Status Quo of Chemical Industrial Parks along the Yangtze River in Jiangsu

[Status Quo]

Jiangsu province is located in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, and both sides of the land area is flat and open, known as the “golden river bank” in the “golden waterway”. The region have five advantages: namely, large transportation volume, large water consumption, large throughput, large land use and large labor quantity, all of which provide advantaged natural conditions for the development of petroleum and chemical industry and enabling basic conditions for the construction of chemical industrial park along the river. Eight cities in Jiangsu province are along the river. They are Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changhou, Wuxi, Nantong, Yangzhou and Taizhou, including 34 counties and districts, and 152 towns. These right cities enjoy prosperity, technology and cultural deposits, which are indispensable conditions for developing petroleum and chemical industries.

There are 12 state-level development zones and 72 provincial-level development zones, including 4 state-level chemical industrial parks, 6 provincial-level chemical industrial parks, and nearly 30 city-level chemical industrial parks.

In the distribution of chemical industry parks, the south bank of the Yangtze river is relatively dense and develops rapidly, while the north bank of the Yangtze river is relatively backward and sparse. This is mainly due to the industrial foundation, technical strength, social concept, market radius, traffic conditions and economic strength formed over the years. With the acceleration of the process of global integration and the completion of infrastructure, the radiation intensity and breadth of Shanghai, Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu regions to central and northern Jiangsu regions are increasing, and it is imperative to transfer funds, talents, information and technology to the north.

[Policies]

By 2022, there will be no more than 1,000 chemical production enterprises in the province. The comprehensive evaluation of 50 chemical industry parks in the province has been carried out, and according to the evaluation results, it will be reduced to about 20. There are more than 5,000 chemical companies in Jiangsu Province, which means that about 80 per cent of chemical companies and 60 per cent of chemical parks in the province face extinction in the next three years.