Global economic woes are not deterring some global chemical giants from expanding their presence in China, where they think the long-term fundamentals remain solid.

Netherlands-based DSM, which recently started operations of a new factory in the Pearl River Delta boomtown of Shunde, said it will put its China campus into operation in the coming months as scheduled.

The 20-million-euro Shunde facility specializes in the production of waterborne acrylic resins for the China market, while the DSM China campus, also the new headquarters of DSM China, will become the firm's largest R&D facility outside Europe and the United States.

"The global economic slump have bitten into our business in China," said Pascal de Sain, business director of DSM NeoResins, a specialty resins business of DSM.

"However, we are optimistic of the mid-term and long-term business prospects in China and our commitment to the investment and the market in China remains unchanged."

Jiang Weiming, president of DSM China, told China Daily that the company is looking for merger and acquisition opportunities in China to increase its presence at a time when economic woes are accelerating the industry reshuffle.

De Sain said China's economic stimulus plan, which focuses on expanding spending on infrastructure, is a shining beacon of hope amid the doldrums.

Jiang expected DSM's China sales to surpass US$1 billion this year, and its target of growing that figure to US$1.5 billion by 2010 remains unchanged despite the economic slowdown.

US-based Dow Chemical is also undeterred, although this week it announced plans to close 20 plants and cut 5,000 jobs worldwide.

"While market and business conditions have changed considerably in the past year, we remain committed to our objective in China," said George Hamilton, president of Dow Coating Solutions, a coating business unit of Dow Chemical. "In the next few months, we will pull in new resources and continue core research that will directly benefit our customers and help us offer new solutions to the application demands driving our industry."

And a new Dow center will become operational in Shanghai in January 2009 as scheduled.

The center, with about 60 laboratories and 350 scientists and specialists, is expected to become a world-class R&D facility, global IT and transaction center for Dow.

Official statistics indicate that China's some 8,000 coating firms yielded 3.16 million tons of coatings in the first half of this year, up 11.78 percent from a year ago.

(China Daily December 11, 2008)