14 | Wednesday, December 30, 2020 HONG KONG EDITION | CHINA DAILY BUSINESS Chemical firms underline innovation for greener future By WANG YING in Shanghai companies, not only in product [email protected] innovation but in service innova- tion and communication innova- Chemical companies in China tion,” said Yoke Loon Lim, director believe they have been able to of AICM and president of Dow’s ride out the economic impact of China unit. COVID-19 so far, and are begin- The unprecedented challenges ning to explore fresh growth of the pandemic period have sensi- opportunities the pandemic sit- tized both industry insiders and uation has created, industry the general public to the critical experts said. role of chemicals in everyday life. Among their new focus areas are Chemicals are everywhere, sup- intelligent manufacture of chemi- porting people’s health and well- cals, industry digitalization, ness in a variety of ways and research and development, low forms. carbon emission technologies, and Hence, “we (industry people) new materials that can replace are always inspired to unceasingly plastics, they said. explore more innovations”, Lim During the initial phase of the said. pandemic, chemical firms strug- “Since the outbreak of COVID- gled to resume production and 19, we quickly decided to signifi- Pedestrians pass milk tea stores in Pingnan county, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region. PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY maintain their supply chain activi- cantly reduce the number of on- ties. site employees and shift local Thanks to quick and effective control to remote control at our containment of the spread of the Shanghai center,” said Li Zhen- novel coronavirus, and availability min, head of multinational indus- of adequate personal protective trial gases and engineering Milk tea brings sweet earnings equipment, the industry recovered company Linde in China and an sooner than expected. adviser to AICM. As the New Year 2021 beckons, Li said most of Linde’s plants chemical enterprises find them- across China can be controlled and selves well placed to deal with operated in Shanghai with digital COVID-related threats, and are solutions, and Linde is constantly to Pingnan entrepreneurs realizing that new growth oppor- developing intelligent methodolo- tunities go hand in hand with chal- gies and vigorously exploring lenges, said senior executives e-commerce to attract customers. In 1990, young worker from Guangxi ple from Lanzhou, Gansu province, mainly target the medium and low- during an industry event. “As a traditional B2B (business- and their famous noodles, Pingnan end markets. Instead of competing The event is the closing ceremo- to-business) enterprise, we’ve sets the sector brewing in Guangdong milk tea stores became ubiquitous with newly emerged high-end ny of Open To Public or OTP Day deployed a lot of resources to in China,” Wang added. brands, it was utilizing the business 2020, which was organized by the online marketing so far this year,” By ZHENG YIRAN in Beijing and set up another five stores shortly However, with the growth of the mode of small profits and quick Association of International Li said. SHI RUIPENG in Pingnan, Guangxi thereafter. millennial generation, who serve as returns. Chemical Manufacturers in China has the world’s most cut- Chen said he was astonished at the backbone of milk tea consump- “Moreover, with the whole indus- Shanghai recently. ting-edge and advanced chemical Thirty years ago, Chen Youjie, the early success of his milk tea tion, alongside the influx of social trial line mastered, Pingnan milk The AICM represents more than industry chain, boasting more then 19 years old, headed to business. At that time, the average capital, new milk tea brands, teas have been conducting capital 70 major foreign investments in than 30 percent of the world’s Guangzhou, Guangdong province, monthly salary level of people in including Hey Tea, Lelecha and intervention by taking over other China’s chemical industry. Its chemical output. from his hometown in Pingnan Guangzhou was 300 yuan. For Naixue’s Tea, now compete with milk tea brands. From milk tea members’ businesses span R&D, Every chemical company in Chi- county, Guangxi Zhuang autono- Chen, his first milk tea store in Pingnan’s milk teas. itself to capital injection, the transi- manufacture, transportation, dis- na should make a long-term plan mous region, for an oil sector job. He Tianhe could sell more than 1,000 Chen Rensheng said that prod- tion helped it to gain core competi- tribution and disposal of chemi- based on its positioning, strength- never imagined that the milk tea cups a day, bringing him a daily net uct design and packaging from tiveness,” he said. cals. en the R&D abilities and focus on business he started at the time profit of around 500 yuan. new milk tea stores seemed to be Following the success of Ping- “From the business perspective, core businesses, Zhu said. would help lift his hometown out of Chen then came back to Pingnan better than traditional milk tea nan’s milk teas, Chen Youjie also COVID-19 brings more opportuni- Toward that goal, Linde has poverty. and brought six fellow villagers to shops. wanted to help poor villagers in ties than impacts for the chemical thousands of patented technolo- Currently, milk tea brands set up Guangdong. They quickly acquired “And startup capital for a milk Pingnan. For fruit farmers, the industry. gies to help its clients cut green- by entrepreneurs from Pingnan milk tea business operational tea shop is higher than in the past. Guangxi Pingnan Milk Tea Associa- For example, personal protec- house emissions, and efforts in have surpassed 200, and offline knowledge from Chen, and then A normal store needs at least tion offered technical guidance and tion products like masks, disinfec- this direction are continuing, Li stores selling the products now brought their relatives to 100,000 yuan, and a high-end one helped them market their produce tants and pharmaceuticals are all said. stand at more than 40,000, covering Guangzhou, Dongguan and other can cost up to 600,000 yuan,” he — which included lemons and pas- made with various chemicals,” For its part, Cabot Corp will pay not only China but Southeast Asian cities in Guangdong. said. sion fruit — at market prices via said Jeff Zhu, chairman of AICM particular attention to R&D of countries. Annual sales revenue “At that time, almost overnight, In March 2018, Chen Youjie signed sales agreements. and senior vice-president of Cabot new energy applications, or photo- from their companies topped 50 bil- Guangdong was full of Pingnan established the Guangxi Pingnan For those who wanted to get Corp, a chemical company. voltaic, solar energy, and lithium- lion yuan ($7.6 billion) last year, tak- milk tea stores,” said Chen Ren- Milk Tea Association. He served as involved in the milk tea business, “Since the second half of this ion batteries. ing up around 20 percent of China’s sheng, one of the fellow villagers chairman and Chen Rensheng the association helped them start year, demand across the industry In China as well as the rest of the market share for the beverages. from Pingnan. stood as secretary-general. The up a franchise without charging chain has been sufficient, and the world, the plastics industry is now Moreover, the milk tea industry in Thanks to Chen Youjie selflessly association serves as an informa- them, offering each entrepreneur pandemic’s impact has been limit- subject to higher production and the small county employs nearly passing on business experience and tion and resources sharing plat- technical guidance, equipment ed to the period from February to environmental standards, in order 200,000. technical skills, Pingnan milk tea form. It not only connects the local and raw materials worth 10,000 May. In my view, there will be sus- to reduce sales and daily use of its “Back in 1996, when I was an oil stores began flourishing nation- government with the industry, but yuan. So far, the association has tainable demand for more chemi- products. sector worker in Guangdong, bub- wide since 2000. also pairs upstream suppliers with helped 300 struggling households cal materials as well as higher Chemical companies are devel- ble milk tea became popular there. Wang Gangyi, a professor at the downstream milk tea enterprises. run milk tea businesses of their standard chemical products in the oping scientific, harmless solu- The tea was sold for 5 yuan a cup, College of Economics and Manage- With the help of the association, own. long run,” Zhu said. tions for treatment of plastic and a lot of young people lined up ment at Northeast Agricultural Pingnan residents are making milk Yang Dadong, deputy secretary Even after the pandemic gets products. to buy it. That was when I thought I University, visited Pingnan for field tea using refined methods. Each of the Pingnan county Party com- completely contained, strong This is a challenge as well as could change my career and estab- research in October 2019. family first takes over a mature mittee and head of Pingnan county, development of the whole chemi- an opportunity for the future, lish my milk tea business, which, “The milk tea business based on brand, and then when the brand said: “With milk tea stores spring- cal industry chain will continue, said Sun Lihong, president for compared with oil extraction, was lineage relations helped local attains a certain market share ing up everywhere in Pingnan, the he said. Solvay in China and an adviser to not that hard and much cleaner,” households quickly form a milk locally, they develop a new brand. government will offer support to Zhu’s view finds an echo among AICM.