One of the earliest American companies to enter China, this industrial giant has been rooted in Zhangjiang for 20 years
Speaking of Honeywell, you may not remember it deeply, but there must be its products on the planes you have flown on. It is not an exaggeration to say that Honeywell is a low-key industrial giant. Nearly 140 years ago, this company started as a thermostat, but now it has crossed multiple fields such as industrial automation, construction, security, aerospace, petrochemicals, automobiles, and new materials, becoming one of the world's largest high-tech and manufacturing enterprises.
It is this century old multinational enterprise that entered the Chinese market in 1972 and established its Asia Pacific headquarters in Pudong, Shanghai in 2004, thus forming a connection with Shanghai. According to Yu Feng, the President of Honeywell China, Honeywell is a complete witness and witness to the 45 years of China's reform and opening up. The company has deeply felt the tremendous changes that the reform and opening up have brought to the times. Following the pace of China's economic development, Honeywell is not only introducing cutting-edge technology domestically, but also pushing local innovation to the world.
Rooted in Zhangjiang for 20 years
Honeywell is one of the earliest foreign companies to enter China. As early as 1935, Honeywell established its first distribution agency in China in Shanghai. When US President Nixon visited China in 1972, at the invitation of the Chinese government, he recommended elite enterprises from ten major fields to China, promoting two-way exchanges between the two countries and promoting China's modernization construction. Among them, UOP, a subsidiary of Honeywell, is a representative enterprise in the refining and petrochemical industry. From then on, Honeywell officially entered the Chinese market.
Yu Feng graduated from university in 1985 and has a deep understanding of the changes in China's 45 years of reform and opening up. In his view, Honeywell's strategy in China is highly consistent with the development stage of the Chinese economy.
"At first, Honeywell regarded China as a market, so it set up offices and later established a trading company in Waigaoqiao." Yu Feng introduced that with the improvement of China's infrastructure, the highlighting of labor and policy advantages, Honeywell saw the huge potential of the Chinese economy, so it quickly built factories and opened joint ventures in various places, and began to expand its business in multiple fields such as energy, construction, chemical, and aviation.
In 2003, with the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, Honeywell took advantage of the favorable foreign investment environment and development prospects in Shanghai, and relocated its Asia Pacific business headquarters to Zhangjiang High tech Park in Pudong New Area, becoming one of the first multinational corporation regional headquarters enterprises recognized in Shanghai.
Seeing the development potential of Zhangjiang in Pudong in 2003 is enough to demonstrate Honeywell's confidence in the Chinese economy. Now, China is not only Honeywell's second largest global market, but also Honeywell's manufacturing and innovation base. In China, Honeywell has over 50 legal entities and more than 20 factories. Among nearly 10000 Chinese employees, 25% are research and development personnel, not including larger technical personnel such as quality engineers and process engineers.
At the beginning of 2023, Shanghai held the 36th batch of certification ceremonies for regional headquarters and R&D centers of multinational corporations, and awarded Honeywell the "20 Years of Rooting in Shanghai" commemorative plaque. Yu Feng told the media on site, "The continuously optimized business environment in Shanghai not only brings new opportunities to Honeywell, but also strengthens the company's determination and confidence to further root in Shanghai and deeply cultivate China."
On May 28, 2023, COMAC's first C919 large passenger aircraft delivered globally made its maiden flight. The four technical solutions and supporting services for the auxiliary power system of C919 come from Honeywell.
From the East to the World
Honeywell has witnessed profound changes in reform and opening up, and also witnessed the rapid rise of local innovation capability.
If you buy a cup of coffee at Starbucks, pay close attention to the coffee shop's QR code scanner, and the Honeywell logo is located below. Moreover, they are likely to be produced in Suzhou, China - Honeywell Code Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the world's largest suppliers of scanning equipment.
Yu Feng introduced that the competition in the field of scanning equipment is actually very fierce, but why has this Suzhou factory been able to achieve rapid growth in efficiency in the past decade without adding more factories and workers? This is due to its business moving from the Chinese market to the global market. Now, the main task of this Suzhou factory under Honeywell Security and Productivity Solutions Group is to serve the world, with most of its products sold overseas.
A small barcode scanner, moving from the East to the world, relies not only on cost advantages, but also on local research and innovation capabilities. This Suzhou factory is one of the first world-class factories within Honeywell, which has achieved intelligent and digital operations earlier. With over 200 R&D personnel, all products are developed, purchased, and manufactured in China.
In fact, Honeywell's emphasis on research and development was evident when it first entered the Chinese market. At the turn of the century, when Honeywell established its Asia Pacific headquarters in Zhangjiang, it also established a Chinese R&D center in the park. At that time, there were not many cases of foreign companies investing in research and development in China. Almost simultaneously, Honeywell put forward the slogan "East serves East". This is similar to the slogan "In China, for China" advocated by many foreign companies nowadays, which emphasizes providing local research and development, local supply, and local services to meet the needs of the Chinese market.
20 years later, China has become one of Honeywell's most important global research and development bases, and the development strategies of "Eastern Service for the East" and "Eastern Service for the World" in China jointly drive business growth. "On the basis of serving the Chinese market, Honeywell also promotes Chinese products to the global market through its internal sales network, allowing the world to share the achievements of Chinese innovation," said Yu Feng.
Honeywell booth in the technical equipment exhibition area of the 5th CIIE
Transformation brings sustainable development
Currently, facing the demand for high-quality transformation and development of the Chinese economy, Honeywell, which has been in the Chinese market for more than decades, has discovered new business opportunities.
For example, the catering industry produces a large amount of gutter oil every day. How to handle it properly? How to recycle common plastic films in agricultural greenhouses? These seemingly imaginative issues have opened up new development opportunities for Honeywell. In the energy sector, Honeywell has confirmed the feasibility of converting gutter oil into aviation fuel and has partnered with relevant customers to build sustainable aviation fuel production bases, promoting carbon reduction in the aviation industry through innovation. In the chemical industry, Honeywell has successfully utilized the UpCycle process to chemically treat low-grade waste plastics into high-quality recycled polymer raw materials, and has collaborated with Chinese companies to commercialize plastic recycling processes, expanding its business in the new materials field.
China has proposed the "dual carbon" goals of 2030 and 2060, and aviation, energy, and chemical industries are Honeywell's traditional advantages. Faced with the transformation of market demand, Honeywell does not want to be absent, nor can it be absent. "We need to ensure that our business activities and product innovation can closely follow the development of the Chinese economy and predict the future needs of the Chinese economy," said Yu Feng. As of now, sustainable development related product and service solutions have accounted for 60% of Honeywell's sales revenue.
In Yu Feng's view, enterprise transformation should be based on actual benefits, which can be economic benefits, environmental benefits, and social benefits. For this reason, Honeywell is also actively carrying out government enterprise and school enterprise cooperation. For example, in February of this year, Honeywell established the "Honeywell Low Carbon Smart Building Research Institute" in Shanghai and actively shared the operational data of its Asia Pacific headquarters with the research teams of universities in Shanghai, leveraging the research advantages of universities to jointly carry out smart building research. "Collaboration does not end with just a certificate, the key is to use this platform to continue promoting transformation and bringing greater results to society."
Yu Feng stated that Honeywell Low Carbon Smart Building Research Institute will launch research results within this year to help businesses and industries jointly improve their sustainable development level. It is expected that by the end of next year, 80% of Honeywell's sales revenue in China will come from government recognized green factories.
