Since the handover of the project in April 2017, the Czech company has completed the first membrane life cycle of the 60,000 t/a potash, 40,000 t/a sodium alkali electrolysis, and supporting chlorine-drying and alkali-evaporation projects. In January 2014, it was the first European project undertaken by Bluestar (Beijing) Chemical Machinery Co., Ltd. (BCMC). The project is of extraordinary significance as BCMC has overcome many difficulties in completing this task. Under the company’s leadership, every member from the marketing, technology, procurement, project, production and customer service teams has been undaunted in addressing the gaps and challenges concerning the culture, language, standards and experience, working together to advance the entire project.
The smooth operation of the Czech project has empowered customers to meet the EU’s goal of phasing out mercury-process chlor-alkali projects ahead of schedule by 2020. It also marks that China has gained a foothold in the European market in terms of electrolysis technology and engineering capabilities. The Czech Chemical Corporation, a well-established European chemical company with a history of over 100 years, is still confronted with challenges at the initial stage of ion membrane electrolysis. From the start-up to the ensuing two or three years, a series of problems in the operation of the plant and system occurred in the Czech project. Some were easy to understand for domestic experienced chlor-alkali manufacturers. Still, they were thorny problems for the Czech company and raised its doubts about BCMC’s technology and product quality. Whenever a problem comes from the customer’s site, BCMC’s international marketing team has taken on a range of responsibilities for communicating, organizing, coordinating, analyzing, and discussing optimization solutions with customer service experts and customers to avoid and solve problems. In spite of time difference, the international marketing team has never slacked off. All the members have won the recognition of the customer by following the principle of “being ready to handle the most urgent and difficult things”. During the seven or eight years from project negotiation, equipment installation, start-up and later maintenance, the Czech company’s members, from the Group Director’s Office, the Strategic Procurement Division, the Project Management Division, to the chlor-alkali plant and the maintenance and upgrading workshop for unit tanks, have spoken highly of the BCMC people wearing blue uniforms and “Bluestar” badges.
With the Czech project representing BCMC’s demonstration in Europe, the Czech company has bidden spare parts of electrolyzer ion membrane for sodium and potash systems multiple times in 4 years of operation. All major membrane manufacturers in the world participated in the bidding directly. The international business department of BCMC took Xingdie Company as a platform to study and judge the customer demand for the duty-free, delivery cycle, price, performance guarantee and after-sales services, accurately respond to the tender and timely reply to a series of questions from the customer on business operation. Finally, BCMC won the contracts for sodium and potash ion membrane parts in the first membrane life cycle through the three-party trade and collected all payments. Over the past years, no matter for on-site renovation projects or spare parts projects, BCMC has explored more innovative and flexible forms of cooperation to better meet customer needs by maintaining efficient communication and establishing trust with customers.
It has been the goal of BCMC to provide value-added services to customers. BCMC has also seized a golden business opportunity through cooperation with Czech customers. At the stage of reviewing BCMC’s overseas engineering capability, the Mexican project owner visited the site to inspect the Czech project. It is one of the most effective marketing strategies to tell potential customers about the good feelings of cooperation with BCMC in the voice of European customers.
Being market-oriented, BCMC has been providing the quality service as the best approach to win customers. Centering on customers, the company has met their needs as a way to maximize customer value. In the future, it will continue to work together with customers to tackle challenges and achieve benefits.