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IP concerns hamper China research Survey shows most foreign firms assign a secondary role to their Chinese R&D operations The most effective way for China to Lack of intellectual property protection is attract more corporate R&D would be to dissuading many foreign companies from improve intellectual property protection, letting their China research and developaccording to nearly six out of 10 survey rement operations participate in strategic research, according to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai. Most large foreign firms surveyed do not assign a “While many companies have critical role to their Chinese R&D operations. established an R&D presence in Most important China, most are reluctant to bring Center of minimal R&D center importance their core technologies, and some 4% 17% companies have recently closed or scaled back their R&D investment,” the report noted. Second or third One of many most important The survey included responses supporting center R&D centers from 52 member companies, 10 35% 44% of which are from the biotech and pharmaceutical sector and 22 of Number of respondents = 52 which engage in advanced manufacturing. The chamber noted that Source: American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai one in 10 respondents have already invested $100 million in their Chispondents. Almost one-third also said that na R&D operations. improvements to the Chinese legal system China is the world’s second-largest would help. market, after the U.S., for many types of However, the R&D efforts of foreign products, including pharmaceuticals. But companies in China are having a signifionly a third of survey respondents have cant economic impact. About half of the made China the location for their secsales of new products launched in Shangond or third most important R&D center hai in the first eight months of 2017 can worldwide. For the majority of foreign be traced back to work done at foreign-infirms surveyed, China is either one of many R&D locations or of marginal impor- vested R&D centers in China, the chamber noted.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY tance to their research efforts.
Key centers
BY THE NUMBERS
4.2%
Growth in volumes of specialty chemicals sold in March 2018 compared to March 2017, based on a three-month moving average, according to the American Chemistry Council, the trade group of major U.S. chemical firms. ACC figures show that the biggest increases were in oilfield chemicals, which grew by 14.7%; electronic chemicals, up 10.1%; and cosmetic chemicals, which expanded 8.6%. 12
C&EN | CEN.ACS.ORG | APRIL 30, 2018
Shale-based complex takes shape in China Zhejiang Satellite Petrochemical is moving along with plans to build a giant petrochemical complex fed by U.S. shale-gas-derived ethane in eastern China. The complex, scheduled to start up in late 2020, will feature two ethylene crackers with a combined production capacity of 2.5 million metric tons per year. Satellite earlier this month licensed production technology from CB&I to use in the project. CB&I, a Texas-based energy services firm, will provide process design as well as process licenses for what will become China’s first crackers exclusively fed by ethane, according to CB&I. In March, Satellite and the U.S. firm Energy Transfer Partners agreed to form a joint venture to build a gas export terminal on the U.S. Gulf Coast for the loading of shale gas onto special ships called very large ethane carriers. Listed on the Shenzhen stock exchange, Satellite is one of the few privately owned Chinese companies active in petrochemicals, a sector otherwise dominated by state-owned firms like Sinopec or PetroChina. Satellite’s core products are acrylic-based chemicals like glacial acrylic acid and superabsorbent polymers. Satellite will build the new complex in Lianyungang, an industrial city in the coastal province of Jiangsu where chemical plants from many companies already operate. The rise of the shale gas industry in the U.S. is having an increasingly significant impact on the Chinese petrochemical industry, which traditionally has used naphtha and methanol—some of which is derived from coal—as feedstocks. Late last year, Ineos agreed to supply U.S. ethane to a petrochemical plant being built in Taixing, Jiangsu, by the Chinese firm SP Chemicals. Ineos is building what it calls the world’s largest ethane carrier to fulfill its contract with SP.—JEAN-FRANÇOIS TREMBLAY
