No other economy in the world today comes even close to China’s breathtaking modernisation and growth pace.
The country’s economic rise is accompanied by an investment boom in the process industry which is set to continue undiminished. Huge investments have flowed into China’s chemical parks during the last few years.
The chemical industry in the People’s Republic of China had a turnover of E166 billion in 2005. The country is now number three in the world rankings behind the US (E448billion) and Japan (E217billion). Germany had already dropped back to fourth place (E153billion) in 2004. China now has an 8.2percent share of the world chemical marketits exports account for 3.1percent of the world export marketmaking it number eight in these rankings. Meanwhile China is the world’s second largest consumer of chemical products.
China imports large quantities of petrochemicalspolymersfine chemicals and special chemicals but is already a net exporter of pharmaceuticalsagrochemicalsdetergents and body care products. China’s appetite for resources is insatiable: oil consumption alone has increased by a factor of 2.8 since 1990 and reached 325.5million tons in 2005. The country is now the world’s second largest consumer of oil after the USfollowed by Japan and the Russian Federationand it has the second largest refinery capacity in the world (312.3million tons a year). Approximately half of this amount of oil had to be imported. This explains why securing and conserving resources are paramount issues not only in China but worldwide.
Sustainable development‘circular economy’ and integrated production facilities play a more and more strategic role in the Chinese economy. Numerous new laws have been introduced in order to implement what has long since been standard in western countries: conservation of resourcesenvironmental protectionsafety.
AchemAsia2007 (7th International Exhibition-Congress on Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology) from 14–18th May 2007 in Beijing/PRC will be a perfect opportunity to benefit from the exciting chances that a rapidly developing China offers suppliers to the process industries.
The vast scope of the exhibition is complemented by conference sessions which highlight current technologies and equipment. Furher topics are: investing in Chinachemical parkssustainable water management for industry and municipalitiesindustrial and labour safetyuse of renewables and synthetic fuels.
A new feature in 2007 is the Bio-AchemAsiawhich will take place parallel to AchemAsia on the Beijing fairgrounds and focus on industrial biotechnology.
Dr Christina Hirche is with DECHEMA eVFrankfurt am MainGermany. www.dechema.de or www.achemasia.de
"