China news in brief

Huge refinery finished 

Chinese petrochemical giant Sinopec and Saudi Arabia’s Sabic unveiled on 3 November their newly finished Tianjin refinery. 

With a total investment of Yuan18.3 billion (US$2.7 billion), the 50:50 joint venture includes eight integrated chemicals production facilities, able to output a million tonnes of ethylene and another 2.2 million tonnes of chemicals including polythene, glycol, polypropylene, butadiene and phenol per year. 

It is estimated that after the plant begins normal production, it can bring in investments of Yuan100 billion for related downstream and upstream facilities. Sabic will supply the project’s petroleum while Sinopec is focused more on the refining facilities. Analysts say the project and the relationship it built for Sinopec and Sabic will help the Chinese giant secure stable oil supplies. 

However, given the recent concentrated launch of a group of refining and ethylene facilities in China and the Middle East, price pressures will be significant, according to analysts. 

Sinopec also signed an agreement in early November with Japanese Mitsui Chemicals to invest Yuan3.6 billion to produce bisphenol A and ethylene e-propylene-diene mischpolymere (EPT rubber) at a joint venture factory the two have already built in Shanghai. 

Science masters pass away 

Qian Xuesen, the 98-year-old father of China’s space science field and the country’s atom and H-bomb, died on 31 October, two days after the 106-year old Bei Shizhang, renowned biologist and the last of the first batch of Academia Sinica members, also died. 

Top Chinese leaders have paid tributes to the two science masters. 

Qian graduated from California Institute of Technology with a PhD in aeromechanics in 1936 and in 1955, after a five-year struggle, managed to return China and set up the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was then appointed as chief engineer for China’s atom and H-bomb projects which became successful in mid-1960s. In 1968, he formed and led the Chinese Academy of Space Technology to provide technical support to China’s space programme. 

Bei became a professor of biology in 1929 after obtaining a PhD at Germany’s University of T?bingen. Bei was the founder of experimental biology in China and was an early member of the Academia Sinica in 1948. He formed CAS’ Institute of Biophysics and initiated a series of studies in biophysics and biochemistry. In 1955, he became a CAS member in the academy’s first election. 

Novartis reveals expansion plans 

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced it will invest US$1 billion in the coming five years to build China’s largest pharmaceutical R&D centre. The company estimates that the move will increase the number of researchers at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Shanghai (CNIBR) from 160 to over 1000, and CNIBR, which will be relocated from the Zhangjiang Science Park, will become one of the three major pharmaceutical research and development centres of the company. CNIBR will be focused on basic research and new drug development targeting diseases specific to Chinese.

The US$1 billion investment also includes US$250 million to build a global advanced technology centre and a manufacturing centre for active pharmaceutical ingredients in Jiangsu Province’s Changshu. The Changshu centre will supply manufacturing technologies and solutions to Novartis’ global plants. 

The company has also spent an additional $125 million on buying an 85 per cent stake in the Chinese vaccine maker Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Company to expand Novartis’ presence in this fast growing market. 

Huge refinery finished 

Chinese petrochemical giant Sinopec and Saudi Arabia’s Sabic unveiled on 3 November their newly finished Tianjin refinery. 

With a total investment of Yuan18.3 billion (US$2.7 billion), the 50:50 joint venture includes eight integrated chemicals production facilities, able to output a million tonnes of ethylene and another 2.2 million tonnes of chemicals including polythene, glycol, polypropylene, butadiene and phenol per year. 

It is estimated that after the plant begins normal production, it can bring in investments of Yuan100 billion for related downstream and upstream facilities. Sabic will supply the project’s petroleum while Sinopec is focused more on the refining facilities. Analysts say the project and the relationship it built for Sinopec and Sabic will help the Chinese giant secure stable oil supplies. 

However, given the recent concentrated launch of a group of refining and ethylene facilities in China and the Middle East, price pressures will be significant, according to analysts. 

Sinopec also signed an agreement in early November with Japanese Mitsui Chemicals to invest Yuan3.6 billion to produce bisphenol A and ethylene e-propylene-diene mischpolymere (EPT rubber) at a joint venture factory the two have already built in Shanghai. 

Science masters pass away 

Qian Xuesen, the 98-year-old father of China’s space science field and the country’s atom and H-bomb, died on 31 October, two days after the 106-year old Bei Shizhang, renowned biologist and the last of the first batch of Academia Sinica members, also died. 

Top Chinese leaders have paid tributes to the two science masters. 

Qian graduated from California Institute of Technology with a PhD in aeromechanics in 1936 and in 1955, after a five-year struggle, managed to return China and set up the Institute of Mechanics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). He was then appointed as chief engineer for China’s atom and H-bomb projects which became successful in mid-1960s. In 1968, he formed and led the Chinese Academy of Space Technology to provide technical support to China’s space programme. 

Bei became a professor of biology in 1929 after obtaining a PhD at Germany’s University of T?bingen. Bei was the founder of experimental biology in China and was an early member of the Academia Sinica in 1948. He formed CAS’ Institute of Biophysics and initiated a series of studies in biophysics and biochemistry. In 1955, he became a CAS member in the academy’s first election. 

Novartis reveals expansion plans 

Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis announced it will invest US$1 billion in the coming five years to build China’s largest pharmaceutical R&D centre. The company estimates that the move will increase the number of researchers at the Novartis Institute for Biomedical Research in Shanghai (CNIBR) from 160 to over 1000, and CNIBR, which will be relocated from the Zhangjiang Science Park, will become one of the three major pharmaceutical research and development centres of the company. CNIBR will be focused on basic research and new drug development targeting diseases specific to Chinese. 

The US$1 billion investment also includes US$250 million to build a global advanced technology centre and a manufacturing centre for active pharmaceutical ingredients in Jiangsu Province’s Changshu. The Changshu centre will supply manufacturing technologies and solutions to Novartis’ global plants. 

The company has also spent an additional $125 million on buying an 85 per cent stake in the Chinese vaccine maker Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Company to expand Novartis’ presence in this fast growing market.

Currently, through investments of US$330 million, Novartis owns seven plants and one research centre in China.