(Yicai) Oct. 16 -- China is among the few regions in the world with substantial growth this year thanks to the post-pandemic recovery in demand and mid- and long-term technological innovation, said the chief executive of German chemicals giant Wacker Chemie.

“After the opening of the restrictions for the pandemic, there was really a boost of new demand coming from China,” Christian Hartel told Yicai during a visit to Shanghai for Wacker's 30th anniversary in the Chinese market. “So for this year, we will see good progress."

“And also for the mid-term and long-term, I’m very positive about the opportunities in China,” Hartel added. “The economy is revving up to be more high-tech, and also the combination of sustainability, that's a very important growth driver for the future in the whole world, but very much so in China,” he said.

China is Wacker's largest market, accounting for about a third of global sales in 2022 at nearly EUR2.5 billion (USD2.6 billion). Last year, the Munich-based company bought a 60 percent stake in China’s Sico Performance Material, a hi-tech silicone products maker, and has four production bases in the country.

Wacker will go on investing in China, Hatel pointed out. The firm added a new emulsion reactor and a dryer to its vinyl acetate-ethylene plant in Nanjing in May. Having begun production in 2009, the VAE factory is the largest of its kind in the country, he noted.

Wacker will also invest EUR150 million (USD157.9 million) to hike the capacity of its production base in Zhangjiagang, a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou in eastern Jiangsu province, it announced on Sept. 26. The project will likely become operational in 2025, according to Hartel.

In 2020, China committed to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. These goals have brought great opportunities to Wacker, and its products have recorded a positive growth trend in many fields, including in the new energy vehicle and photovoltaic industries, Hartel said.

“The chemical industry is typically energy-intensive,” he said regarding challenges in the sector. “We need a lot of energy, so we need a lot of green energy in order to become more sustainable, and that's kind of the challenge to get competitively priced energy."

“At the moment in Europe, this is a little bit of a headache, so we need to install more renewable energy,” Hartel said. “China is very progressive and is by far the leader in installing renewable energy,” he noted, adding that Wacker is trying to shift the energy supply of its plants in China to green energy.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev