People often say that in the paper industry, the work is dirty, hard, and tiring. It is often a man's world, and the yang is strong and the yin is weak. But she is different. In the more than ten years since she took over, she has stood out among a large group of male executives at the factory. Unsatisfied with the status quo, she has invested more in a second production base in Vietnam when building Taiwan's industrial paper giant.
As the second generation of her family, when she returned to Taiwan after graduating from Waseda University in Japan at the age of 26, she may not have imagined that her father would hand her the throne of the youngest female chairman of the Taiwan Paper Industry.
The youngest female chairman of Taiwan’s paper industry won the award
Zhenglong Chairman Zheng Shuyun
A few days ago, Taiwan’s China Green Economy Research Center (CGE) was conducting the selection for the third Taiwan Circular Economy Award. A group of companies and managers specially visited the Dayuan Paper Mill of Taiwan’s industrial paper giant, Zhenglong Company.
In Taiwan, Zhenglong is the first paper company to declare 2050 net zero carbon emissions, and is also a model of circular economy for enterprises on the island; but many people may not know that Zheng Shuyun, who leads this industrial paper giant, is the youngest female chairman of the Taiwanese paper industry and the second generation of the Zhenglong family.
At the end of 2021, the eldest "Zhenglong" and the second eldest "Rongcheng" of Taiwan's paper industry duo have announced year-end bonus distribution plans, both starting in 4 months. Among them, the leading boss Zhenglong announced that year-end bonuses will be issued based on operating performance. Each person can receive 140 days of salary, which is approximately equivalent to 4.7 months of year-end bonuses. In addition, due to the impact of the epidemic, the Wei Ya Dinner Party will be cancelled, but a special additional fee of NT$2,500 per person will be provided. Judging from the distribution of year-end bonuses, Zhenglong Paper has maintained the highest bonus in recent years for two consecutive years. Even with the impact of the epidemic, it also reflects the company's good operating conditions.
On November 17 last year, Zhenglong was awarded the 2021 "TCSA Taiwan Enterprise Sustainability Award", which won three major indicator awards: "Taiwan's TOP50 Sustainable Enterprise Award", "Sustainability Report Platinum Award", and "Circular Economy Leader Award", and is the only award-winning enterprise in the paper industry to win three indicator awards.
Zhenglong, headed by female chairman Zheng Shuyun, has been promoting the transformation of "low-carbon smart paper" since 2020. It is currently the only company in Taiwan that has obtained renewable energy certificates. And the Taiwanese paper company that signed to support TCFD is also the first company in Taiwan's paper industry to introduce intelligent production and marketing. In the next three years starting from 2020, it will invest more than NT$20 billion to deepen the circular economy base in mainland China, Taiwan, and Vietnam.
Through the digital transformation of production and sales integrating the Internet of Things and big data, Zhenglong is the first in the island industry to promise to reduce carbon emissions by 30% in 2030 and achieve the goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Zheng Shuyun (3rd from the right) attended the Zhenglong TCFD verification highest rating ceremony
Everyone hopes that their company can last forever and develop sustainably, and to achieve this, it is very important to assume corporate social responsibilities. Committing to a circular economy and zero carbon emissions also requires action.
We all know that climate change has become a global issue of concern. For the paper industry, resource recycling is the direction that the sustainable development of the industry should face. According to Zheng Long's chairman Zheng Shuyun, the company has proposed four paths to reduce carbon emissions, namely energy efficiency improvement, renewable energy development, deepening circular economy low-carbon fuels, and innovative application of negative carbon emissions technology, in order to achieve the vision of zero carbon emissions by 2050.
In mid-December 2021, Zhenglong, which responded to the "Climate Related Financial Disclosure" (TCFD) initiative, became the first paper company in Taiwan to pass TCFD verification and receive the highest rating. Zhenglong introduced the TCFD structure in 2020. In the TCFD compliance review completed in November 2021, it received the highest rating of Zhenglong's climate-related financial disclosure maturity model - Level 5 "Excellent".
Entering 2022, Zhenglong has entered its 62nd year of development. As the second-generation female successor of the family, Zheng Shuyun will focus on the three main development axes of circular economy, low-carbon green energy, and smart innovation throughout Zhenglong. This will surely make this Taiwan-funded industrial paper giant go further and last longer.
A decade later, Zheng Shuyun became the “Queen of Cartons”
Zheng Shuyun (middle) presided over the shareholders’ meeting
Zhenglong Co., Ltd. is one of the top 100 paper companies in the world. It was founded on February 4, 1959. The company is headquartered in Banqiao District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. Currently, it has 5 paper mills and 19 paperware factories in Taiwan, Mainland China and Vietnam, with an annual output of more than 2.1 million tons of paper and cardboard. It is also the largest industrial paper and paperware company in Taiwan and the largest carton manufacturer in Taiwan.
html More than 310 years ago, there were as many as 800 Taiwanese companies setting up factories in Houjie, Dongguan. Among these Taiwanese businessmen, the one company that may be inseparable is Zhenglong.
Zhenglong set up a factory in Shanghai very early, but because it was located in a prosperous area, it later faced environmental protection requirements and had to close it and move it elsewhere. The Zhonglong Paper Mill invested by Zhenglong in Shanghai initially had an production capacity of 450,000 tons. Zhenglong is a Taiwan-funded paper industry that invested and set up factories in the mainland and had an early layout. For example, in order to seize packaging business opportunities, it cooperated with Chongqing Publishing Group to set up a factory in 2010. Zhenglong, Yongfengyu and Rongcheng are the three giants in the Taiwan-funded paper industry. Among them, Zhenglong is the one with the most paper bases in the mainland and the widest distribution area among its peers.
Zhenglong shares
arrived at Zheng Shuyun’s place. Zhenglong, which has experienced 62 years of glory and traveled through a century, has been passed down for three generations. In February 1959, Zheng Huotian, the first-generation founder, founded Zhenglong Corrugated Paper Factory with only NT$800,000 at the beginning and produced the first kraft paper in Taiwan.
As early as 1971, Zhenglong Co., Ltd. was successfully listed on the Taiwan Stock Exchange. Zheng Huotian, who upholds the traditional concepts of Chinese culture, governs the company with "loyalty, filial piety, trust and righteousness". By 1984, Masataka entered into technical cooperation with Japan's Ide Co., Ltd., introduced coating technology, and began to produce white cardboard.
By 1989, Zhenglong established the Thai Tawang carton factory in Bangkok, Thailand, and officially opened up the Southeast Asian market. In 1990, the company also produced cultural paper. In 1995, it began to produce "Chunfeng Andante" brand toilet paper. In this year, the group's headquarters, Banqiao Zhenglong Plaza, was officially opened.
After entering 2001, Zhenglong made great efforts to expand westward to expand the mainland market. This year, we jointly established "Dongguan Zhenglong Paper Products Co., Ltd." in Dongguan with Taiwan's shoe OEM king "Pocheng Industrial" and officially entered the mainland paper market. In 2002, it established "Shanghai Zhonglong Paper" in Shanghai as a joint venture with Japan's Tokai Paper and Mitsubishi Corporation, officially entering the mainland industrial paper market. By 2004, Zhenglong invested and established "Yuelong Paper" in Vietnam to produce cartons. Since then, Vietnam has become Zhenglong's largest overseas production base.
In 2008, Zhenglong established "Zhonglong Paper Holdings" in order to integrate its business in the mainland market. In this year, Zhenglong also became the first company in Taiwan to obtain international carbon trading rights. In 2018, Zhenglong disposed of the equity of its joint venture "Shanghai Zhonglong Paper" .
What’s interesting is that the two heads of Taiwan’s paper industry, Zhenglong and Rongcheng, are both surnamed “Zheng”. Zheng Shuyun, chairman of Zhenglong, and Zheng Yingbin, chairman of Rongcheng Paper , are both surnamed “Zheng”. The Zheng family dominates Taiwan’s paper industry!
Zhenglong Chairman Zheng Shuyun (middle) and Vice Chairman Zheng Renming (center right 1)
Zhenglong Chairman Zheng Shuyun and Vice Chairman Zheng Renming are siblings. Taiwan’s paper industry giant Zhenglong has been passed down to the third generation of the family, forming a "sister-brother pairing" governance model.
When Zheng Shuyun was 26 years old, she graduated from the Institute of International Trade at Waseda University in Japan and returned to Taiwan. She was arranged by her father Zheng Zhenglong to join Zhenglong Company and study with her father. When she was 35 years old, her father Zheng Zhenglong handed over the chairmanship to her, and she became the youngest female chairman in Taiwan's paper industry.
"Support the horse and give him a ride." After her father assisted her for one or two years, except for giving advice on major events, most of the daily management operations were left to her to handle decisions by herself. In the early days of taking over, if she did something bad, her father would scold her, but he would always scold her.
Because the Shanghai Zhenglong factory is located in a downtown area, it was forced to relocate. When Zheng Shuyun took charge of the company, she focused her investment on Vietnam. Currently, Zhenglong has planned a three-phase million-ton industrial paper plan in Vietnam. The second phase of 400,000 tons is expected to be put into production in the third quarter of 2022, and the third phase of 400,000 tons is expected to be put into production as soon as 2024. By then, Zhenglong's industrial paper production capacity in Vietnam is expected to exceed one million tons.
Zheng Shuyun (left)
Zhenglong previously had 1 paper mill and 3 paperware factories in Vietnam, with a production capacity of about 300,000 tons. In Vietnam, investment in the paper industry is all foreign, such as Nine Dragons Paper from mainland China, Lee & Man from Hong Kong, and SCG from Thailand, with annual production capacity reaching 500,000 tons.
Affected by the rise in raw material prices in 2021, coupled with strong market demand, especially global waste paper prices are also rising, the paper industry has faced a sharp increase in cost pressure and has to increase prices. Currently, Taiwan accounts for approximately 68% of Zhenglong Company’s revenue, while Mainland China and Vietnam both account for approximately 16%.
The third generation of the Zhenglong family, all are precocious. Zheng Shuyun’s younger brother, Zheng Renming, the current vice chairman, graduated from the Department of Business Management of Northeastern University in the United States. As early as 2013, Zheng Renming served as the president of the International Corrugated Box Association (ICCA). He was the first Chinese president and the youngest among the previous presidents.
In terms of charity and social integration, Zheng Shuyun promotes "Love Never Dies" and engages in charity activities through the "Zheng Huotian Charitable Foundation" and the "Zhenglong Care for Children Foundation".
Incidentally, the founder of Zhenglong is Zheng Shuyun’s uncle, Zheng Huotian, who was born in 1931. Zheng Shuyun’s father, Zheng Zhenglong, is the brother of the founder Zheng Huotian. In order to commemorate his brother's kindness and virtue, Zheng Zhenglong founded the "Zheng Huotian Charitable Foundation" in 1993, and the "Zhenglong Care for Children Foundation" was established in 2006.
In the prime of his career, Zheng Huotian passed away, and his career was handed over to his younger brother Zheng Zhenglong, who had always been with him day and night. The "brother, friend, brother, respectful" inheritance of the papermaking industry has become a well-known story in the industry.
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