Eastman grows China foothold to meet rising demand

Eastman Chemical Co, a United States-based specialty materials manufacturer, will further enhance its foothold in China with expanded investments in innovation, manufacturing and sustainability, said its senior executives.

They said that many opportunities arise from China's rising demand for high-performance materials across automotive, packaging and sustainable solutions, Eastman will accelerate localization efforts and supply chain integration to sustain its growth and support the country's green transformation goals.

With eight manufacturing sites and an innovation center across China, the company launched two new lines last week at its plant in Dalian, Northeast China's Liaoning province, to ramp up the output of its automotive film products.

"This expansion strengthens our ability to meet the rising demand for our film products across China and the Asia Pacific region, while also fostering greater innovation and enabling the scaling of product development within our existing operations," said Brad Lich, executive vice-president and chief commercial officer of Eastman.

Underscoring that China is at the core of Eastman's global strategy, Lich said that Eastman will continue to innovate across a wide range of applications, from specialty plastics used in reusable bottles, electronics and cosmetics packaging, to performance films for automotive and architectural use, within the country, to seize more market share and contribute to China's dual-carbon goals.

He added, "Compared with other markets, the pace of innovation and transformation in China is significantly faster, especially in the digital sphere. Chinese consumers are among the most digitally savvy in the world, which continuously drives our teams to keep innovating".

Established in 1920, the Kingsport, Tennessee-headquartered Eastman, to date, employs 14,000 people around the world and serves customers in more than 100 countries and regions. Its sales revenue grew by 2 percent year-on-year to $9.4 billion in 2024, according to its latest annual financial report.

As China accounted for 11 percent of Eastman's global revenue last year, within the broader 25 percent from the Asia-Pacific region, Gulferaz Ali, vice-president and managing director of Eastman Asia-Pacific, said China will remain a vital growth engine for the group, with ample room for further market expansion.

"The upgraded site in our Dalian plant will play a pivotal role in supporting surging demand for automotive window films and paint protection products in China and across Asia," said Ali.

He emphasized that the company's continued investments in China, particularly the production capacity expansion projects in Dalian and the innovation center in Shanghai, in recent years, will significantly enhance Eastman's global supply chain resilience.