Frequent water pollution accidents are like an engine. On the one hand, they have triggered heated discussions on drinking water safety, and on the other hand, they have accelerated the development and growth of the industrial team of water pollution control. The water pollution accident in Lanzhou and the water pollution accident in Jingjiang, Jiangsu, which have just happened, speed up the engine again.
Whether it is the traditional municipal tap water treatment process or industrial sewage, domestic sewage and seawater desalination, it generally needs to go through coagulation, sedimentation and filtration. In these three processes, some chemicals must be used. For example, flocculants should be used to condense the suspended solids in the water to separate pollutants and water; Use scale inhibitor to prevent the corrosion and scaling of pollutants on the metal surface; Use cleaning agent to prevent blockage and pollution of membrane materials.
Generally speaking, the larger the project, the more chemicals used in water treatment. Moreover, each water treatment project should not only use a variety of chemicals such as flocculant, scale inhibitor and bactericide, but also add chemicals continuously as long as the system continues to operate to ensure the quality of the required water.
Therefore, the two national conditions of increasing water pollution and water shortage are bound to bring broad and unlimited business opportunities to the narrow industry of water treatment chemicals, which originally belongs to fine chemicals.
So, can enterprises engaged in chemicals seize this huge business opportunity in time? What changes have taken place in the water treatment chemical industry in recent years?
The author recently visited the National Chemical International Exchange and Exhibition Center subordinate to China Chemical Information Center.
According to the person in charge of the exhibition center, water treatment chemicals originally belong to a professional field under the large chemical field - fine chemical industry. However, with the enhancement of environmental protection awareness, the introduction of environmental protection policies and the deterioration of pollution, the technology of water treatment chemicals has developed very rapidly, there are more and more kinds of products, the industrial team is also growing, and its application fields are becoming more and more extensive. At the same time, due to the sharp rise in domestic market demand, international chemical giants have entered China, merged everywhere, set up branches, build production bases and seize the market; Large users of central enterprises and state-owned enterprises do not let go of this excellent business opportunity. They simply run their own enterprises one after another to ensure that "fat water does not flow to outsiders"; Scientific research institutes and colleges and universities are "close to the water, the first to get the month", and have set up school run enterprises and subordinate enterprises one after another; The private enterprises engaged in fine chemical industry in the past are speeding up and developing rapidly. In short, from the situation of enterprises participating in the technical conference of water treatment chemicals held abroad and at home for nearly 10 times a year for nine consecutive years, although the industrial team of water treatment chemicals is still in a highly fragmented state, the differentiation among enterprises has begun to take shape, and the competition among enterprises is becoming increasingly fierce. Moreover, the invisible "four legions" industrial team also tends to be clear.
The first Corps: strong layout of multinational corporations
GE has a base with an annual output of 30000 tons of chemicals and a reverse osmosis membrane production line with an annual output of 100000 tons in Wuxi; BASF has built a water treatment and papermaking chemical production plant with an annual output of 40000 tons of quaternary ammonium cationic monomer and 20000 tons of cationic polyacrylamide in Nanjing, and acquired Yingge company, a German nanofiltration expert, to obtain Yingge's business of drinking water, seawater desalination and sewage treatment in China; Dow Chemical has built a reverse osmosis membrane component production line in Huzhou, Zhejiang, covering an area of 20000 square meters, and has extensive cooperation in water treatment business with Shenzhen water affairs, Shandong Guoxin, Haier and other enterprises; Ashland has established a Chinese R & D center in Shanghai, which provides a package of solutions aimed at saving energy, reducing water consumption and protecting the environment for China's paper industry; In addition, companies such as Nalco, Essen and Rohm Haas have also established strong R & D centers and production bases in China, and cooperated with many institutions. The characteristics of this corps are high popularity, strong comprehensive strength, rich management experience, complete product series and rapid development. However, the operating cost of the company is very high and may be "acclimatized".
The Second Corps: large enterprises run by themselves
As petroleum, chemical industry, electric power, iron and steel, nonferrous metals, printing and dyeing all belong to industries with high water consumption, high emission and high pollution, the national development and Reform Commission has also issued a series of policies and regulations on energy conservation and emission reduction for these major industries, limited water intake and actively promoted "zero emission". These enterprises are also super large state-owned enterprises. Therefore, these enterprises simply set up chemical companies themselves to meet the production needs of enterprises. For example, Dezhou Power Plant Industrial Company under Huaneng Group, water supply comprehensive plant under WISCO, chemical plant under Changchun water supply company, Miaoqing Technology Industrial Company under Shanghai Petrochemical, water treatment agent plant under Baotou Iron and steel comprehensive enterprise group, etc. The characteristics of this corps, industry division is more obvious, "horse racing enclosure, each eat a stall". In addition, because the production of such enterprises is mainly to meet the needs of superior enterprises, mostly belonging to tertiary industries or affiliated enterprises, the scale of enterprises is small, ranging from dozens to hundreds of people, single product variety, general technical content and weak competitiveness, but the market is relatively stable.
The third Corps: subordinate enterprises of colleges and Universities
Chemical universities and scientific research institutes can be described as "near water tower" because they concentrate all the technical, talent, scientific research, instruments and laboratory advantages of chemical industry, and the water treatment market is so hot. Therefore, various universities and scientific research institutes have also set up school run enterprises and subordinate enterprises. For example, the water treatment center of Tianjin Research Institute of chemical industry, the fine chemical plant of Beijing University of chemical technology, the water treatment technology engineering center of Nanjing University of technology, Xindayu fine chemicals company of Beijing Research Institute of chemical industry, the water treatment technology service center of Sinopec, Sinochem Beijing Tianlong water treatment technology company, etc. The characteristics of this corps are leading technical level, certain popularity, high personnel quality and R & D ability. However, the lagging system and some bad habits of public institutions formed over the years will lead to slow development. Customers basically think that a few enterprises in the industry are the main ones.
The fourth Corps: Private Enterprises
At present, there are only 10 domestic enterprises with hundreds of millions of water treatment chemicals, most of which are private enterprises. These enterprises should be the most promising in the future because of their flexible mechanism, rapid development and low operating cost. For example, Jianghai environmental protection Co., Ltd., Henan Qingshuiyuan Technology Co., Ltd., Shandong Taihe water treatment Co., Ltd., Wujin Water quality stabilizer plant, Kewei fine chemical, Wujin fine chemical plant and Yao Tongde chemical in Changzhou, Lujin chemical plant and Zibo water purifying agent plant in Zouping, Shandong, and Hengju and Tianqing in Beijing. The characteristics of this corps are relatively obvious regionalization, which can be roughly divided into Jiangsu film, Shandong film, Henan film and Beijing Tianjin Hebei film. However, the disadvantage is the lack of human resources, limited technical level, and limited by certain policy barriers in terms of financing and customers.
However, the change of everything in the world is absolute.
Just like the "giant, big, China and China" in the telecommunications industry in those years, do the four legions who believe in the growing water treatment chemicals also face the reshuffle of the whole industry in the near future? Will the water treatment chemicals industry also produce private or state-owned enterprises like Huawei that go global?
