HAIKOU, January 28. /TASS/. Chinese building materials manufacturer Hainan Huasheng has set up a big industrial facility in the eastern part of Hainan Island to produce polycarbonate, a polymer material actively used in modern industry, reported the island administration.
According to the material published on the website of the Hainan government, the plant is located in Dongfang's industrial zone. Initial investments exceeded 3.11 billion yuan ($ 479.6 million at current exchange rates). Approximately 40% of this amount was spent in 2020. About 2,100 workers were mobilized for the construction, which was carried out 24/7.
According to Hainan Huasheng, the plant will start mass production in test mode in the coming months. At the first stage, it is planned to annually produce up to 520 thousand tons of polycarbonate and 448 thousand tons of diphenyl carbonate (raw materials for the production of linear polyesters), as well as several hundred thousand tons of other important chemical raw materials.
"This industrial site is home to some of the largest monomer (raw material for polymer) production in the world," said the company's Deputy General Director Yu Hai.
In the near future, the company intends to invest another 13 billion yuan (about $ 2 billion) in the production of polycarbonate, as a result, this facility will produce products worth 20 billion yuan per year (about $ 3 billion). In the foreseeable future, Hainan Huasheng plans to create several thousand new jobs on the island, stimulate the development of a number of industrial, logistics and trading companies.
Polycarbonate is a product that is constantly in high demand in China. Local enterprises annually produce about 600,000 tonnes of this polymer and purchase about 1.3 million tonnes abroad. Thus, China is still about 63% dependent on imports in this industry.