Packaging / Advertising & Office

Tongcheng City, Anhui Province, is a production cluster of the domestic plastic packaging industry. It is famous for its plastic packaging production, and is constantly facing the realistic pressure of industrial transformation and upgrading. Whether it is the practical demand for green environmental protection or the urgent demand for high-quality industrial development, the future of Tongcheng packaging industry is facing significant challenges.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the packaging industry in Tongcheng City, Anhui Province is well-known. A small County-level city sells more than one trillion plastic bags every year, accounting for one third of the national market, with an annual output value of 30 billion yuan.

The packaging industry in Tongcheng City emerged in the mid-1980s. Zhang Lin, Vice Mayor of Tongcheng City, told reporters that at that time, some farmers in Shuanggang Town and Xindu Town of Tongcheng purchased plastic processing equipment and raw materials from other places, processed them into plastic bags, and sold them through the streets and alleys of Tongcheng sales force throughout the country, earning their first bucket of gold. Subsequently, plastic packaging enterprises blossomed everywhere in Tongcheng, with the concept of "bringing relatives in person and helping households". At present, the packaging industry, mainly composed of plastic materials, including paper, bamboo, wood, metal, and new materials, has gradually grown into a local pillar industry, forming an industrial cluster.

However, with the tightening of a series of national environmental and energy consumption indicators in recent years, as well as people's practical demand for green environmental protection, the packaging industry in Tongcheng is also facing significant challenges. How to transform and upgrade? A reporter from Economic Daily has been visiting Tongcheng City recently to search for answers.

Increase gold and green content

On the China National Highway 206 that runs through Tongcheng, the car shop saw an endless stream of trucks delivering raw materials and pulling goods. On both sides of the road, there were many small businesses engaged in the production of plastic packaging bags in the front rooms of small buildings with four or five floors.

At present, there are more than 6500 large and small enterprises engaged in the packaging industry in Tongcheng City, including more than 200 above designated enterprises, with an annual consumption of nearly 2 million tons of plastic raw materials.

On scale enterprises are representatives of local industries. How do they transform? The reporter came to Anhui Jinke Printing Co., Ltd. located in Tongcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone for an interview. The founder of the company, Xu Youping, is already in his 60s and has been working hard in the plastic packaging industry for a lifetime. In 2003, he resigned from his official position in a state-owned enterprise and brought a group of laid-off workers together to invest 2 million yuan to establish Jinke Printing. When an enterprise first enters production, its profit margin is relatively high. As competition intensifies, product prices will go down, while raw material prices will go up. This forces us to continuously develop new products, update equipment, and improve the level of production automation. What new technologies and trends are there in the plastic flexible packaging industry, I will do everything I can to understand and understand, "Xu Youping said.

According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, in 2009, Xu Youping followed the suggestion to expand into the pharmaceutical packaging field to increase the "gold content" of products. In 2010, Jinke Printing invested over 100 million yuan to establish its subsidiary Anhui Jinke Pharmaceutical Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. and established a second factory area in Tongcheng Development Zone, achieving sterile, dust-free, constant temperature and humidity production for pharmaceutical and food packaging; With the help of various new technologies independently developed, the benefits of the enterprise are thriving.

But Jinke Printing has not stopped developing. In recent years, environmental protection requirements have become increasingly strict, and we have put in efforts to green production and improve the 'green content' of our products. Xu Youping said that in 2019, Jinke Printing invested a total of 366 million yuan in the construction of the third factory area. Entering the third factory area of Jinke Printing, I saw the neatly arranged photovoltaic panels on the roof of the workshop shining brightly in the sunlight. In order to achieve green development, we have invested tens of millions of yuan to achieve zero exhaust emissions; we have basically produced self generated electricity using photovoltaic technology, and the excess electricity is sold to the power grid, "Xu Youping told reporters. In the production workshop, various automated and intelligent equipment is eye-catching, and the high-speed production of food packaging bags on the production line only requires a few workers. This factory has always implemented energy-saving, intelligent, and automation in its construction, achieving low operating costs and energy consumption through reasonable optimization of workshop configuration. "Xu Youping said," We will also introduce new production lines to produce more functional packaging films and sprint towards the top 10 in the national packaging industry

In Tongcheng, Anhui Shuntong Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. also has the same transformation story. In 2012, at the age of 30, Li Donglin took over the family business and became the chairman of Anhui Shuntong Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. At that time, Shuntong Packaging's main products were plastic packaging and anti-counterfeiting materials. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, in 2013, he led the research and development of thinned products for cigarette packaging and successfully applied them in industries such as alcohol and cosmetics, opening up new markets for enterprises.

Shuntong Packaging, which has tasted the sweetness of innovation, continuously increases investment in innovation and attracts various talents. Li Donglin told reporters that in 2022, their innovative product continued to mature in technology, directly reducing the process flow for customers by 20%. This not only reduced the cost for customers, but also made the product sell at a high price. The average tax revenue per mu increased from 100000 yuan in 2021 to over 200000 yuan currently, according to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation.

Starting from the demand side and writing articles

Enterprises such as Jinke Printing and Shuntong Packaging are a microcosm of the transformation of a group of early established enterprises in Tongcheng. This path of transformation is to keep up with the forefront, invest heavily in constantly updating processes and equipment, and strive to improve efficiency and reduce costs from the production side. A group of "post 80s" packaging enterprise operators have started from the demand side and developed new products to fill the market gap, also breaking new paths of transformation.

At Chuangmei Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. in Tongcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone, the reporter met with the company's head, Wang Juefei, who was born in 1986. In 2012, he founded Dongguan Meibang Packaging Materials Co., Ltd. in Dongguan, engaged in the production of breast milk bags. In 2017, with the continuous expansion of the breast milk bag market, he returned to his hometown and founded Tongcheng Chuangmei Packaging Materials Co., Ltd., starting a big business. The investment environment here is good, the local packaging industry is developed, the talent and industrial supporting facilities are complete, and the production cost is still low. Currently, Tongcheng Chuangmei has grown into a partner of frontline mother and baby product brands such as "Little White Bear" and "October Crystal".

The market for breast milk bags is very large, and our goal is to make this product more refined and top-notch. "Wang Juefei took out a newly produced breast milk bag and told reporters that the printed markings on the outside of the bag can change colors according to temperature. Purple indicates low temperature, blue indicates suitable temperature, and white indicates high temperature. In this way, everyone is not afraid of not being able to control the temperature properly when breastfeeding their children. Wang Juefei is also preparing to invest 100 million yuan to further expand production capacity, and by then, the production capacity of Tongcheng Chuangmei breast milk bags will reach 4 billion pieces per year.

Xie Tian, the general manager of Anhui Tiantian Plastic Industry Co., Ltd., is also a '80s generation', and the development of the enterprise is also thriving. In the production workshop located in Shuanggang Town Industrial Park, Tongcheng City, company employees are tirelessly packaging products and preparing to ship them. These past two years have been really busy, "the workshop manager told reporters." The products are always out of stock

Tiantian Plastics is a manufacturer of Yekee brand plastic products such as fresh-keeping film and Bin bag. Xie Tian has a unique approach to leading the development of innovative enterprises - one of the secrets is to implant more cultural and creative factors into products. When doing market research, he found that women were the main buyers of Bin bag. Therefore, they developed pink Bin bag for consumers' psychology, and they were welcomed as soon as they came into the market.

Xie Tian, who has been fond of anime culture since childhood, also printed cartoon patterns on his own products. "I made a special trip to Japan to win the support of the copyright holder of 'Hello Kitty', and printed the cartoon image of 'Hello Kitty' on the plastic wrap, Bin bag and other products." Xie Tian told reporters that they also established a marketing center in Hefei. Last May, after the "Hello Kitty" Bin bag was launched on the e-commerce platform, more than 500 million of them were sold in a few months.

In addition, Tiantian Plastics also has its own creative design brand IP "Da Hua Xi You". Xie Tian told reporters that the IP creation of this series originated from a cute cat, called "Me", with a vivid and cute image, with a natural sense of being cute. With "Me" as the protagonist, they launched the "Da Hua Xi You" travel packaging series, which was eye-catching and loved by consumers.

In terms of product sales, Tiantian Plastics is taking a different approach. Through Tmall, JD, Tiktok, Xiaohongshu and other e-commerce platforms, it not only adapts to the consumption habits of young consumers, but also makes up for the shortcomings of traditional offline channels.

Actively optimizing the industrial environment

At present, there are more than 400 packaging enterprises in Shuanggang Town, more than 1800 individual businesses, and less than 30 enterprises above the designated size. The vast majority of them are small and old trees. "During an interview in Shuanggang Town, Tongcheng, a packaging industry concentration area, Lin Guoqing, the mayor of Shuanggang Town, told reporters that there are four main reasons for the phenomenon of becoming a" small and old tree "in the packaging industry: firstly, the high investment cost of equipment, such as a set of 5-layer co extrusion equipment, The selling price is often five to six million yuan; Secondly, the investment in research and development is low, and most enterprises are still in simple manufacturing; Thirdly, the technological content is low, with most products being mid to low end, resulting in a decrease in profits year by year; Fourthly, it is difficult to guarantee the necessary factors. As a township level government, it is difficult to obtain more industrial land indicators for the development of enterprises.

The transformation and upgrading of traditional industries cannot be separated from the efforts of enterprises, and also require government support. In response to these issues, Tongcheng City has accelerated the pace of transformation and upgrading by implementing the "Ten Major Special Actions" such as industrial growth, quality improvement, and digital empowerment. "Tongcheng City Mayor Liu Cunlei said. At the beginning of 2020, Tongcheng City issued the "Implementation Opinions on Promoting the High Quality Development of the Packaging Industry (2020-2022)" and established a work leadership group to implement the "chain leader system" of the industrial chain. By strengthening industry guidance and cultivating leading enterprises, Tongcheng plastic packaging industry transformation and upgrading were promoted; Strengthen top-level design, establish dual new industrial parks, promote the integration of the packaging industry in key southern towns, and attract strong talents around the industrial chain.

In the Shuangxin Industrial Park between Shuanggang Town and Xindu Town, two major packaging production towns in Tongcheng, according to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the construction of a 200000 square meter standardized factory building, plastic machinery equipment park, and industrial solid waste recycling industrial park is steadily advancing. Public service supporting facilities such as plastic packaging product inspection and testing, exhibition and sales centers, and raw and auxiliary material distribution platforms are also being strengthened and improved.

Tongcheng City has also successively issued the Implementation Opinions on Building a Strong Industrial City and Promoting the High Quality Development of the Private Economy, and the Opinions on Implementing the Five Action Plans of "Cultural Capital and Talents" to Create a Gathering Highland, encouraging packaging enterprises to undergo technological transformation, improve process equipment, focus on developing green, recyclable, reusable, high-performance, and multifunctional packaging materials, and promote green production; Provide policy support to plastic packaging enterprises that have achieved significant quality improvement in terms of taxation, fees, resources, credit, interest discounts, subsidies, etc. For major projects that meet the requirements, priority should be given to ensuring the supply of land, water, electricity, and other factors. Zhang Lin said, "The local government also encourages financial institutions to innovate and launch credit products and services that meet the development needs of the packaging industry. Currently, there are 20 strategic emerging enterprises and 40 national high-tech enterprises among plastic packaging enterprises in Tongcheng City.

To promote the transformation of packaging products from low-end consumer goods to high-end, environmentally friendly, and biodegradable industrial consumer goods, Tongcheng City has also comprehensively established a high-quality development platform and established a special development fund for the packaging industry of 20 million yuan, with a focus on supporting the transformation and upgrading of the packaging industry, platform construction, and industry university research cooperation. At present, many backbone enterprises have established industry university research cooperation relationships with more than 10 scientific research institutions, such as Xi'an University of Technology and Jiangnan University.