Dacheng Pesticide: Everything for a Good Harvest     


Shandong Dacheng Pesticide Co., Ltd. (Dacheng Pesticide, SH: 600882) was established in 1949. It is a key chemical enterprise and a leading pesticide producer in Shandong province of eastern China. Stock of Dacheng Pesticide (formerly Shandong Pesticide) has been publicly traded in Shanghai Securities Exchange since December 1995. The company's leading products are pesticides and chlor-alkali chemicals. Their pesticides portfolio includes several dozen varieties in the four major categories of insecticides, fungicides, herbicides and plant growth regulators. There are also more than a dozen varieties of chemical products such as caustic soda, hydrochloric acid, chlorine and dichlorobenzene. For the fiscal 2007, Dacheng Pesticide reported a 26.5% growth in sales, and EPS was RMB0.0788.

Quality helps set sail


Dacheng Pesticide has highlighted product quality for many years. It has always taken product quality as most important. The quality of 97% fenpropathrin technical powder and 95% fenpropathrin technical variety developed by the company in collaboration with Nankai University are the best in the world. Pyrethroid produced in the company has been named as a famous brand product in China.
   While vigorously developing new products with high effect and low toxicity as part of an adjustment to the product portfolio, the company has expanded the production scale of traditional pesticide varieties, reducing production cost and increasing market share. The capacity of dichlorvos (100%) has been expanded from 4 000 t/a to 12 000 t/a, and the output, sales volume and quality have all held first place in China's pesticide sector for nine consecutive years. The company has increased its production capacity of pesticides from 6 000 t/a to 30 000 t/a. With the completion of the 60 000 t/a ion membrane caustic soda project, investing RMB250 million, the company's caustic soda capacity has increased from 50 000 t/a to 120 000 t/a.

Technical innovation promotes rapid development

Technology is the major productive force of Dacheng Pesticide. This firm has established a post-doctoral work station and owns a large group of technical personnel and a complete research and development system. They have actively introduced and assimilated new projects and constructed quite a few units making products with high effect and low toxicity such as paraquat, chlorothalonil, phoxim and atrazine. The product portfolio has been optimized once again.
   The m-dicyanobenzene production line in Dacheng Pesticide was constructed in 2000. It uses the advanced production process from Shanghai Research Institute of Chemical Industry. The company technically renovated the m-dicyanobenzene line in 2007, increasing the capacity from 1 500 t/a to 5 000 t/a in order to meet market demand. The renovation was completed in October 2007 and has established the biggest m-dicyanobenzene production line in China. The company exported two thirds of its total output per year and made RMB75.0 million from the product.
   The production unit of paraquat, the most important herbicide in China, was completed and put on stream in Dacheng Pesticide in January. (CCR2008, No.8 page20)

Shoulder social responsibility in environmental protection

Dacheng Pesticide has given great attention to environmental protection for many years. To protect the environment and create a fresh and clean space for the life of future generations, the company has made huge investments in the construction of large biochemical treatment facilities. All process wastewater generated in the production is treated. In 2001 the company invested over RMB3.0 million in research and development of pesticide wastewater treatment in collaboration with Guilin University of Technology, and constructed an HCR-process organophosphorus wastewater treatment unit. More than 90% of COD was removed and the total main-outlet water discharge was reduced from 1 000 mg per liter to less than 300 mg. In June 2004 the company invested over RMB2.0 million in constructing a wastewater pre-treatment unit, called a alkaline hydrolysis flocculation treatment unit.
   To protect the environment, the company has shut down a group of units that make products with large waste emissions and serious pollution. It has also replaced some outdated production processes with scientific clean processes. To further reduce pollutant emission, make comprehensive utilization and turn wastes into useful substances, the company has invested RMB15.0 million and executed more than 40 comprehensive utilization projects such as salt sludge pressing filtration, hydrochloric acid recovery, chloromethane recovery, toluene recovery, methanol recovery, chloroethane recovery and the use of electrolytic salt sludge in cement additives.
   The company's investment in environmental protection amounted to RMB8.2 million in 2007. In January this year the company started China's first biochemical incinerator with hydrogen as fuel. Incinerators in China today use oil and natural gas as fuels to burn waste liquids, waste gases and waste residues. Dacheng Pesticide has made a daring innovation and become the first company in China to use hydrogen as the fuel. The company makes full use of chlor-alkali byproduct hydrogen to burn waste liquids, waste gases and waste residues in the chamber of the furnace. Organics have oxidative decomposition and are then absorbed by water to reach the discharge standard.
   Dacheng Pesticide has proposed its medium and long-term development strategy according to actual conditions and development orientations. It will take the optimal distribution of resources in the industrial chain as the center, fully employ advantages of the listed company, conduct upstream/downstream integration, improve economic performance and achieve parallel and coordinated development of the co-generation, pesticide and chemical sectors.