Development Course of BlueStar     

China National Chemical Corporation (ChemChina) and Blackstone Group of the United States announced on September 10th, 2007 that they will establish a strategic partnership to jointly create a world leading company dealing in chemical new materials and specialty chemicals. Blackstone Group will invest US$600 million to acquire 20% equity in China National BlueStar (Group) Corporation (BlueStar), while ChemChina will hold 80%. (CCR2007, No. 26) Blackstone Group is a world leader in asset management and financial consulting. Its investment in BlueStar shows the great attractiveness of the company.

Rapid expansion of scale

On September 1st, 1984, Ren Jianxin led 7 young people and established BlueStar Cleaning Co., Ltd., the first specialized cleaning company in China. After the founding of the company, the business kept expanding from domestic sectors to industrial sectors and from petroleum and chemical sectors to textile, food, construction, electronic, nuclear energy and aviation sectors.
    At the time of the constant development of the cleaning business, Ren Jianxin noticed the extensive market potential of the membrane technology sector. A membrane technology research institute was therefore set up. A group of professional researchers was recruited. BlueStar has undertaken the construction of more than 1 000 membrane and water treatment projects so far, including China's biggest - a 75 000 t/d membrane-process recycling project for waste water from steel smelting in Taiyuan Iron & Steel Group.
    In 1996 the headquarters of BlueStar was moved to Beijing. The relocation provided excellent development opportunities to the company.
    In later years BlueStar merged a large group of enterprises and research units such as Xinghuo Chemical Works, Beijing Chemical Machinery Works, Tianjin Petrochemical Company Ltd., Harbin Petrochemical Company Ltd., Jinan Petrochemical Company Ltd., Shenyang Chemical Co., Ltd., Lianyungang Design and Research Institute and Chenguang Research Institute of Chemical Industry.
    In 2004 BlueStar and some enterprises directly subordinate to the former Ministry of the Chemical Industry restructured to establish ChemChina. Ren Jianxin was appointed by State-owned Asset Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council to be general manager of ChemChina.
    BlueStar has assets over RMB30 billion and annual sales over RMB30 billion today. It controls 3 listed companies including BlueStar Cleaning Co., Ltd. (SZ: 000598), BlueStar New Chemical Material Co., Ltd. (SH: 600299) and Shenyang Chemical Co., Ltd. (SZ: 000698). It holds a leading position in China in chemical new materials, industrial cleaning and membrane and water treatment sectors and also is very competitive in the petrochemical, inorganic chemical, organic raw material, engineering plastic and chemical equipment sectors.

Internationalization

Not content with its dominant position in the domestic chemical sector, decision makers of BlueStar are determined to get their company to overseas markets and participate in global competition.
   In January 2006 BlueStar successfully acquired 100% equity from Adesso Group of France, a world leader in methionine production. It was the biggest acquisition ever made by a Chinese company in industrial sectors of France. (CCR2006, No. 3)
   In October 2006 BlueStar acquired 100% equity in Silicones Business of Rhodia.(CCR2006, No. 31) After completing the acquisition, the company's capacity to produce silicone monomer reached 420 000 t/a, and BlueStar became the third largest silicone producer in the world.
   BlueStar has already made a plan to increase its silicone monomer capacity in China from 200 000 t/a to 300 000 t/a, construct a 400 000 t/a silicone monomer unit in Tianjin and use technology from Rhodia to develop silicone downstream products and promote the structural and technical upgrading of the silicone sector in China.
   For BlueStar, overseas acquisition will not only further improve its industrial profile, but also open the door for overseas operations and absorbing advanced production management experience and advanced enterprise culture.

Technical innovation

Today, BlueStar has five state-class research institutes and engineering technology centers and owns production technologies for silicone monomer, bisphenol A, epoxy resins, polycarbonates, PVC paste resin, photosensitive chemicals, PBT (polybutylene terephthalate) and ion-membrane electrolytic cells and BlueStar series cleaning (cleaning agent) technologies with intellectual property rights. It has also undertaken nearly a hundred major projects for the state.
   BlueStar is constructing a large base for chemical new materials in the Tianjin Lingang Industrial Area. (CCR2007, No. 31) When the base is ready, the competitiveness of the company will be further enhanced.