Shanghai — Nasdaq-listed compounder China XD Plastics Co. Ltd. (also known as Xinda) is launching an initiative to change the focus of the company, including a new global R&D center in Shanghai by the end of next year.
Chief Operating Officer and General Manager Ma Qingwei sat down in an exclusive interview with Plastics News on the sidelines of the 2016 China Petroleum & Chemical International Conference in Shanghai.
XD's new 2020 Vision, he said, will change the focus of the company. “Within 5 years we want 50 percent of our business to be in automotive and 50 percent to be in other industries.
“The automotive market is still growing but the growth rate is dropping, it's slowing,” Ma said. “We've been in the auto industry for 30 years and the revenue is still increasing but in these years net profit is dropping, so our strategy is to enter other markets to continue to drive the growth.”
Ma said the company would target global research and development. “In the future we'll have branch offices in Europe and North America but all will be managed by the Shanghai center.
“We chose Shanghai because there are lots of technical talent and other multinational R&D centers here, so there might be more cooperation with other companies,” he said. The center will help the company to become more global, he added.
The R&D center will be located in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park where many multinational companies have their headquarters and/or R&D centers. XD plans to purchase an existing building and move in by the end of next year. The site will employ about 200, drawing from talent around the world, Ma said.
Ma said each of the company's manufacturing sites in China will continue to conduct application-focused R&D for the automotive sector, but the new global R&D center will focus on applications for the 3-D printing, high-speed rail, packaging, and medical device sectors.
XD has been the recipient of several government grants to support innovation, Ma added.
2016 has been a year of many changes for XD. Ma said the company's new Sichuan manufacturing site currently runs 20 production lines and will be in full operation with a total annual capacity of 300,000 tons. The company also set up its global headquarters in Beijing this year. “We are confident we'll be able to double our sales revenue within three to five years,” Ma said.
XD will be at K 2016 in October, Hall 7/D22.
