"Great enterprises are not born in times of comfort, but are forged in the flames of adversity."

——Konosuke Matsushita

Faced with technical barriers and high production costs, being "beaten" in the market, but helpless, supply chain interruptions, raw material price fluctuations, cultural differences, etc., every step of Haoshuo is difficult.

Haoshuo Chemical has been established for more than 10 years and has experienced 10 years of market turbulence and volatility.

Mr. Meng, the person in charge of Haoshuo, said: "In the global market and environment, many industries are experiencing challenges and changes, which also allow many companies to grow and develop. Haoshuo is fortunate to be one of them. If you want the company to develop stably, it must first have its core products and technologies, which it must then update and iterate. You must have a sense of crisis. For every big or small change in the market, you must be prepared to go with the trend and go against it.

We’ll find a way, or make one

Walking into the production workshop of Haoshuo Chemical, you can see the busy figures of workers, and amid the hustle of machinery, order emerges from complexity..

Mr. Meng looked at the scene in front of him and said, "The current scene is something I couldn't imagine 10 years ago. At that time, the product technology, personnel, and venues were incomparable to now."

Like many physical enterprises, Haoshuo has navigated valleys and hurdles, growing stronger through every twist and fall. Mr. Meng recalled, "Looking back now, I don't know how I survived. It wasn’t an easy journey. But we forged ahead — cutting through mountains, bridging over waters — and proudly carved out our own place in the world."

Today, Haoshuo has grown from a dozen or twenty people at the beginning to more than 500 employees, of which technical personnel in products, equipment, etc., account for about 12%. The factory production workshop has also expanded from a few hundred square meters to an area of 200,000 square meters now, equipped with 18 original imported reactors from Germany, and has a production technology of 75° gel temperature... Haoshuo is constantly growing and getting stronger.

Where there is unity, even Mount Tai can be moved

People are the biggest asset of an enterprise and the origin and foundation of all corporate activities.

Talent training and absorption are the top priorities of an enterprise. If technological innovation is the core driving force of enterprise development, then people are the core engine of the enterprise.

Speaking of people, Mr. Meng seems to have endless things to say: "I am very glad that many people are following Haoshuo now, including many people who have worked in Haoshuo for 5 years or even more than 10 years. In addition to their families, Haoshuo is the place where they spend the longest time. I often say that Haoshuo is our second home. The failures and successes we have experienced together have made everyone's friendship very deep..."

A customer from Ghana, because the overall project schedule is very tight, found us and hoped to deliver 200 tons of high-viscosity hydroxypropyl methyl fiber (HPMC) within 10 days. The product quality must meet international high-end standards and be used for its key construction projects in the local area.

Mr. Meng said, "At that time, Haoshuo had only cooperated with the customer once. It was a surprise that the customer gave us this order, but it was also an opportunity for the customer to become a long-term partner." After receiving the task, it can be said that everyone in Haoshuo took action. The production department urgently adjusted the production plan and held a production mobilization meeting. The equipment maintenance department conducted a comprehensive inspection and maintenance of the production equipment in advance to ensure that the equipment would not fail under high-load operation and fully guarantee the production progress of the order.

On the production line, workers started a three-shift mode, with workers resting while equipment continued to work, or equipment alternated production. Everyone meticulously monitored every production link to ensure that the products met the standards. While the workers were working hard, Haoshuo's purchasing department was also contacting raw material suppliers for negotiations to avoid affecting the production progress due to raw material shortages. Because of the tight time and urgent tasks, the quality inspection department also increased the intensity and frequency of inspections not to let go of any possible quality problems.

"The working hours are long and the intensity is high. I have to work overtime to catch up with the progress. I can't help much on the production line, so I asked the canteen to prepare rich meals..." Mr. Meng smiled, "Everyone thinks and works together, which really meets the old Chinese saying, 'When people are united, they can move mountains'".

Mr. Meng said, "This customer has been cooperating with us for 7 years now. Every time we meet, he will bring up this matter. It was also this time that all Haoshuo people worked together to let the customer see the strength and sense of security of Haoshuo."

Forge the weak spot into armor

Kazuo Inamori once said, "A true strategy is to forge your weakness into armor."

What is Haoshuo's weak spot?

Technology is the weak spot that has troubled Haoshuo for the longest time.

Mr. Meng said, "Because I have experienced it, I understand the feeling of being stuck by technology, so I have to do it in terms of product technology, and I have to do it."

In 2017, Haoshuo successfully developed a high-viscosity HPMC product, providing high-quality products to the market while adding an option for customers.

As the only manufacturer with a 75° gel temperature, Haoshuo currently has a research and development team of 42 senior technical personnel and 56 technical personnel, who have put forward innovative ideas and solutions in production technology and product development to promote product quality improvement and production efficiency.

Rapid dissolution is a usage requirement for many applications. When developing a new cellulose ether product, the Haoshuo R&D team found that the product had poor water solubility. The team first conducted an in-depth analysis of the product's molecular structure and tried to adjust the reaction process, change the reaction time and temperature control, etc. After many experiments, the solubility was improved to a certain extent, but it did not meet expectations.

After consulting a large body of literature, the team found that specific co-solvents could be added to improve the solubility of cellulose ether. So, the team started a battle between co-solvents and cellulose ether dissolution. Through testing co-solvents of different types and proportions, the team finally determined the optimal amount and method of adding a co-solvent, successfully solving the problem of poor solubility of cellulose ether products.

Good solubility has enabled Haoshuo's cellulose ether products to be quickly recognized and applied in fields such as coatings and daily chemicals that require high dissolution speed.

Stability is one of the key factors for customers to choose cellulose ether products. The viscosity of Haoshuo's cellulose ether products has been unstable, and the viscosity of the same batch of products has fluctuated greatly, affecting the stability of the product in actual application. The R&D, production, quality inspection, procurement and other teams took joint action, and investigated their respective links with the R&D team as the core, and found that the quality of raw materials caused the fluctuation in raw material quality.

The Haoshuo procurement team immediately carried out stricter control over procurement standards and suppliers to ensure the quality of raw materials. Through this investigation, the R&D and production teams jointly optimized the parameters such as stirring speed and reaction time of the reaction process to make the reaction more sufficient and significantly improve the viscosity stability of the product. The products are widely used in industries such as building mortar and coatings, winning a good market reputation and economic benefits for the company.

In order to prevent the application of products from being affected by raw materials and to prevent an insufficient supply of raw materials, Haoshuo made strategic adjustments to raw materials in 2021. Haoshuo decided to establish its own refined cotton production base to control the quality of raw materials from the source, ensure the reserve of key raw materials, and ensure product quality and production capacity.

In addition to technological innovation in HPMC products, Haoshuo has also made remarkable achievements in the research and development of hydroxyethyl methylcellulose (HEC) products. HEC products are widely used in many industries such as water-based latex coatings, daily chemical products, and construction materials.

However, in the early stages of research and development, HEC products faced technical bottlenecks such as unstable water retention and poor compatibility with additives. By deeply analyzing the synthesis process and changing the reaction conditions, the Haoshuo R&D team successfully achieved the uniform replacement of hydroxyethyl groups on the cellulose molecular chain, improving the water retention of the product; by chemically modifying the water retention additive, the compatibility problem between the additive and HEC was solved, and finally an HEC product with excellent performance was developed.

After ten years of hard work, Mr. Meng and Haoshuo people have made Haoshuo go global with technological innovation and quality adherence. As a putty powder manufacturer from Elgeria said, "Haoshuo's products make our buildings safer..."

This is the story of Haoshuo people - using technology as a brush and ingenuity to write a global chapter of China's smart manufacturing.

The story of Haoshuo is still being written. In the future development path, Haoshuo Chemical will continue to uphold the purpose of "quality-oriented, variety-oriented development, and everything for customer service", continue to forge ahead, provide customers with better products and services, and make greater contributions to the development of the industry and the progress of society.

This is the story of Haoshuo people - using technology as the brush, products and services as the color, and ingenuity to write the global chapter of the Haoshuo story.