On April 30, the Company’s 2025 Annual Innovation Day Themed Activity Review and the Innovation & Value Creation Competition were successfully held at the Science and Technology Hall. Company leaders Lin Xu and Li Ji attended the event and presented awards to the winning participants.

Lin Xu, President of the Company, warmly greeted the award recipients and gave full recognition to the organizational efforts and outcomes of the Innovation Day activities. He noted that this Innovation & Value Creation Competition harnessed the collective wisdom of the entire workforce. The 16 shortlisted projects targeted critical pain spots in production and operations, featuring not only breakthroughs in technological challenges but also management optimization initiatives requiring zero or low investment. Through lean practices such as production scheduling adjustments and operational refinements, cost reduction and profitability improvement were achieved, setting a strong example of ultimate management and lean operations.

Lin Xu remarked that the petrochemical industry has now entered a critical stage where cost competitiveness determines survival, making it a new norm to compete in potential, management, and innovation. Cost reduction and profitability improvement are by no means simple cost-cutting measures; they represent a systematic transformation of management philosophy and operational models. Every detail—from equipment operation and maintenance to energy consumption control and process optimization—holds potential for enhancing quality and creating profits. In 2025, the Company deepened enterprise-wide innovation, achieving annual cost reductions exceeding 400M RMB - the best performance in nearly five years—effectively reversing the rising trend in expenditures. He stressed that enterprise innovation must not only aim for high-end technological breakthroughs but also delve deeply into "small improvements, small innovations, and small optimizations" on the front line, anchoring micro-innovation in each post to pool the synergy of benefit creation through incremental breakthroughs. At the same time, young talent should be cultivated through the innovation platform, forging a core team that dares to think and act and excels at innovating and delivering.

Regarding the next steps in innovation, Lin Xu outlined three requirements: first, advance the implementation of innovation outcomes in a checklist-driven manner, solidify proven experience, and accelerate breakthroughs on unfinished projects; second, foster a Company-wide culture of innovation by freeing up and empowering management while encouraging bold exploration among frontline employees, so that innovation becomes the norm in every role; third, stay anchored to long-term development goals, tap deeply into internal potential, and convert cost advantages into core competitive strengths, thereby consolidating the foundation for the enterprise's high-quality growth.

At the finals of the Innovation and Innovation & Value Creation Competition, 16 participants delivered roadshow presentations covering project backgrounds, implementation pathways, pain spot solutions, and benefits and values. A judging panel composed of Company leaders and heads of relevant departments posed questions and provided on-the-spot feedback, scoring comprehensively and selecting winners impartially based on criteria such as innovativeness, feasibility, and economic viability.

After intense competition, Chen Long with "Unmanned Loading at Polyolefin Platforms" and Zhu Zhenwang with "Optimizing the Blending of Gasoline Components to Achieve Cost reduction" secured the first prize. Huang Zhifu, Wang Jianhong, Xu Xian, and Sun Jingsong won the second prize; Chen Jingtao, Fan Chengde, Li Zepu, Lin Dongwei, Pan Weijie, Wang Jing, Wu Tengshou, and Xu Xian respectively won the third prize. At the meeting, the commendation results for the 2025 annual implemented cost reduction projects of various departments were simultaneously announced.

The event also featured an Innovation Day handover ceremony, where Finance Department, the organizer for this session, handed over the event logo to Process Department, the organizer for 2026. A representative from Process Department introduced the theme and organizational principles of the upcoming Innovation Day.

It is reported that the 2025 Innovation Day centered on the core theme of cost reduction. Employees enthusiastically contributed suggestions based on their positions, cumulatively gathering numerous optimization proposals. After multiple rounds of evaluation and selection, 133 ideas advanced to the first round, 60 progressed to the second round of competition, and ultimately 16 outstanding projects made it to the final stage. Through Company-wide innovation and tapping potential across all domains, strong internal momentum was injected into the enterprise's stable operations. (By Zhang Lei)