services. In the future, Wanhua will continue to deepen the Internet + chemistry model, and provide customers with an experience that keeps pace with the times while realizing intelligent upgrades.
Further reading:
SAP is mainly used in baby diapers, adult incontinence products, feminine hygiene products, agriculture, forestry and gardening, and cable water-blocking materials. China’s hygiene product industry develops late, and there is still a big gap compared with developed countries in terms of market penetration. Affected by the full liberalization of the national “two-child policy”, baby diapers will become the main growth driver of the SAP market. At the same time, with the aging of the domestic population structure, it is expected that the demand for adult incontinence products will also maintain a medium-to-high growth rate. Tiantian Chemical Network predicts that the future development potential of the SAP industry is boundless, and the healthy and rapid development of the industry will also provide users with more high-quality raw materials for hygiene products.
Special interview with reporter from Tiantian Chemical Industry Network
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