resources from INEOS INTV 29https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxgWPeGy8as

we're in China the fastest growing part of the inos portfolio. We find out what life is really like for our colleagues here in Shanghai and Tianjian. And we journey down to zhuhai to find a plant that generates more energy than it uses. All this and the latest news from around the inos group

Tom Crotty

2015, NTV visited China for, what was then, one of the biggest projects in inos the launch of the Dragon ships. It was ambitious, but it transformed our business and it paved the way for a whole range of projects. Now, 8 years on, our business in China has gone from strength to strength and with the signing of several new joint venture agreements, it's time to catch up on what's been going on so so for this Episode, I'm going to hand over to a familiar face, Sandra Jang, and her colleague, Bell Xiong from our office in Shanghai.

Bell Xiong

Hello again, and welcome to Shanghai the headquarters for inos in China. As Tom said there's a lot of happening right now over here and much of this is down to a series of joint ventures INEOS has been doing with SINOPEC, China's largest petrochemical company. So, let's take a closer look and see what the world of INOS in China now looks like.

David Thompson

The interest in China for inos has been there since the beginning. it's expanding and growing so much and still, at the current rate 5% per annum, that's equivalent in our industry of adding the whole industry of Brazil or Spain every year. So it's huge growth that's taking place here. From an inos point of view, China, with it size, has to be the place to come.

What we have in a joint venture, is you have two parties, at least, who are working together with a common aim, where there's an opportunity for both, putting together the two companies to actually get something that's more than the contribution of the part. And a core group of guys from SINOPEC were at the beginning of it all, and from Ineos was Johnny and was also Peilin from my own team.

Peilin Xu

As you can imagine, unfortunately the last 3 years was the covid-19 pandemic period. We conducted all the negotiation meetings just by Teams. It was amazing. We built a very good trust in this process. That's a fundamental element for closing the deal. SINOPEC is a state-owned company. They have a very different culture, different decision-making process and mechanics. So, in this process, you know, we try to learn from each other.

David Thompson

We've been able to to take a 50% share in two huge petrochemical complexes. We've got an agreement to build three ABS units, and we're going to build three 500,000 tonne HDPE units. And we also have two big witch are going to be coming into the joint venture as well. So, there's a big commitment, long-term going forwards. And it's through that relationship with SINOPEC that we've been able to make that big step.

Liang Tian

Since INEOS has joined SECCO, we can see how much INEOS prioritised safety as well as control on cost. These two are the main factors that will affect the future development and competitiveness of SECCO.

Ghislain Decadt

I was asked to join here as General Manager to help them to improve the safety performance and the reliability of the operations. There are also some projects that we have, we were working together, with the technical service from Brussels and from lavera, to develop new products into the polyolefins, and we hope to make our first product at the end of this month.

Liang Gu (Ethylene Lead Production Engineer, SECCO)

I’m looking forward to the continuing collaboration with INEOS. Although, we have two very different cultures, I think we can learn from each, to become stronger together. INEOS is pragmatic and efficient. Combine that, with the Chinese self-discipline and sense of responsibility, and we will have a very good future.

Dirk Heilmann(General Manager Operations, INEOS SINPEC Tianjin Petrochemicals Ltd)

The Tianjin facility is a brand-new site. Now, it is built to the latest technologies. It's fully computer-designed, the highest level of automation. It should provide us with a very, very strong platform for the future. The construction here in Tianjin is mind-blowing. It's a world-scale project. It's something that you will not see in Europe, to my experience, anytime soon, if ever again. The workmanship is outstanding. The processes that are used are state-of-the-art. And, for example, we have a 5G network here on site established. I think just the permit in Germany would take forever if you get it actually permitted. Overall, I think this is a very digital delivery of a construction, which is very impressive.

Xiaofei Wang(Technical Manager, TPCC)

The project construction started in August 2021. The highest number of workers on site was 18000 during the peak construction period.

Andrea Vittone(Vice President HDPE, INEOS SINOPEC Tianjin Petrochemicals Ltd)

The INEOS plant here is one of the most efficient plants worldwide. It's able to produce 500 kilotonnes per year of HDPE. China is a country that is really growing and growing. They are building new cities, they are building new infrastructure, and the usage of HDPE has been selected exactly to do this. They are replacing old pipes with new, made in HDPE. The storage unit has adopted working environmental protection technologies.

Hailong Wen(Operations and SHE Manager, TPCC)

The storage unit has adopted working environmental protection technologies. TO furnace is added to top of the storage tank, which has the oil and gas recovery device, also the activated carbon absorption. Any issue that you might find will be traced, will be tracked. There are QR codes involved, so if I see a connection and I don't like what I see, in regards to either gaskets or nuts and bolts, very easy to check, you can eliminate it quite quickly.

Tom Crotty

I think three are two important changes in the last 10 years. The clients are more and more demanding of high-quality standard products.

And also, the clients are more and more concerned about the emissions, about the sustainability. So, that also means a challenge for us. actually looking very carefully at the moment in there, is to see how we could link sustainability objectives into some research programs. So, there's a very clear objective going forwards and the industry is definitely committed to that 2030 target of maximum carbon. So, the projects surrounding how can they get carbon emissions down beyond that, are very high on the agenda of all the businesses. To be partner with SINOPEC is, for INEOS, and for SINOPEC as well, a big opportunity. We can learn from each other, we can improve our knowledge, they can improve their knowledge. We can work together, creating a new shared culture. it's really a partnership that is growing. We are in the process of establishing the joint venture, finding, working together, really combining the good of SINOPEC with the good of INEOS, to hopefully what will become an extremely strong player in the Chinese market. So, as you just seen and heard, a great many thing are starting to take shape for the business but, what is life like here for those working for INEOS? We caught up with a few our colleagues to find out more.