After Henan's Once-in-a-Millennium Rainstorm, the True Severity of the Packaging and Printing Industry's Losses Emerges

Over the past two days, news about the disaster in Henan, including Zhengzhou, has flooded social media. A once-in-a-thousand-years rainstorm struck many places in Henan — Zhengzhou, Xinxiang, Gongyi, Anyang, Xuchang and others — causing a huge disaster with casualties, stricken factories and severely damaged infrastructure, leaving people deeply grieved and uneasy.

Packaging and printing enterprises severely affected by the disaster

For packaging and printing enterprises in Zhengzhou and its surroundings, this flood disaster could be called a disaster of the highest order.

Because the workshops and warehouses held large amounts of raw materials, semi-finished products and finished goods, it was very hard to move them in a short time when the rainstorm hit, so the materials and equipment of many factories were soaked in water, and the losses are difficult to estimate.

Henan Xinhua Printing Group Co., Ltd., located in Jinshui District, Zhengzhou, was hit relatively hard by this flood. Zhang Weiyuan, Executive Director of Henan Xinhua Printing Group Co., Ltd., told reporters: "At that time, the water in the company's entire plant area was 1 meter deep; some semi-finished products and paper were damaged, and the equipment on the first floor was soaked in water and needed specialists from the relevant manufacturers to commission it, and it could only be started up after it was ensured to be dry." Fortunately, more than 200 employees worked through the night in the dark to rescue textbooks, recovering part of the losses, but after the equipment was soaked in water production was forced to stop.

Video posted by netizens showed that paper rolls in a paper mill in Xinmi, Henan were washed out by the flood; fortunately, the personnel had already been evacuated.

In this flood, most of the packaging and printing enterprises located in the disaster area suffered property losses. The better-known companies include Henan Yinjinda Color Printing, Lucky Huaguang Zhengzhou Branch, Dahe Printing, Tianfeng Industrial, etc.

In recent years, the economies of various provinces and cities have gradually concentrated in provincial capitals, causing large-scale industry to concentrate in and around provincial capitals, and this rainstorm happened to fall on Zhengzhou, further amplifying the disaster losses.

Private and foreign enterprises donate enthusiastically, becoming a mainstay

As soon as the disaster occurred, many well-known domestic enterprises, including Tencent, Alibaba, Meituan, JD.com, Baidu, Xiaomi, OPPO, VIVO, ByteDance, POP MART, SF Express, ANTA, Amap, Hillhouse Capital, Muyuan Foods, Shuanghui Group, Mixue Bingcheng, FAW Group, Chery, Shagang Group and Sina, extended a helping hand to Henan at the first opportunity. Among them, those donating RMB 100 million (including corporate foundations) were the Tencent Charity Foundation, the Alibaba Foundation, the Beijing ByteDance Charity Foundation, the Alipay Charity Foundation, the Meituan Charity Foundation, Foxconn Industrial Internet, Pinduoduo, the Didi Charity Foundation and Liaoning Fangda Group.

In the packaging and printing industry, some more profitable enterprises also gave generously to aid Henan from afar. As of now, the industry enterprises that have donated to the Henan disaster area include:

On July 21, Jihong Group decided to donate RMB 500,000 to support flood control, emergency rescue and disaster relief work in Henan.

On July 21, Sinar Mas Group APP (China) donated a batch of daily necessities, including tissues, disinfectant wipes and sanitary pads, to the Shanghai Federation of Returned Overseas Chinese to aid Henan, in an effort to guarantee the basic living needs of the people affected by the disaster.

Through the China Women's Development Foundation and the Zhengzhou Charity Federation, Hengan Group donated products such as sanitary pads, tissues, wet wipes and diapers worth a total of RMB 10 million to the Henan disaster area.

Nine Dragons Paper (Holdings) Limited contacted the China Charity Federation to donate RMB 20 million to the Henan flood disaster area, to support emergency rescue operations and post-disaster reconstruction there.

However, because in recent years the packaging and printing industry has been squeezed both by soaring upstream raw material prices and by downstream customers driving prices down, its operating condition is precarious. Therefore, industry enterprises should donate within their means rather than pretending to be wealthy...

Appendix: An incomplete list of corporate donations from all over the country

The following list is of enterprises across the country that donated to support the Henan disaster area as of 11:00 a.m. on July 22, 2021. We hope the people of Henan will remember the names of these enterprises.

Wind and rain are heartless, but there is love in the world. We salute all the officers, soldiers and workers on the front line of rescue! We are grateful for support from all directions! The sons and daughters of China pull together to overcome difficulties! Stay strong, Henan!

——This article is reproduced from China Packaging Network (pack.cn), original link: http://news.pack.cn/show-377860.html