Anti-fatigue mat products for export
“Our anti-fatigue mat production schedule is already booked until the second half of this year.” Recently, a reporter visited Hengguang New Materials (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd. in Tongzhouwan Demonstration Zone. A row of Shanghai-licensed trucks were parked in the factory area, and workers were busy performing final quality checks on this year's latest anti-fatigue mats, preparing for loading and shipment. Li Tao, the head of the company, introduced that this batch of over 10,000 anti-fatigue mats, customized by European customers, had their orders confirmed before the year, and today they are being loaded and shipped to Shanghai Port, starting their export journey.
Li Tao picked up an anti-fatigue mat and showed it to the reporter. The mat showed no cutting marks, was extremely lightweight in the hand, and immediately returned to its original shape when stood upon. “Don't underestimate this mat; the technology behind it is quite advanced.” He explained that this latest anti-fatigue mat is made of high-quality PU one-time foaming, produced by their company, with comfort, support, and ergonomic design far exceeding most products in the industry. Currently, this product is entirely sold to overseas markets, with annual orders reaching around 1.5 million pieces, and each mat retails for around US$30 abroad.
Why can a simple sponge anti-fatigue mat capture the overseas market and receive hundreds of millions of dollars in orders annually? The answer is evident from the wall full of patent certificates for polyurethane auxiliaries and related technologies. Hengguang New Materials (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd., located in the Tongzhouwan Jiang-Hai Joint Development Demonstration Zone in Jiangsu Province, was established in 2016. It is a production-oriented enterprise focusing on production, research and development, and sales. Its products cover high-speed rail, ships, construction, and home furnishing, and it owns nearly 100 independently owned invention and utility patents. After several years of development, the company has become the manufacturer with the most complete range of polyurethane auxiliary products globally.
What are polyurethane auxiliaries? Li Tao explained that they are indispensable fine chemical raw materials in the sponge production process; in simpler terms, they are the "catalysts" in sponge manufacturing. “Sponge manufacturers have different requirements for product elasticity, tensile strength, yellowing resistance, flame retardancy, etc. Our greatest advantage is that we can tailor-make products to meet customer needs.”
Following Li Tao into the polyurethane auxiliary factory, in the large factory, besides several huge mixing tanks, few production personnel were visible. He introduced that through continuous improvement of production technology in recent years, the company has achieved automated production. In this factory, only 10 production and safety personnel can produce products worth 300 million yuan. Because of their research in polyurethane auxiliaries, the company now has production bases in Anhui, Hebei, Zhejiang, Russia, the UAE, Southeast Asia, and Africa, with the largest factory covering over 230 mu (approximately 15 hectares), hundreds of product varieties, and an annual sales growth of around 30%.
During this year's National Two Sessions, the frequent mention of "new productivity" gave Li Tao much inspiration for the company's future. “The Tongzhouwan factory, covering 47 mu, is our smallest factory, but it was our first. Now, our company is preparing for an IPO and will keep its headquarters here, hoping for a new beginning.” Li Tao revealed to the reporter that with the maturity of anti-fatigue mat and polyurethane auxiliary product technologies, this year the company will expand further upstream from the polyurethane auxiliary industry chain. They have established a chemical materials research institute, gathering a group of high-end domestic chemical talents to independently research and develop special amine products that currently face "bottlenecks," and to achieve mass production in the future, solving the problem of most raw materials relying on imports from the source.
“We aim to be the first publicly listed company grown in Tongzhouwan and become a leader in the polyurethane auxiliary industry within five years.” Li Tao is full of confidence in the company's future. He stated that the company will continue to focus on the "dual-drive" of intelligent and lean production, increase R&D investment, accelerate the construction of new product factories and production lines, and blaze a unique path of innovation with "technology-rich" products.
