On the morning of October 18, as construction machinery roared into action, the Meiyarui pharmaceutical excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredients production project officially broke ground in the Tongguan Industrial Area of the Wangcheng Economic and Technological Development Zone in Changsha, Hunan Province (hereinafter referred to as "Wangcheng Economic Development Zone"). With a total investment of 2.2 billion yuan, the project focuses on the production of lithium battery-grade cellulose ether, high-end pharmaceutical excipients, and active pharmaceutical ingredients, aiming to fill a key gap in Changsha's new energy industry chain and inject new momentum into the cultivation of new quality productive forces in the region. This marks another major achievement of the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone in implementing the "No. 1 Project" of investment promotion and carrying out "planning-based" investment attraction.
Tong Laisheng, Vice Mayor of Changsha Municipal People's Government, announced the commencement of the project.
The answer to why Meiyarui was chosen lies in its unique industrial positioning and technological strength. Fujian Meiyarui New Materials Technology Co., Ltd., established in March 2020, is one of the few national-level high-tech enterprises in China that has simultaneously broken through both the "new energy battery materials" and "high-end pharmaceutical excipients" tracks. Its flagship product, battery-grade sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), is a key component of lithium battery anode binders, featuring excellent slurry rheology regulation, stability, and dispersibility, which can effectively improve lithium battery cycle life and capacity retention rate. In the pharmaceutical field, cellulose ether, as an important pharmaceutical excipient, is widely used in plant capsules, sustained and controlled-release formulations, and more, characterized by high technical difficulty and high added value.
Currently, both tracks are in an upward cycle with enormous room for import substitution. Data shows that in 2025, China's lithium battery-grade cellulose ether market size is approximately 4.5 billion yuan, but high-end products still rely on imports. In the same period, the pharmaceutical excipients market reached 84.67 billion yuan, with the domestic production rate of high-end functional excipients below 30%. The landing of the Meiyarui project precisely targets this "blue ocean." It is reported that the project will be implemented in two phases, planning to build production lines with an annual output of 21,000 tons of lithium battery-grade cellulose ether, 17,000 tons of pharmaceutical excipients, and 35.2 tons of specialty active pharmaceutical ingredients. After full production, the annual output value is expected to reach 3 billion yuan, contributing approximately 250 million yuan in tax revenue.
If technological advantage is the enterprise's confidence, then a well-developed industrial chain is the key attraction for investment in the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone. The Tongguan Industrial Area of the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone is the only chemical industrial park in Changsha, having gathered 164 enterprises and possessing significant advantages in industrial synergy and factor guarantees. In the new energy track, a complete closed loop of "lithium salt—precursor—cathode material—battery cell and PACK—battery recycling" has been formed with Jinchi Energy, Yongshan Lithium, and Desay Battery as the backbone, with the full-chain output value in the first half of the year increasing by more than 50% year-on-year. The addition of the Meiyarui project will complete the key upstream link of battery materials and help accelerate the leap in the energy storage industry. In the biomedicine track, the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone has been selected as one of the top 100 biomedical parks in China for two consecutive years, gathering leading enterprises such as Xinlin Pharmaceutical, Jiudian Hongyang, and Huanada Pharmaceutical. The pharmaceutical excipients and active pharmaceutical ingredients project breaking ground this time will deeply integrate into the existing industrial chain and push the park to upgrade toward future industries such as bioengineering.
At this point, the answer to "why Wangcheng" has become clear: it not only fills the capacity gap in regional new energy cellulose ether but also strengthens the supply capacity of key excipients for biomedicine, achieving a "victorious meeting" of the two leading industries.
From initial contact to groundbreaking, the speed behind this reflects the optimization of the business environment. "The Wangcheng Economic Development Zone's professional understanding of new industries, its persistent focus on new projects, and its 'shareholder-style' service philosophy prompted us to sign contracts and break ground quickly," said Liu Guoliang, Chairman of Fujian Meiyarui New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. Huang Tao, Deputy Secretary of the Party Working Committee and Director of the Management Committee of the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone, stated that the park will always practice the "shareholder-style" service philosophy, fully creating a fair market environment, a just legal environment, and a proactive service environment, and making every effort to ensure the project is built quickly, put into production quickly, and achieves results quickly. With the launch of this project, the Wangcheng Economic Development Zone is advancing along the connotative high-quality development path of "specialization, high-tech, and greenization," accelerating the construction of a modern industrial system with core competitiveness.
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