The Rise of TEDA’s New Chemical Materials Industry: Insights from the China Development Forum

The 2025 Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum has successfully concluded. The forum conveyed China’s determination to further comprehensively deepen reforms and its sincerity in sharing development opportunities, which is of positive significance for promoting stable global economic growth. A total of 25 executives from 18 central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and 28 leaders from renowned private enterprises attended the forum. Among them, major state-owned enterprises such as CNPC and GENERTEC have significant operations in the Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area (TEDA), highlighting TEDA’s robust manufacturing foundation and the potential for upgrading traditional petrochemical industries alongside the booming development of new materials industries.

As one of the world’s major oil and gas producers and suppliers, CNPC’s operations in TEDA span energy reserves, trade, new energy, and many other fields, serving as an example of transformation and upgrading for traditional energy enterprises.

In 2008, CNPC Bohai Drilling Engineering Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of CNPC, was established in TEDA. Engaging in engineering technology with full industrial chain service capabilities, the enterprise operates across major domestic oil and gas fields and exports Chinese technology to overseas markets including Iraq, Indonesia, Kuwait, and Peru. In 2010, the completion of the 1-million-ton crude oil storage facility in Nangang Industrial Area provided a solid foundation for Tianjin’s petrochemical industry development and regional energy supply in the surrounding areas. Additionally, CNPC has successively established several subsidiaries in TEDA, including CNPC Tianjin Natural Gas Pipeline, CNPC Bohai Drilling Engineering, and CNPC Logging.

CNPC’s continued investment in TEDA is closely tied to TEDA’s comprehensive strengths and the strategic position of Nangang Industrial Area. TEDA has ranked first in the comprehensive evaluation of the investment environment of national-level economic and technological development zones issued by the Ministry of Commerce for many consecutive years. The area’s proximity to Tianjin Port and Binhai International Airport has nurtured three 100-billion-yuan industrial clusters, namely, automotive and high-end equipment, next-generation IT, and new chemical materials. In particular, since Nangang Industrial Area was designated as a national petrochemical industrial base in 2014 and included in the Outline of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Coordinated Development Plan in 2015, its role as a world-class petrochemical hub has perfectly aligned with CNPC’s strategic goal of “building a world-class sustainable enterprise.”

Under the guidance of China’s goals of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the collaboration between TEDA and CNPC sparked green innovation. In October 2023, the Integrated Smart Supercharging Station with functions of photovoltaic power generation, energy storage, charging and inspection invested and built by CNPC began operations in TEDA, setting an example for the transformation of traditional energy enterprises. In September 2024, CNPC (Tianjin) Fuel Oil Co., Ltd. was established to operate the CNPC Northern Marine Fuel Supply Energy Base. In the future, this project will become a northern center of refueling for foreign trade vessels of CNPC, North China Marine Fuel Resource Distribution Center, and Northern Marine Fuel Supply Energy Base, which will effectively promote the process of clean fuel in the Bohai Bay.

From oil and gas drilling to smart energy, and from traditional storage and transportation to green supply, CNPC’s development in TEDA reflects what underlies China’s energy revolution. This progress not only accelerates the industrial upgrading and the low-carbon transformation of TEDA’s chemical industry, but also achieves a win-win situation between investors and regional growth.

GENERTEC’s layout in TEDA fully demonstrates TEDA’s magnet effect in the new materials sector. The group’s subsidiary, EASTEX Industrial Science & Technology Co., Ltd., invested in a high-end medical and hygiene spunlace nonwoven materials project in TEDA. Thanks to TEDA’s superior business environment and efficient government services, the project is able to kick off the project process immediately after signing agreement, and start  construction right after aquiring land. In 2024, Phase I of the project entered trial production, focusing on R&D and production of medical consumables and automotive interior materials.

The establishment of this high-end new materials project in TEDA stems from the company's geological consideration and meticulous calculation of industrial chain. “Nearly half of EASTEX’s products are exported from Tianjin Port to the U.S., Japan, and other regions. The distance from the production base to Tianjin Port was shortened from 130 kilometers to merely 30 kilometers, saving approximately 1 million yuan in logistics costs alone,” said a company representative. Meanwhile, Tianjin Petrochemical Co., Ltd., the Large-scale Ethylene Project, and Tianjin Bohai Chemical Industry Group in Nangang, supply raw materials such as polyester staple fibers and chitosan fibers for the project. The project can also offer raw materials to local companies like Bloomage Biotech and automotive interior manufacturers, creating a collaborative next-door supply ecosystem. This synergy will continue to attract more and more enterprises to gather here. Next, EASTEX plans to invest an additional 250 million yuan in the construction of Phase II, which will fill domestic gaps in product portfolios and elevate the level of the region’s new materials industry.

Today, TEDA is reshaping the new energy pattern through industrial collaborative innovation. Especially, Nangang Industrial Zone, as the hub for Tianjin’s petrochemical industry, has attracted global giants at home and abroad, such as Sinopec, CNPC, CNOOC, Tianjin Bohai Chemical Industry Group, Shell, BASF, ExxonMobil and Cabot, alongside a number of R&D institutions and innovation platforms with cutting-edge technologies, such as Sinopec Beijing Research Institute of Chemical Industry and CNOOC Tianjin Chemical Research and Design Institute. The area now boasts over 10 million cubic meters of crude oil storage capacity, 15 million tons of LNG receiving capacity, and over 1 million tons of lubricant production capacity, emerging as a pivotal force in advancing the development of China’s new chemical material industries.

Looking ahead, TEDA will continue to leverage technological innovation to build a world-class green new chemical materials base, making more “TEDA-created” deliverables to the global stage.