Yihua’s construction site of the 20,000 ton-TMP annual- yield project (Photographed by Fu Beibei, reporter of the Three Gorges Daily)

　　"We’ve nearly completed the civil construction, with 90% of the equipment already in place. Next we will enter the stage of overall piping soon." On April 29, the 20,000 ton- TMP-annual-yield project is to make its final push for completion in Yaojiagang Chemical Industry Park by August, Zhijiang. "More than 50 million of tax revenue will be achieved every year once the project is put into production." said Zhang Gang, head of the project.

　　Trimethylolpropane (referred to as TMP for short), an important raw material of high-grade coating, and light-cured coating which is perceived as a rising star in new functional material, is widely used in fields like automobile, aviation and navigation. During the transition from TMP to light-curing material, Yichang has succeeded in building an innovation chain based on the industrial chain and then laying out the capital chain, quietly leading to a technological revolution.

　　Yihua Group, which has been working on TMP production for over 10 years, is a leading enterprise in this field because of a number of core products and related technical patents. During the critical period of transformation and upgrading in 2018, the company has integrated its technological and resource advantages and invested 500 million yuan to start the project.

　　"Our goal is to build a first-class national smart chemical plant." According to Zhang Gang's description, a vivid picture of a smart and automatic production line of automatic packaging, filtering and centrifugation is suddenly in sight. "While ensuring production safety," he said "the decline in repetitive work can help reduce employment by more than 60%."

　　Simultaneous upgrades also include production processes. The newly developed calcium method and a series of core technologies owned by the industry make " Yihua-Made" stand out from similar products, reaching an international advanced level and achieving a clean production to the largest extent.

　　How to use product advantages to extend the industrial chain and strengthen the value chain? In Baiyang Industrial Park of High Tech Zone, Hubei Yihua Group, together with Shenzhen Youwei Technology Holding Group Co., Ltd. and Guangdong BATF Industrial Co., Ltd, has invested 8 billion yuan to build a global leading "integrated" industrial base for light-curing coatings and raw materials.

　　Focus on the production chain. Yichang, equipped with products including TMP from Yaojiagang Chemical Industry Park and a series of products such as photoinitiator produced by Baiyang Industrial Park, is bound to realize the whole process of closed-loop from raw materials to end products.

　　Starting the landing of the project last year, the Hubei Youyi TPO project with an annual output of 1,000 tons of energy-saving and environmentally friendly photoinitiators is progressing smoothly. 40% of the infrastructure tasks, including workshop and warehouse for finished product and raw material, have been completed, and 90% of the equipment procurement has been done. Based on the current progress in construction, the project is expected to be put into production in October this year.

　　Hubei Youwei new material production base for special equipment project, another major project in the base, is speeding up its planning and is to kick off in the second half of this year. In addition to its sister products of photoinitiator TPO, the project can also produce core materials of photoresist and boasts competitive enough to enter the flat-panel liquid crystal and semiconductor market with an investment of over 100 billion yuan.

　　"Both projects have received technical support from Shenzhen Youwei Technology Holding Group." said Ding Haoyu, the general manager of Hubei Youwei New Materials Co., Ltd. He mentioned several advantages of the company in detail: 76 invention patents of Shenzhen Youwei Company in the field of water-based LED photocuring, meaning the technological revolution from oil-based coating to water-based curing coating, making it even comparable to some international coating giants; Additionally, 395 nanometer water-based LED photocuring patent technologies in the photoinitiator TPO project, making it possible for the coating to set within only 3 seconds, greatly improving the work efficiency in environments like curved surface and facade.

　　According to the plan, the industrial base will also produce 20000 tons of light curing initiator, 80000 tons of light curing monomer resin, and 100,000 tons of water-based LED light curing coating, achieving a cluster of upstream and downstream of the special chemical new material industrial chain, with an expected annual sales volume of 10.5 billion yuan and a tax creation of 1.2 billion yuan. (Yang Jing, reporter of the Three Gorges daily)