Recently, Shanghai has begun to promote the resumption of work and production in some fields, especially key enterprises that meet the conditions for closed production and epidemic prevention and control.
On April 19, a reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald learned that Shanghai Huntsman Polyurethane Co., Ltd. (located in Caojing Chemical Zone, hereinafter referred to as Caojing Production Base), a subsidiary of Huntsman Group, a global manufacturer and sales of special and specialty chemicals , Huntsman Polyurethane (China) Co., Ltd. (located in Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone, hereinafter referred to as Minhang Factory), two companies have also entered the list of key enterprises for resumption of production and work.
This global leading chemical raw material company has established its Asia-Pacific headquarters and technology R&D center in Shanghai Minhang Economic and Technological Development Zone. Its Minhang factory has a history of 25 years. The Caojing production base in Shanghai Chemical Industry Zone is Huntsman The main production base of polyurethane raw material MDI (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) in the Asia-Pacific region is a large-scale chemical enterprise with continuous production.
The data shows that polyurethane has a wide range of applications, covering household, construction, daily necessities, transportation, household appliances, etc. It is an important chemical raw material.
Since the outbreak of this round of Shanghai epidemic, Huntsman Caojing production base has adjusted the operation mode of production equipment to ensure the normal operation of equipment and ensure that it can resume work and increase production at any time.
"During this period, the Shanghai Chemical Industry Park Management Committee has given Huntsman strong support, from the dredging of the internal logistics of the park to the living security of the resident personnel, from ensuring that the entire park is sealed and isolated from the external epidemic situation to active contact and communication. , to solve the difficulties of enterprises in special times, no matter the details, it has provided great help to assist enterprises to smoothly pass the epidemic period and welcome the resumption of work and production in an orderly manner." A relevant person from Huntsman told the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
A reporter from the 21st Century Business Herald learned that since March 11, Huntsman's Asia-Pacific headquarters and R&D center in Minhang District began to adopt the work method of employees working from home. The Huntsman Minhang plant also entered a state of shutdown and closure in March in response to relevant epidemic prevention and control requirements.
"After the outbreak, Huntsman immediately set up a leading group for epidemic prevention. The leading group for epidemic prevention held a meeting every 2 days to formulate and adjust epidemic prevention and control plans based on the latest progress of the epidemic, and to respond to possible suspected cases. plan, formulate corresponding management plans for closely cooperated contractors and logistics providers, and deploy and implement them.” The aforementioned person introduced.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter learned that the current Huntsman Caojing production base has been in closed-loop low-load production.
In fact, even if they are supported to press the start button for resumption of work and production, the two Huntsman companies are still facing many challenges, and several major problems need to be solved urgently.
First of all, the transportation artery of the industrial chain needs to be opened up urgently. Since the outbreak of the current round of the epidemic, different levels of road and traffic restrictions have appeared in some parts of the country due to differences in epidemic prevention policies, and the logistics and transportation capacity has been greatly challenged. This will undoubtedly have a huge impact on manufacturing enterprises that rely on logistics, storage and transportation to connect the supply side and the demand side and open up various nodes in the industrial chain.
"If more specific measures can be introduced, I believe it will be of great help to break through the current logistics bottleneck." A relevant person from Huntsman suggested that the format, content and timeliness of transport passes should be unified across the country, from central to local levels. The management and control requirements should be consistent; under the premise of complying with the epidemic prevention and control policies, the driver groups must be supported by all localities, such as setting up nucleic acid testing points and providing necessary food and water purchasing points.
The 21st Century Business Herald reporter noticed that the national teleconference on ensuring logistics smoothness and promoting the stability of industrial and supply chains held in Beijing on April 18 clearly stated that the national unified pass should be issued in sufficient quantities, and the nucleic acid test results should be exchanged nationwide within 48 hours. It is recognized that the closed-loop management of "collect, walk and chase" shall be implemented, and passage shall not be restricted on the grounds of waiting for nucleic acid results. This indicates that the current logistics and transportation "blocking" problem is expected to be solved.
Second, detailed operating rules are urgently needed for the resumption of work and production documents. At present, enterprises that have resumed work and production generally face the problem that it is difficult for employees to return to work. Taking Huntsman's Caojing production base as an example, since the single-shift workers have been stationed in the factory on March 14, there have been few job rotations, which poses a risk to ensuring safe production. "We will implement the policy of resumption of work and production after confirming that the company's epidemic prevention and control measures are in place, guide and assist companies to increase the resumption rate in an orderly manner, and resume normal operations as soon as possible," said a Huntsman official.
Furthermore, the problem of downstream transmission in the supply chain remains to be solved. In the entire industrial chain of the chemical industry, the upstream enterprises are relatively small in number and large in scale, and most of them are technology- and capital-intensive. However, downstream enterprises are numerous, small in scale, and mostly labor-intensive, and have been negatively affected to a greater extent by the epidemic. The polyurethane raw material MDI produced by Huntsman is closely related to the manufacture of auto parts and various daily necessities, and is also widely used in epidemic prevention materials. The low resumption rate of these downstream enterprises will affect the orderly operation of the entire industrial chain.
On April 19, Zhang Hongtao, chief engineer of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economic and Information Technology, said at a press conference on epidemic prevention and control, "With the progress of resumption of work and production, the problems encountered by different industries and enterprises have both commonality and individuality. The resumption of work and production must be dynamically adjusted with the situation of epidemic prevention and control."
Zhang Hongtao pointed out that there are two main points in promoting the resumption of work and production. One is to strengthen the prevention and control measures for the resumption of work and production, and the other is to jointly support the resumption of work and production by all parties.
"Enterprises should formulate 'one enterprise, one plan' to coordinate epidemic prevention and control, economic development and safe production. Government departments at all levels and society should also create conditions, not only to support one enterprise one by one, but also to pay attention to enterprise groups to solve common problems. problem." Zhang Hongtao said.