Wanhua Chemical

Wanhua Chemical Group is one of the world’s largest chemical producers. It is the world's largest producer of methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI), and second largest producer of aliphatic diisocyanate (ADI). It is China’s largest producer of toluene diisocyanate (TDI). MDI, ADI and TDI are all raw materials used to produce the ubiquitous polymer polyurethane. Wanhua Chemical has plants in China and Hungary, and exports its products all over the world.

Total score

4 / 48

Grade Summary

Wanhua Chemical Group, one of ChemScore’s new additions, makes out the rankings bottom three along with Sinopec Shanghai Petrochemical and Formosa, scoring a total of 4 points. The 15 highly hazardous chemicals that the company produces is one…

Product Portfolio

0 / 18

Wanhua Chemical produces/uses 15 highly hazardous substances – 15 SIN List chemicals, 2 PICs, and 5 HHPs – 5 of which are included on the EU’s REACH Candidate List. 3 of these highly hazardous substances are either banned or severely restricted, with set dates when production needs to cease (3 Authorisation List substances, and no POPs). The company produces no persistent chemicals.

Please note that there is no available data for the 75 percent of the company’s production that takes place outside of the EU and US. Lower EU/US production means higher uncertainty with regard to the total production of hazardous chemicals, which will have a negative impact on the company’s score in this category.

Development of Safer Chemicals

3 / 12

Wanhua Chemical has a method in place to screen and assess the sustainability of its products and includes the intrinsic hazards of ingredients in the screening process. It does not, however, exclude substances with toxic properties from its new products. Nor does it actively market safer alternatives on its own website or on ChemSec Marketplace. The company has no true circular product, process or innovation. Wanhua Chemical does not use biobased resources. Nor does it source and treat recycled materials in a sustainable way, which is one of the key elements of a circular economy. Wanhua Chemical is not actively reducing the hazardous waste it generates.

Management & Transparency

1 / 12

The Chinese company does not produce only sustainable products. Nor does it have a phase-out strategy for hazardous substances that go beyond regulatory compliance. It shares chemical safety information on its website, but lacks a credible code of conduct standard. Wanhua Chemical did not respond to ChemSec’s attempts to communicate around its ChemScore ranking. Nor does it share any information about what kind of chemicals it produces in regions with low regulatory demands for transparency (e.g. Asia). Wanhua Chemical does not have a circular economy program in place, thus lacking objective and measurable circular economy targets.