In 2024, the global economy was sluggish, and the supply and demand of the domestic chemical industry was under continued pressure with more intense competition, depressed key chemical products industries with low product prices. Amid ongoing pressure, Sinochem International took on a proactive approach to tackle the situation. This involved measures such as focusing on its core business of material science, relentlessly promoting the establishment of an operation excellence system, adopting excellent production and cost reduction initiatives, and rolling out excellent marketing campaign，optimized cash flow and working capital control systems, and implemented strict controls on operating risks. Meanwhile, the company made steady progress on its major strategic projects，C3 Industry Project made consistent developments while the accelerator and aramid projects were implemented as scheduled. Sinochem International also engaged in continued efforts to strengthen reforms, focus on technological innovation, and comprehensively improve operational quality.
1.Focus on annual production and operation targets, and promote quality and efficiency improvements through operation excellence
In 2024, the company continued to perform in-depth and regular efforts to build an operation excellence system and establish a vertical connection among the headquarters, industrial chain and production bases. Through adopting in-depth and practical measures to improve quality and efficiency through operation excellence, the company established and implemented key quality and efficiency improvement projects while addressing bottleneck issues present in production and operations.
Procurement：Sinochem International comprehensively enhanced excellent procurement professional capabilities, and made special effort to reduce procurement costs through the centralized procurement of bulk raw materials, centralization of logistics and spare parts, optimization of warehouse storage, and reduction of costs from operating service providers, effectively reducing costs from the procurement end.
Sales：Sinochem International improved sales capabilities based on the eight-step method technology marketing strategy, and implemented precise marketing and refined management through four aspects, namely “steady mindsets, steady operations, steady customers, and steady team”. In 2024, the company overcame the effects of sluggish demand and stabilized sales of key products such as antioxidants, bisphenol A, epoxy resins, and nylon 66 to achieve year-on-year growth of 6.26%, 32.40%, 23.49% and 70.99% respectively.
Production：Sinochem International strengthened the management of production and operations, comprehensively implemented key production improvement measures, improved the reliability of equipment operations, and ensured safe and stable plant operations over the long term. In 2024, the capacity utilization rate of key plants steadily increased, among which there was a yearly production capacity amounting to 1.84 million tons for C3 industry chain products in 2024, recording a year-on-year growth rate of 89%.
2.Roll out key strategic projects and integrate the foundation for the development of core industries
In 2024, Sinochem International strengthened and improved the construction management aspect of key engineering projects, and the company's internal and external resources were concentrated on efforts to promote project construction activities while ensuring safety and quality.
C3 Industry Chain: The C3 industry chain project commenced full operations, with all production units operating stably throughout the year and a steadily increasing overall capacity utilization rate.
Polymer Additives Industry Chain: The accelerator project progressed smoothly as planned and the feeding and trial run commenced in the second half of 2024.
Aramid Industry Chain: The 2,500 tons/year aramid expansion project commenced its feeding and trial run in the fourth quarter of 2024 as planned.
3.Intensify reforms and strengthen the company's endogenous growth and innovative development
In 2024, to better carry out industrial mission of “strengthening areas of weakness in the new chemical materials”, Sinochem International performed practical measures to intensify reform and upgrading initiatives for state-owned enterprises in eight areas. Such areas included industrial control, technological innovation, safety support, professional integration, foundation building and problem solving, and corporate governance.
Sinochem International also made further enhancements to the specialization and verticalization of its management in 2024. The integrated management of the industrial chain and functional management has begun to yield results, and the said reforms have been generating gains and benefits. The company established an overseas marketing platform, optimized the overseas market setup, built new overseas outlets and warehousing and logistics systems to accelerate the export of chemical products. Meanwhile, the company adhered to a "front-end focus, middle-end coordination, and back-end transformation" approach for key R&D projects relying on science and technology system reform, and created an integrated technology innovation system.
4.Continuously innovate and improve the output of scientific and technological achievements
In 2024, Sinochem International’s R&D investment amounted to 776 million yuan while new product sales revenue amounted to 9.703 billion yuan. The company closely monitored the development of its core businesses and market customer needs, concentrating on key R&D projects such as epoxy resins, engineering plastics, aramid, and polymer additives to achieve new breakthroughs. Yangnong Group’s “key technology development and industrialization of high-quality hexamethylenediamine produced by caprolactam process” has been appraised by China Petroleum and the Chemical Industry Federation for its scientific and technological achievements, and its overall technology has been found to be of internationally leading standards. Sennics Anhui’s Methyl Isoamyl Ketone (MIAK) was recognized as one of the “innovative new chemical material product of 2023” and its engineering demonstration line has been operating stably and the progress of its industrialization project has been accelerated. Sinochem High Performance Fiber was selected as a national-level specialized, sophisticated and innovative "little giant" enterprise by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and a specialized, sophisticated and innovative small and medium-sized enterprise of Jiangsu Province. Meanwhile, Sennics was selected as one of the national manufacturing enterprise champions (for a single product) of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
As of the date of this report, the company and its subsidiaries have 12 high-tech enterprise qualifications, 5 national level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise qualifications, 3 manufacturing enterprise champions (for a single product) qualifications, and 1 National Enterprise Technology Center.