On June 12, Haiyang Technology () Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Haiyang Technology"), whose main business nylon 6 new materials and registered in Taizhou, Jiangsu, landed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange.

From traditional chemical fibers to modern nylon materials, from intermediates to terminal applications, this "nylon old store" with revenue of over 5.5 billion yuan in 2024 adheres to the entrepreneurial intention of "achieving customers, benefiting employees, and contributing to society". After half a century, it has created a complete nylon 6 series product system, and its products are sold to 36 countries and regions around the world.

Nylon 6, it seems strange, but the clothes you wear, the speeding cars, Mercedes-Benz high-speed rail... There are traces of Nylon 6 everywhere in life. The nylon 6 slices produced by Haiyang Technology can be further made into nylon 6 silk threads, and then the silk threads are woven into nylon 6 cord cloth, which is widely used in tire skeletons.

"Haiyang Technology is inspired by the sun of the sea and is thriving. Haiyang is also the oldest place name in Taizhou." Recently, Lu Xincai, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of Haiyang Technology, told the company's development path for more than 50 years in an exclusive interview with a reporter from Shanghai Securities News. "We hope to gather all the forces of all parties to jointly promote the development of the company; like the sun rises in the east, the sun always brings us light and hope."

The road to the mountains and forests

Haiyang Technology’s history can be traced back to the 1970s. From Taizhou synthetic fiber factory to Taizhou Curtain Factory, it was merged into a state-owned enterprise and then reorganized and withdrawn. In the tide of innovation and entrepreneurship, Haiyang Technology has been going on all the way, and has been through storms.

At the end of 1998, Lu Xin was appointed by the parent company of a state-owned enterprise to work in a subsidiary of Taizhou. What Lu Xincai is facing is dilapidated equipment, backward technology, and a company on the verge of bankruptcy. "It was indeed very poor at that time, but to encourage everyone's confidence, I held a conference and said two sentences: 'If you are poor, you have a smile on your face; if you are poor, you have three kilograms of copper.'"

The way Lu Xincai thought of was the "three-year plan to turn losses into losses", and then entered the five-year low-cost expansion stage. By purchasing a large amount of ordinary and second-hand equipment and increasing manpower, the company quickly expanded its production capacity and significantly reduced costs. "This stage is particularly unforgettable. It can be said that the subsequent series of developments are inseparable from this stage. In the absence of funds, the low-cost production capacity was expanded and the company was protected."

The company has "survived", and its next goal is to become bigger and stronger. After the reform in 2006, Haiyang Technology left the parent company of the state-owned enterprise and its survival pressure increased sharply. By increasing product transformation and equipment upgrade efforts, Haiyang Technology has vigorously expanded the production capacity of nylon 6 slices and nylon 6 high-strength industrial silk on the basis of continuing to make good use of corund fabric products. In just a few years, the company's three series of products have reached the forefront of the industry.

Today, Haiyang Technology’s development strategy is “differentiation, high level, large-scale.” Lu Xincai explained: "The so-called differentiation means to do something that others do not have or are not good to improve the added value of the product; the so-called high level means to achieve a high level of technological research and development, a high level of product quality, and a high level of production process; the so-called large-scale means to increase production capacity, but it is not a low-level production capacity that is desperately expanding, but an advanced production capacity that is differentiated, intelligent and green."

In Lu Xincai's view, as a manufacturing enterprise, especially a manufacturing enterprise that makes basic materials, "small but beautiful" is not an option to "stay", but "big but strong". To be "big and strong", we must be industry-leading, both in scale and value.

Turn pain points into kinetic energy

Nylon 6 slices appear to be just small white particles at first glance, but they are spinned into silk and dyed, and can be made into various textiles such as clothing, socks, fishing nets, etc. used in daily life; they are made into plastics, which can be used to produce gears, electronic appliances, automobiles and rail transit materials for precision machines; they are made into films and blown films, and can also be used in food packaging, medical packaging, etc.

"You will know whether the slice is good or not." Lu Xincai believes that good slices must be able to meet different downstream usage needs. With a total production capacity of nearly 350,000 tons, most of the nylon 6 slices produced by Haiyang Technology are sold in fiber, engineering plastics, tires and other fields.

In the fiber field, Haiyang Technology provides raw materials for companies such as Huading Co., Ltd. (), Hengshen Group, and Aifei; in the field of engineering plastics, the company's downstream customers include internationally renowned companies such as BASF and Enhuali; the cord fabric products made of nylon 6 slices are used for tire manufacturing by companies such as Linglong Tire (), Zhongce Rubber, and Zhengxin Group.

As a customer, Lu Xincai admitted that he had "look up" at BASF's product indicators at the beginning. "Now the product indicators we produce can fully meet BASF's requirements and achieve large-scale supply, relying on product and service quality."

At present, Haiyang Technology has obtained 35 independent research and development patents and has been rated as a "National Intellectual Property Advantage Enterprise". In the field of slice production, the company is the first in the industry to establish a complete R&D system, and has a full set of equipment from small trials, pilots, and small-scale production.

"In this way, the channels for us to closely combine R&D results with universities and institutes have been opened up. We screened out some valuable results, and at the same time independently developed some. After small trials, pilots, small-scale production, and then scaled up to large-scale mass production, we formed a product value chain with unique Haiyang characteristics." Lu Xincai gave an example and said that in-situ polymerization of non-color slices is one of the products that have been successfully developed into the market, helping downstream factories to realize color-free masterbatch addition and printing-free dyeing in the spinning and weaving processes.

In recent years, the rapid development of the passenger car industry has driven the rapid growth of demand for semi-steel radial tires with polyester cord fabrics as the skeleton material. In response to the pain points of industry pain points such as the high labor force, high labor intensity, high energy consumption and large flue gas pollution, Haiyang Technology has developed and established the industry's first Internet intelligent manufacturing polyester cord cloth twisted and weaved production line and an intelligent glue-leaching production line, creating an industrial Internet integrated application platform and a digital full-process intelligent production workshop.

"New equipment and new projects must be intelligent and green. If our own progress solves the pain points of the industry, it will bring about high-quality development. For some old devices, we are also updating them to build smart manufacturing factories." Lu Xincai said that achieving high-level intelligent and green production is not only to improve quality and efficiency for enterprises, but also to better fulfill social responsibilities.

Aiming to build a century-old enterprise

After half a century of accumulation, Haiyang Technology has now formed the corporate values ​​of "dedication, innovation, efficiency and win-win" and the management concept of "serious in everything, refined in everything, continuous improvement, and pursuit of perfection".

What level is perfect? Lu Xincai's answer was: "We pursue perfection in internal management, not first, there is always only one first, but there is no limit on progress, so what we need to do is to discover our shortcomings at all times and constantly improve."

With Haiyang Technology developing to this day, Lu Xin believes that the most valuable value of the company's survival is its employees. "In the early years, when I was even having difficulty paying wages, I liked to walk around the workshop often. Some workers in the workshop would comfort me and tell me not to worry and take care of myself. No one came to ask me why it was a few days later to pay wages."

The trust given by employees to the company prompted Lu Xincai to treat employees as the owners of the company and care about whether employees have real gains in the company. By introducing high-end talents, it not only brings impetus to the company's R&D and operation, but also promotes the accelerated growth of a group of talents independently cultivated by the company.

"We now have a point of view: to do any project that we are not familiar with, the first thing is to solve the funding problem, but to solve the talent problem. Only with talents can you do it. No matter how much money you have, you can't do it." Lu Xincai's trust in talents is just like the name "Trust Talent".

Haiyang Technology, which has passed its "year of knowing one's life", has its next goal to become a century-old enterprise. This IPO is a new starting point for Haiyang Technology to enter a century-old enterprise. According to the prospectus, the funds raised will be used to build "annual output of 100,000 tons of modified polymer new materials project (Phase I), "annual output of 45,000 tons of high-model low-shrink polyester cord cloth intelligent technical transformation project" and "supplementary working capital".

In Lu Xincai's view, if the company wants to achieve long-term foundation, it will have four directions of efforts in the future: First, expand high-quality customers and expand the customer team with high-quality products and high-quality services; Second, innovate differentiated products, and invest in mass production without missing the opportunity if the conditions are met; Third, adhere to the path of intelligence and greenness in the manufacturing process; Fourth, expand high-level production capacity.

"Haiyang Technology has been around for more than 50 years, and a century-old enterprise is our next goal. With our own efforts, external support and the promotion of this listing, we are full of confidence in achieving the century-old enterprise goals. Success does not have to be with me. From executives to ordinary employees, all of us must do our best at every stage and create conditions for realizing our beautiful vision. Everyone works hard and is not afraid of any difficulties." Lu Xincai said.