The Textile Effects division of Huntsman Corporation and Jihua Group, based in Zhejiang Province, China, have signed an agreement for a strategic partnership. Under the agreement, the two companies will cooperate in a wide range of areas to jointly capitalize on the growing need for dye and chemical solutions for China’s textile sector.

The partnership will help the two companies speed up their supply chains to react more quickly to customers’ demand and increase cost efficiency for customers.

Existing cooperation

The forming of the strategic partnership marks a further step forward for the existing cooperation between the two companies. In August, Huntsman Textile Effects, a major innovator with more than 700 patents, had granted a sole licence to Jihua for manufacturing, sales and marketing of Huntsman’s patented reactive Super Black dyes in China.

With the agreement, Huntsman and Jihua are now selling the Super Black products under their respective tradenames. In addition, Huntsman also awarded Jihua Group the right to sub-license its patented Super Black dyes in China.

“Jihua Group has emerged as one of the leading players in the domestic chemical industry in the past years. We are equally honoured to partner with such a global leader as Huntsman to pool and complement our resources and strength so as to jointly tap into the Chinese market, which promises huge opportunities,” said Mr Shao Bojin, Chairman of Jihua Group.

Strategic alliance

The strategic alliance is expected to help further strengthen the two companies’ capabilities of serving their customers in China and speed up their expansion in the country. Investment in China’s textile industry grew 1.6 times year-on-year in the first six months of this year to RMB 13.1 billion, pointing to a marked expansion by textile manufacturers, according to China National Textile Apparel Council (CNTAC). This is also expected to result in growing need for chemical solutions.

“We are very pleased to have broadened our cooperation with Jihua Group into a strategic partnership,” said Rohit Aggarwal, President of Huntsman Textile Effects, at the signing ceremony. “This strategic alliance will allow us to create greater cost and operational efficiencies and we can react quicker and be more nimble to our customers in China.”

“Huntsman is now even better positioned to capture the emerging mark opportunities in China.  The alliance will also help to pave the way for us to enter into further discussions with Jihua Group to broaden our cooperation to include other reactive dyes and intermediates in the future.”

International presence

Huntsman Textile Effects is the leading global provider of high quality dyes and chemicals to the textile and related industries, with six primary manufacturing facilities around the world, including a plant in Panyu, Guangdong Province. Huntsman Textile Effects also operates two formulation distribution centres in Panyu and Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, as well an R&D centre in Panyu.

Jihua Group is a market leader in China for the manufacture of dyes and intermediates with state-of-the-art facilities. Headquartered in Hangzhou, China, the company owns and operates an intermediate production facility in Jiangsu China. Zhejiang Jihua Group is one of the top 500 Chinese private enterprises and its products are marketed to almost 86 countries globally.

www.huntsman.com