The 6th CIIE is about to open, and everyone is rushing to do this "business" this year
On November 4, the construction and exhibition layout period of the 6th China International Import Expo (hereinafter referred to as the "Expo"), which has fully resumed offline offline, will end and will officially open its doors tomorrow.
At the regular press conference held on the 3rd, Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said that this year's CIIE is expected to welcome guests from 154 countries, regions and international organizations, attracting more than 3,400 exhibitors to register. Australian Prime Minister Albanese, Cuban Prime Minister Marrero, Kazakh Prime Minister Smailov, Serbian Prime Minister Brnabic and other leaders will attend the opening ceremony and related activities of the Expo, the United States sent a delegation led by senior officials for the first time to participate, and Russia will hold more than 500 business meetings at the Expo.
Since the first CIIE was held in 2018, the "circle of friends" of the CIIE has continued to expand, and it has become an important platform for foreign companies to tap the potential of China's vast market. According to statistics, in the first five CIIEs, there were more than 15,000 exhibitors in the enterprise business exhibition, more than 2,000 representative new products, new technologies and new services, and a cumulative turnover of nearly 350 billion US dollars.
According to Lei Huanli, Senior Vice President of Covestro and President of Covestro China, CIIE is a "super platform" where you can connect all the partners you want to connect with, not only to showcase their innovative ideas, but also to showcase their skills and strengths, and to turn ideas into reality through this connection.
Behind such a connection, everyone is rushing to do the "business" of zero carbon. Originally, more things that were still in the stage of ideas and visions have gradually become a reality this year, and have become the strength of many exhibitors competing to show this year.
At a press conference held by the Information Office of the State Council on October 23, Sheng Qiuping, Vice Minister of Commerce, revealed that this year's exhibition area focuses on high-quality development and high-quality life, with a 30% increase in the exhibition area of cutting-edge science and technology such as energy and low-carbon, artificial intelligence and the exhibition area of consumer goods, and more than 400 new products, new technologies and new services will be displayed.
"Circular" economy
Starting in 2021, Covestro participated in the exhibition for the third time in a row. Lei Huanli shared the changes in the theme of the three years at the media communication conference held on November 1, "The first year was to lead, the second year was to use co-creation, and the third year of this year is to create (a new realm of net zero), and this year we can see that many of the things we discussed with our partners last year have been turned into practical applications."
Benefiting from the spillover effect of the Expo, Covestro announced plans to put into production or build new production sites in China this year. In October, Covestro officially started production in Shanghai with the world's first dedicated production line for physical recycling of polycarbonate with a maximum capacity of 25,000 tons, in September, it broke ground on the world's largest thermoplastic polyurethane production site in Zhuhai, and in August, it completed the construction of a waterborne polyurethane dispersion plant in Shanghai.
Regarding the decision of enterprises to increase investment in China, Lei Huanli used "business in business" to explain the motivation. She believes that China is the world's largest market for polycarbonate, and in 2011, she chose to move the global headquarters of the polycarbonate business to Shanghai, in order to bring the company closer to the market and improve the quality and speed of corporate decision-making. Therefore, no matter how the external market changes, even if the complex global situation has caused them trouble, "there is no market more worthy of investment than China, so they still have confidence in China and want to continue to cultivate."
As an old friend of the CIIE for six consecutive years, Heraeus, which started from precious metal raw materials, is also focusing on the recycling of materials. Last year, Heraeus and BASF agreed to form a joint venture to recover platinum group precious metals from used catalysts for China's high-tech industry to enable circular economy solutions.
At the 7th Heraeus Precious Metals Forum held on November 1, Andre Christl, CEO of Heraeus Precious Metals, told Yicai that the joint venture's production base in Pinghu, Zhejiang Province has entered the stage of equipment commissioning and is scheduled to be officially put into operation early next year. The plant will recover precious metals from used automotive catalysts as part of Heraeus Precious Metals' investment in expanding recycling capacity worldwide.
Christie said that as a German technology group, they have not only achieved a 100% localized Chinese management team, but also continued to increase R&D investment in China in recent years. "We have decided to continue to invest in R&D in functional materials and hydrogen energy, and further enrich our products, so that more overseas high-end products can be localized."
In an interview on November 2, Ren Xinting, general manager of German plastics and rubber machinery manufacturer KraussMaffei China, told Yicai that at this year's CIIE, they will showcase more innovative products based on German technology and developed for the Chinese market, especially a series of solutions for lightweight and recyclable plastics in the field of new energy vehicle manufacturing.
"Now many brands have requirements for the proportion of renewable materials, and plastic recycling has been widely spread abroad. In China, because policy changes and economic efficiency still need to be improved, it is still in progress. But the country has decided to put on the first plastic recycling production line. Ren Xinting revealed. Seven years ago, ChemChina acquired KraussMaffei for 925 million euros, the largest Chinese investment in Germany at the time. Nowadays, more and more German technologies are accelerating the implementation of China's low-carbon rigid needs, filling the gap in the domestic market, and exporting innovative technologies realized by Sino-foreign cooperation to the world.
Bio-based materials
除了可回收的材料，橙皮、稻壳以及生物油等一系列Bio-based materials也将在今年的进博会上成为亮点。
This is the third time that Michelin has entered the CIIE. As the first inbound exhibit at this year's CIIE, Michelin's 63% sustainable tires arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport from Luxembourg on September 21 this year, and will make their Asian debut tomorrow. This is a further innovation in the 46% sustainable material tires presented at the 2021 CIIE.
The sustainable materials used in this "green tire" include natural rubber, carbon black from scrap tires, steel from scrap steel, and extracts of orange peel, lemon peel, rosin and sunflower oil, which are suitable for hydrogen prototype racing cars and Porsche's electric race cars.
Ye Fei, President and CEO of Michelin China, told the story about rice husks in advance at the living room event of the CIIE held on October 31. He said that rice husks are the outer coating of rice, which accounts for 20 percent of the weight of raw rice, and was originally the main waste of rice processing, but according to the research, rice husks have a usable property that is that the silica content accounts for 18 percent of their weight. Since the production process is thermally self-sufficient, the production of silica from rice husks not only recovers energy, but also significantly reduces CO2 emissions. Silica made from rice husks reduces the carbon footprint by more than 90% compared to silica made using conventional processing techniques.
Ye Fei revealed that at present, Michelin's factory in Shenyang has taken the lead in industrialization. Every year, thousands of tonnes of silica extracted from rice husks are used in tire manufacturing.
According to Michelin's target of achieving an average of 40% sustainable materials in tires across all product lines by 2030; By 2050, all tires will be produced from 100% bio-based, renewable and recyclable sustainable materials.
A number of multinational companies in the aviation field, represented by Honeywell, will also discuss sustainable aviation fuel and showcase cutting-edge technologies at this year's CIIE.
Schneider Electric, an old friend of the same CIIE, will demonstrate Schneider's carbon reduction capabilities in an all-round way this year through zero-carbon application scenarios covering 14 industries. Yin Zheng, executive vice president of Schneider Electric, said that with the help of the CIIE platform, they will continue to increase innovation and work with all partners to promote the "dual transformation" and help China move towards high-quality development and carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals.
