In the hot summer, pile drivers are rumbling in the third phase of Longyou Economic Development Zone, and the pulp logistics center project is under vigorous construction. After the completion of the project, it can not only serve the papermaking enterprises in the development zone and the surrounding areas, help them solve the problem of insufficient storage space for pulp raw materials, but also carry out pulp trading to reduce the transaction costs and risks of enterprises.

Special paper is not only ubiquitous in daily life, but also widely used in medical, food, electrical, information, aviation and other fields. As a special paper industry base in China, Quzhou has an annual output value of over 10 billion yuan, accounting for 25% of China's output. Among the cities in Quzhou, Longyou produces half of the overall output. In the first half of this year, the total output value of special paper in Longyou reached about 3.68 billion yuan.

How can Longyou, a small county located in western Zhejiang province, become the largest base of decorative raw paper production base in Asia and the largest gathering center of special paper production in China? What enlightenment can the development of Longyou special paper industry bring to the transformation and upgrading of other bulk economies in Zhejiang?

Break the homogenization of paper production industry

"Now the competition on paper industry is very fierce. One cannot survive without innovation," said Tong Shuhua, chief engineer of Zhejiang Jinchang Special Paper Co. Ltd.

When it comes to special paper in Longyou, Yalun Paper Mill is the first thought of local people. It is known as the "Whampoa Military Academy" of the Longyou special paper industry.

Yalun Paper Mill used to be the Longyou Paper Mill which was established in 1958. As a result of investment failure, Zhejiang Yalun Co., Ltd. began to reform at the beginning of the century.

After the reform, a group of technical and managerial talents of the original Yalun Paper Mill have introduced or established a batch of special paper enterprises by means of technical and capital investment.

The local government take advantage of the situation to put forward the construction target of building the national special paper base, and take the special paper as the first leading industry of Longyou for cultivation and development.

However, these newly established papermaking enterprises were separated from the same parent company, thus inevitably leading to the homogenization of the product. Many enterprises encountered survival predicament.

Wu Weimin, deputy director of the Economic and Information Bureau of Longyou County, recalls that to break the bottleneck, the Longyou government, on the one hand, strengthened training and learning, and on the other hand, encouraged enterprises to invest more in technological transformation and promote technological innovation by offering financial subsidies and rewards.

Therefore, various special paper backbone enterprises have embarked on the road of differentiated competition.

With the revelation of product characteristics, Longyou special paper industry has formed the pattern of "one enterprise one product" or "one enterprise, many products", and the whole industry are moving towards product and market differentiation.

Seize the initiative in the period of rapid development

In recent years, under the background of actively promoting paper instead of plastic, special paper has entered the stage of rapid development. Data shows that in the past 10 years, China's special paper output has achieved an average annual growth rate of 17.31%, far higher than the average annual growth rate of 3.24% for ordinary paper in the same period.

The future of special paper is promising. So, how can papermaking companies seize this opportunity to become bigger and stronger?

Located in Longyou Economic Development Zone, Huabang Gulou New Materials Co., Ltd. is invested and established by Zhejiang Wanbang Pulp & Paper Group and Germany Gulou Group as shareholders. After powerful combination, it has the world's leading special paper manufacturing technology and professional sales team, and is able to develop high value-added products based on the production of raw paper.

In the views of Jiang Wenlong, the head of Zhejiang Hengda New Materials Co., Ltd., besides Sino-foreign joint ventures, merger and reorganization is undoubtedly an effective way for enterprises to realize their own transformation and rapid development..

Longyou special paper enterprises speed up transformation and upgrading by means of alliance and reorganization. The output value of special paper industry accounts for 36.4% of the total industrial output value of whole city.

Achieve higher-quality development of specialty industry

"With the increasing concentration of special paper industry, small and medium-sized enterprises need to find the correct positioning, make their own characteristics of high value-added products," said Liu Wen, secretary-general of the Special Paper Committee of the Chinese Papermaking Association at the National Special Paper Technology Exchange Conference held previously in Quzhou. He pointed out that enterprises should actively carry out independent innovation if they want to have an advantage over others in the competition. Enterprises with weak innovation ability can strengthen horizontal cooperation and seek support from scientific research institutes, universities and universities for scientific research conditions and talents.

Enterprises need regular innovation to build core technological advantages and lead the rapid development of enterprises.

At present, Longyou special paper enterprises have carried out a wide range of industry-university-research-application cooperation with South China University of Technology, Shaanxi University of Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University and other domestic key universities specializing in pulp and paper. The cooperation between schools and enterprises continues to deepen, providing technology and talent resources for Longyou special paper industry.

Special paper industry belongs to the categories of capital-, technology-, resource- and energy-intensive industries, and has a strong correlation with upstream and downstream industries. In addition to improving innovation ability, Longyou is reducing cost through the improvement of industrial supporting.

In recent years, with the construction of Longyou port area and Lingang logistics industrial park, Longyou is gradually supplementing the shortcomings of transportation and logistics, and improving the transport efficiency of special paper products. In addition, the provincial special paper product quality inspection center will be checked and accpected in November. Its construction can meet the needs of regional industrial cluster development for product testing elements, and help promote the standardization of products in the special paper industry and build regional special paper brands."

Now, from the raw materials, equipment, chemical, paper production, the paper further processing to the logistics, terminal sales, e-commerce, Longyou special paper has gradually formed a complete industrial chain, covering cigarette auxiliary materials, medical, food, printing, paper and other fields. Industrial concentration and the adsorption effect is gradually taking on.

In order to promote the high-quality development of special paper industry, Longyou has set up a special paper industry service group including county leaders, expert teams and other members. In the next step, Longyou will improve the core competitiveness of the special paper industry cluster and consolidate the leading position of Longyou in the national special paper industry cluster by perfecting the technology, mechanism, elements, services and personnel guarantee.

(Compiled by Xu Yuhong, translated by Zou Guan'er)