Qianjiang Biochemical Focuses on Technology       

Zhejiang Qianjiang Biochemical Co., Ltd. (Qianjiang Biochemical, SH: 600796) is located in Haining of Zhejiang province, and was listed on Shanghai Stock Exchange in 1997.
    The company is claimed to be one of the largest bio-pesticide production bases in China and mainly manufactures more than 30 kinds of products in 4 series, i.e. fungicide validamycin series, pesticide avermectin series, plant growth regulator gibberellin series as well as colistin sulfate, flavomycin and salinomycin. It can annually produce130 000 tons of validamycin (1%), 80 tons of gibberellin (100%) and 30 tons of avermectin (100%). The company's validamycin products occupy more than 50% of the domestic market share, while its gibberellin production ranks first in the world, and the export of gibberellin accounts for 68% of the national total. In addition, Qianjiang Biochemical has eight subsidiaries, including three biochemical factories such as Tongxiang Qianxiang Biochemcial Co., Ltd.

* 2008: a year of loss

In 2008, Qianjiang Biochemical reaped annual revenue of RMB378 million, a 9.23% decrease from 2007. It also had a loss of RMB77.41 million in 2008 while it earned a profit of RMB32.45 million in 2007. Its sales revenue of gibberellin and validamycin remained close to that of 2007. Huge loss in 2008 was mainly caused by non-pesticide business.
    In sharp contrast to huge loss in 2008, in the first quarter of 2009, Qianjiang Biochemical achieved a gross profit of RMB11.03 million. In the first half of 2009, the company realized revenue of RMB199.13 million, down 8.02% over the same period last year, and also made a net profit of RMB18.38 million. In April 2009, the average price of gibberellin - the company's flagship product -was RMB1 450/kg, and that of validamycin 5% SP was RMB3 300/ton, only 10% higher than in the latter half of 2008.

* New techniques and products   

Qianjiang Biochemical attaches great importance to the research and development of new techniques and products. Since 2006, the company has optimized the former production process of validamycin 20% powder for domestic sales and adopted advanced airflow drying method so to produce high-purity validamycin powder like 40%A, 50% A and 60% A., It also replaced traditional process with new one in gibberellins fermentation to control the proportion of active ingredients, such as GA3, GA4 and GA7, so as to improve the product's purity and yield, and also significantly reduce unit consumption of energy and raw materials. The GA3 93% tablets produced are mainly for export. The company also innovatively extracts ergosterol - main raw material for Vitamin D2 production from the fermentation liquor, thus effectively reducing the production costs of Vitamin D2.
    In addition, the company developed three new products, namely, chloropyridine, voglibose and natamycin.
    Chloropyridine is a key intermediate in chlorpyrifos production which enjoys huge market demand and high gross margin, but China has been relied on imports all along. Qianjiang Biochemical is moving forward in the implementation of a project with a capacity between 1 000 t/a and 5 000 t/a eventually in line with the market expansion.
   The hypoglycemic drug Voglibose is a raw material in producing diabetes-treating preparations. Qianjiang Biochemical has mastered a new leading production process which replaces chemical method with biological method. Taking fermentation wastes as raw materials, voglibose features extremely high gross margin for its low production cost. However, this product had been made only for a Japanese customer, and now Qianjiang Biochemical has to find new domestic or international clients because the Japanese customer teriminated the contract temporally. It is relatively difficult to find new clients in short time, especially new domestic ones.
    Natamycin is a microbial preservative, and the company says that it was one of the only two companies in China that have mastered natamycin production technology. The gross profit of natamycin in Qianjiang Biochemical is over 70%, so the company plans to build a capacity between 5 000 and 10 000 t/a in the future, and the company has successfully run the pilot scale project by now.
    On May 13th, the State Council announced to earmark RMB32.8 billion in 2009 and RMB30 billion in 2010 to support the development of various industries like biopharmaceutical, bio-agricultural, bio-energy, bio-manufacturing and bio-environmental protection. It is inevitable that biological pesticides will gradually replace chemical pesticides for utilization, and Qianjiang Biochemical will undoubtedly benefit a lot from the new policy.
    As to 2009' business objectives, Qianjiang Biochemical said, "The company's biggest task in 2009 is to earn profits, and there is much probability that our main businesses will realize this goal since we will enhance the research and development of selecting elite strains of bacteria so as to improve the fermentation degree and product extraction rate by 10% - 15%".