When Zhejiang Tuoxi Optical New Materials Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tuoxi Optical") supplies optical-grade cyclic olefin copolymer (COC) products to global leading companies, when the PATI brand ETFE membrane materials from Yirui Company under Juhua Group illuminate provincial key projects, and when Quzhou's new materials industry charges toward the trillion-yuan output value milestone... under the guidance of "five-chain" integration, Quzhou's industry is rewriting the transformation story from "basic chemical base" to "emerging industry highland" through the strong rise of emerging industries, breaking the single pattern of traditional industries and seizing high-end tracks in the Yangtze River Delta industrial division.
From individual enterprise trees to industrial forests, demonstrating resilience, risk resistance, and robust growth, Quzhou's industrial prospects will become increasingly broader. In August 2021, the municipal Party committee and government proposed implementing upgrading projects for six major landmark industrial chains including new materials, new energy, integrated circuits, high-end equipment, life and health, and specialty paper. In December 2022, implementation opinions on "five-chain" integration were introduced, using "five-chain" integration as a driving force to promote "industrial city strengthening and industrial prosperity," with related industries emerging and reaching the world through chain strengthening, supplementing, extending, and building.
**The Leap from Basic Chemicals to New Materials Industry**
Opening the pages of Quzhou's industrial development history, the chemical industry undoubtedly represents a significant chapter. Since Juhua Group took root in 1958, Quzhou's chemical industry has undergone over sixty years of iterative upgrades, evolving from initial salt chemicals and coal chemicals to fluorochemical monomer mass production, and now to the industrial pattern of fluorine-silicon linkage, dual-silicon linkage, and fluorine-silicon-cobalt-lithium linkage, successfully achieving a magnificent transformation from basic chemical raw material supply base to high-end new materials industry highland, charting a distinctive industrial transformation path.
"As a well-known chemical industry town in the province and even nationwide, the development trajectory of Quzhou's chemical industry represents an upgrade history of continuous advancement toward high-end and refined development," introduced a relevant official from the Municipal Economic and Information Bureau. In the past, Quzhou's chemical industry primarily focused on basic chemical raw materials such as calcium carbide, synthetic ammonia, and caustic soda, with relatively low product added value and short industrial chains. Today, relying on years of industrial accumulation and continuous innovation breakthroughs, Quzhou has constructed a new materials industry system covering four major fields: fluorine-silicon new materials, electronic chemical materials, lithium battery new materials, and other high-end functional materials, with continuously optimized industrial structure and significantly enhanced core competitiveness.
More encouraging is that the new materials industry system in these four major fields has formed industrial clustering effects. In lithium battery new materials, the entry of leading enterprises such as Huayou Cobalt has driven the full-chain development of key products including cathode materials, anode materials, separators, and electrolytes, extending to power battery cells and energy storage battery terminals. In the electronic chemical materials field, represented by Zhongju Core and Zhongning Silicon Industry, Quzhou has built the "China Electronic Chemical Materials Industrial Park," attracting numerous enterprises to cluster, with products widely applied in semiconductors, display panels, and other fields.
While traditional advantageous fields continue to break through, active layout in emerging tracks is underway. In mid-August, the Tuoxi Optical production workshop was bustling with activity. Company General Manager Xu Xiaowu introduced that the company's revenue increased by 64.2% year-on-year in the first half of this year, with strong production and sales. Its parent company, Tuoxi Technology (Quzhou) Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Tuoxi Technology"), as the only national-level specialized and innovative "little giant" enterprise in China capable of producing cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), has products widely applied in life sciences, precision optics, integrated circuits, and other fields. Tuoxi Optical invested in Quzhou in 2022 and has now built five high-performance polymer production lines, with products achieving scaled application in high-end fields such as VR/AR and medical care, driving domestic high-end new materials from "following" to "parallel running" and "leading."
Additionally, the city actively introduces major projects to drive coordinated development of upstream and downstream enterprises. Through constructing circular industrial chains, waste resource utilization is achieved, production costs are reduced, and industrial competitiveness is enhanced. Currently, the fluorine-silicon new materials industrial circular economy industrial chain correlation in the high-tech zone of Smart Manufacturing New City exceeds 90%, with industrial solid waste treatment and comprehensive utilization rates reaching 98.65%, forming a green and efficient industrial development model.
From basic chemicals to new materials industry, the transformation from "quantitative accumulation" to "qualitative leap" has been achieved. Standing at a new starting point, the city will continue to deepen innovation-driven development and push the new materials industry toward higher levels and higher quality.
**From Chain Strengthening and Supplementing to Active Chain Building for Market Expansion**
"The value of Tuoxi Technology lies not only in its entry into the national-level specialized and innovative 'little giant' ranks within four years, but more importantly in opening up new high-end optical materials tracks for Quzhou and expanding new industrial space for 'building new chains and expanding markets,'" said Wang Lianghai, chain leader of the city's new materials industrial chain, when discussing breakthroughs in Quzhou's new materials industry. His evaluation reveals the core logic of this city's industrial upgrading.
Today, the city's new materials industry is using "chain building" as a breakthrough point, extending from traditional advantageous fields such as fluorine-silicon and lithium batteries to new tracks including high-end optics and electronic chemicals. This year's output value is expected to break through the 100 billion yuan milestone, seizing more voice in the global new materials market.
As the city's most advantageous leading industry, the new materials field has formed a "four-pillar" pattern, and the rise of Tuoxi Technology has added "new momentum" to this configuration. Its subsidiary Tuoxi Optical, landing just three years ago, has achieved a production capacity of 51,000 tons, becoming a typical successful example of Quzhou's "chain building."
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