Editor’s Note:
Foreign-invested and foreign trade enterprises are the lifeline of Dongguan’s export-oriented economy. On July 10, Dongguan will hold a multinational company exchange meeting, providing a great opportunity and broad space for the city and many outstanding multinational companies to further deepen exchanges and cooperation, expand cooperation fields, and win the future together. In recent days, Dongguan Daily has focused its lens on the headquarters, R&D centers, and production bases of multinational companies in Dongguan. Through interviews with company executives, it listens to the stories of multinational companies “investing in Dongguan, taking root in Dongguan, and succeeding in Dongguan.” Today, let’s look at the story of the century-old multinational company DIC Group investing in Dongguan.
“We have relocated our factories from Shenzhen and Guangzhou to Dongguan. In January of this year, the new factory was officially completed and put into production. This will become DIC’s largest factory in South China,” said Gao Zhihui, Director and General Manager of DIC (Dongguan) Graphics Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Dongguan DIC), in an interview with reporters.
Japan’s DIC Group is a century-old enterprise with a history of 116 years, mainly engaged in printing inks, functional products, and electronic information materials, with operations in 64 countries and regions around the world.
In January of this year, Dongguan DIC’s project, with a total investment of 220 million yuan and an annual production capacity of 26,000 tons of ink, was officially put into operation in the Lisha Island Fine Chemical Park in Shatian Town. The project’s main focus is on ink production, primarily engaged in the research and production of digital ink, UV ink, and offset sheet-fed ink. It is one of Dongguan’s key foreign-invested projects.
Investing in Dongguan:
Some raw materials can be sourced within a few kilometers
DIC Corporation was founded in 1908 and has grown from an initial ink workshop into a multinational group company with 174 related companies in 64 countries and regions worldwide.
In 2021, to meet the growing market demand for its ink products, DIC planned to invest in building a factory in the Lisha Island Fine Chemical Park in Shatian Town, Dongguan. The plan included transferring the ink business from its Shenzhen and Guangzhou branches to Dongguan. After extensive discussions, the project was successfully established in Shatian Town, becoming one of Dongguan’s key foreign-invested projects in 2021.
On January 7, 2022, the groundbreaking ceremony for the DIC (Dongguan) Graphics Co., Ltd. park officially commenced in the Lisha Island Fine Chemical Park in Shatian Town. DIC Guangzhou Graphics Co., Ltd. and Shenzhen-DIC Co., Ltd. were fully relocated to Dongguan, ultimately forming the new DIC (Dongguan) Graphics Factory with an annual production capacity of 26,000 tons of ink.
With a total investment of 220 million yuan and an area of 60 acres, the project has an annual output value of no less than 10 million yuan per acre, making an annual fiscal contribution of no less than 1 million yuan per acre. The main focus is on ink production, primarily engaged in the research and production of digital ink, UV ink, and offset sheet-fed ink, which will help to improve the ink market in the Pearl River Delta and surrounding areas.
“The most impressive aspect from project initiation to production was the government departments’ ‘on-site office’.” Reflecting on the reasons for investing in Dongguan, Gao Zhihui recalled that Dongguan showed great sincerity in cooperation. The main person in charge of the investment promotion system convened fire safety, environmental protection, and other departments for “on-site office” meetings for the project, setting timelines and countdowns to ensure proper service.
Dongguan’s excellent location was also a key reason why this century-old multinational company chose Dongguan. “Dongguan is located at the geographical center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, at the main axis of the integrated development of the eastern and western banks of the Pearl River Delta, which helps us retain talent,” said Gao Zhihui. Dongguan DIC currently has about 200 employees, over 20% of whom are technical personnel, and the talent from the former subsidiaries in Guangzhou and Shenzhen has mostly been successfully relocated to Dongguan.
“Take myself as an example: it used to take me nearly an hour to commute from my home in Panyu, Guangzhou, to Guangzhou DIC. Now, it only takes 40 minutes from Panyu to Dongguan DIC,” said Gao Zhihui. Dongguan’s excellent geographical location allows existing employees to smoothly commute between Guangzhou and Shenzhen every day.
Additionally, Dongguan has a well-developed industrial infrastructure that can quickly adapt to the upstream and downstream enterprises of the industrial chain. Gao Zhihui noted that after the project began trial production, they found that some raw materials could be sourced within a few kilometers on Lisha Island.
Technology upgrading:
Building a comprehensive technology center in Dongguan
For the century-old multinational company DIC, this investment in Dongguan is not merely a simple factory relocation.
DIC has been investing in China for over 40 years, accumulating rich technical experience in the local market. Over the past four decades, the ink market has undergone tremendous changes. Gao Zhihui recalled that when he entered the ink industry in the late 1980s, the entire ink market in China was around 40,000 tons. “Now it should be over 800,000 tons, with not only foreign investments but also private enterprises. The entire industry is still developing rapidly, even to the point of becoming highly competitive,” Gao Zhihui said. For Dongguan, the key lies in innovation.
To this end, Dongguan DIC has specially established a comprehensive technology center that integrates experimental, testing, and research and development functions to precisely meet the unique needs of the Chinese printing and ink market.
Every drop of ink in this technology center contains the power of color and sparks of innovation. It is equipped with numerous cutting-edge R&D facilities and precision analytical instruments. Each technician has an independent workbench, providing a solid hardware foundation for the improvement of ink formulations. This greatly enhances the product's R&D and testing capabilities, driving the continuous development of technological innovation.
Moreover, capitalizing on the opportunity of the new factory’s establishment in Dongguan, DIC successfully deployed a fully automated production line. From raw material preparation, precise proportioning, grinding operation to finished product packaging, every step of this fully automated production line follows strict processes and international standards, achieving full-process automation and enhancing product quality stability and production efficiency.
“After the new Dongguan factory started production, the overall efficiency of the factory increased by more than 20%, and costs were significantly improved,” Gao Zhihui said. This automation innovation will accelerate DIC’s transformation towards intelligence, not only enhancing the overall production capacity of the Dongguan factory but also providing valuable insights for the intelligent development of the ink industry.
It is worth noting that this production line also strictly adheres to environmental regulations, achieving waste reduction and resource utilization. During the production process, a series of environmental measures are adopted. On site, the reporter saw that the factory is equipped with an advanced wastewater treatment system and has implemented a waste recycling scheme.
Dongguan shares a special connection with this century-old multinational company. In the center of the Dongguan DIC factory site, there is a flourishing century-old banyan tree, which was planted in 1908, coincidentally the same year DIC was founded. Despite enduring a century of changes and weathering many storms, the tree remains lush and thriving, thanks to the careful nurturing and companionship of all the employees at Dongguan DIC.
Text by Chief Reporter Cao Lijuan, Intern Tang Wenjie; Photos by Reporter Cao Xueqin; Edited by Zhang Ye
