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Home > News > Chemicals

(Interview) TopOlefin breaks foreign domination in high-end optical materials market

Source：Adsale Plastics Network Date ：2025-08-04 Editor ：RC
Copyright： This article was originally written/edited by Adsale Plastics Network (AdsaleCPRJ.com), republishing and excerpting are not allowed without permission. For any copyright infringement, we will pursue legal liability in accordance with the law.

Smartphone camera, AR/VR glasses, security camera, and pre-filled syringe – these high-precision optical equipment and medical consumables are all produced with Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC), a high-end optical material that was dominated by the foreign suppliers for 50 years in China.

 

After years of efforts, TopOlefin Technology made a breakthrough to this long domination and achieved local COC production in 2023. The company’s core team built China’s first COC industrialized production facility within 13 months.

 

TopOlefin achieved an annual productivity of 3,000 tons of COC material in first phase, accounting for 100% of China’s COC market. In June 2025, with the completed mid-term delivery of 7,000 tons of COC for the second phase, the company achieves annual productivity of 10,000 tons of COC material and monomer productivity to 6000 tons.

 

Apart from COC, TopOlefin Technology as China’s first supplier mass producing high-end optical materials, also produces 1,000 tons of high-end optical TOPC and 40,000 tons of optical grade TOPM.

 

How can this startup make such breakthrough and restructure the plastic market in such short period of time? How does its operation model of “Independent complete line + Demand for innovative” inspires China’s high-end material? Adsale Plastics Network (APN) conducted an interview with Guo Wang, Founder and Chairman of the Board at TopOlefin Technology.

 

APN: What inspired you to enter the market of high-end optical material?

 

Wang: Many years ago, I was invited by a senior of mine from Zhejiang University, to return China and join a research project. I realized that the research direction was quite mature in foreign market. China’s high-end optical and medical materials were dominated by foreign suppliers. This bottle-neck situation motivates me to return to China and start up a business to solve this market pain point, securing our company’s supply.

 

In 2017, the core startup team was formed, with members all graduated from Zhejiang University and fully-experienced in R&D, engineering and production management from both local and foreign chemical companies.

 

Our research found out that high-end optical materials (such as COC, optical-grade polycarbonate copolymer, etc.) are key to the whole industrial production line. This type of material is with high scarcity, and stringent requirement for technical demand, performance, and stability. Its strategical importance should not be underestimated – for example, in key applications such as drone camera, drone production will be delayed if material supply is disturbed.

 

At the same time, this industrial sector provides an opportunity for us. Downstream customers (e.g. automotive, mobile phone, security industries) have relatively low sensitivity towards material price change. They are more concerned about material performance, supply stability, and material features that tackle main challenges. Besides that, it doesn’t require intensive capital investment like petrochemical giants. Our team can meet the high technical requirement for this industrial sector.

 

In general, as developing high-end optical material requires high technical level, product quality but relatively low investment, this area is suitable for start-ups to further invest.


TopOlefin Technology_applications.jpg


TopOlefin Technology’s high-end optical materials are used in applications, such as smartphone camera lens and HUD curved screen.

 

APN: TopOlefin has established for five years. In its first stage, any stories that are most memorable?

 

Wang: We have a lot of memories. To launch the technology in shortest time, we only spent 13 months for the first phase, from approval to construction completed, which the industry usually needs 2-3 years on average. At that time, we haven’t had an office in Quzhou. For higher work efficiency, our whole team worked and sleep in a shipping container. Gradually, we built up the facility and set up the equipment. As phase two is almost completed, we are moving to temporary dwellings.


TopOlefin Technology_site.jpg


Production facility of TopOlefin Technology.

 

APN: What technical challenges have you faced?

 

Wang: We have faced a lot of challenges. Take localized production of COC as an example. Firstly, in terms of raw material, as there is no Chinese company that has the production capacity for the key COC monomer, the raw material supply may be easily affected. Therefore, we have to invest in developing COC monomer.

 

Besides that, COC is a high-end polyolefin material, produced through solution polymerization, of which the process development is rather weak in China. After putting efforts in researches and experiments, we found that the existing catalyst cannot meet our demand on transforming efficiency and option.

 

Therefore, we set up an exclusive R&D team to develop catalyst. The team has tried out numerous catalyst formulations and adjusted them. Eventually, we succeed to develop a catalyst that can precisely control the molecule and distribution of COC material. This significantly enhances the optical and mechanical performance of the material, allowing the product to meet international standards.

 

APN: What is TopOlefin’s core competitiveness?

 

Wang: Our core competitiveness is based on three areas – independent R&D in complete line, quick response to technical services, and the pursuit of innovations.

 

The TopOlefin team achieves independent R&D in complete line, from catalyst design, monomer polymerization, polymerization process to engineering design and core equipment construction. At the present, we have built R&D centers, spanning 12,000 square meters, in Hangzhou, Quzhou, and Ningbo. Our investment accounts for more than 20% in our revenue per year.

 

Compared to conventional material companies, we have closer proximity to customers. Therefore, we can offer quicker technical response to them, to adjust formulation and processes according to their demand. Once customers have requests, we can respond within 60 minutes. Moreover, our technical team is involved in the whole process certification and provides personalized R&D solutions according to customer’s demand.

 

As 10% of our team owns educational background from Zhejiang University, we are deeply immersed in the University’s motto “Seeking Truth, Pursuing Innovation”. There is a stele in front of the door of our Quzhou production site, carved with this motto, always reminding us to pursue innovations.

 

APN: What is the strategic blueprint of TopOlefin in the future?

 

Wang: We are planning on listing the company on stock market, aiming to be the most influential company in the global optical resin sector. We plan to expand, both horizontally and vertically, as well as expanding downstream market and global market.

 

Horizontal expansion focuses on expanding the optic sector, such as developing ECMO film, optical reflection/mold release film material, and high-reflection material.

 

For vertical expansion, we plan to expand in upstream key raw material, such as Alkene (C=C), through cooperation or independent research. We will invest 10 billion to gradually promote the third phase of COC project – annually producing 60,000 tons of COC monomer, and 100,000 tons of COC material. Downstream expansion focuses on direct supply of sheet materials to better serve customers.

 

In terms of market expansion, we will focus on the growing downstream sectors, such as AR/VR, and life science (including medicine, Aesthetic medicine, in vitro diagnosis). For quick expansion, we will first approach end market and core customers, and then build cooperation in middle stream processing.


TopOlefin Technology_medical.jpg


TopOlefin Technology will focus on the downstream sector, such as life science.

 

For global market expansion, we will target market expansion in Japan, Korea and Europe. In South-east market, we have established cooperation with optical and medical technology companies in Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam to accommodate the industrial chain of customers.

 

APN: What is the key to high-end transformation in China’s chemical industry?

 

Wang: Chinese chemical industry is facing a core problem: product quality does not match with the increasing production capacity. This is the reason why some companies with several hundred billion production capacity only earns very low profit. We should not only focus on expanding the capacity and scale, but also upgrade the technology and add value to products.

 

To make changes to this situation, we must develop towards the middle-to-high-end market in the future. Just like the polymer pyramid I have mentioned, majority of Chinese chemical industry handle “commodity plastics” through importing foreign technologies. However, we have almost zero local supply in middle-to-high level of materials.

 

Undoubtedly, this development progress cannot be done in one step. It can only be achieved through long period of technology advancement. For example, we are developing COC, optical-grade TOPC, and TOPM. These materials demand high technological requirements, which have to be supported with strong fundamental research and production ability.


TopOlefin Technology_products.jpg


TopOlefin Technology independently developed multiple patented polymer technologies, such as (from left) TAMT COC, TOPM, and TOPC.

 

From the view of the whole industry, it is necessary for chemical companies to develop middle-to-high-end products in order to achieve industrial upgrading and high quality products. In such progress, we should promote according to strategies and planning, instead of the conventional way to plainly compete in scale and price.


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Source：Adsale Plastics Network Date ：2025-08-04 Editor ：RC
Copyright： This article was originally written/edited by Adsale Plastics Network (AdsaleCPRJ.com), republishing and excerpting are not allowed without permission. For any copyright infringement, we will pursue legal liability in accordance with the law.

Smartphone camera, AR/VR glasses, security camera, and pre-filled syringe – these high-precision optical equipment and medical consumables are all produced with Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC), a high-end optical material that was dominated by the foreign suppliers for 50 years in China.

 

After years of efforts, TopOlefin Technology made a breakthrough to this long domination and achieved local COC production in 2023. The company’s core team built China’s first COC industrialized production facility within 13 months.

 

TopOlefin achieved an annual productivity of 3,000 tons of COC material in first phase, accounting for 100% of China’s COC market. In June 2025, with the completed mid-term delivery of 7,000 tons of COC for the second phase, the company achieves annual productivity of 10,000 tons of COC material and monomer productivity to 6000 tons.

 

Apart from COC, TopOlefin Technology as China’s first supplier mass producing high-end optical materials, also produces 1,000 tons of high-end optical TOPC and 40,000 tons of optical grade TOPM.

 

How can this startup make such breakthrough and restructure the plastic market in such short period of time? How does its operation model of “Independent complete line + Demand for innovative” inspires China’s high-end material? Adsale Plastics Network (APN) conducted an interview with Guo Wang, Founder and Chairman of the Board at TopOlefin Technology.

 

APN: What inspired you to enter the market of high-end optical material?

 

Wang: Many years ago, I was invited by a senior of mine from Zhejiang University, to return China and join a research project. I realized that the research direction was quite mature in foreign market. China’s high-end optical and medical materials were dominated by foreign suppliers. This bottle-neck situation motivates me to return to China and start up a business to solve this market pain point, securing our company’s supply.

 

In 2017, the core startup team was formed, with members all graduated from Zhejiang University and fully-experienced in R&D, engineering and production management from both local and foreign chemical companies.

 

Our research found out that high-end optical materials (such as COC, optical-grade polycarbonate copolymer, etc.) are key to the whole industrial production line. This type of material is with high scarcity, and stringent requirement for technical demand, performance, and stability. Its strategical importance should not be underestimated – for example, in key applications such as drone camera, drone production will be delayed if material supply is disturbed.

 

At the same time, this industrial sector provides an opportunity for us. Downstream customers (e.g. automotive, mobile phone, security industries) have relatively low sensitivity towards material price change. They are more concerned about material performance, supply stability, and material features that tackle main challenges. Besides that, it doesn’t require intensive capital investment like petrochemical giants. Our team can meet the high technical requirement for this industrial sector.

 

In general, as developing high-end optical material requires high technical level, product quality but relatively low investment, this area is suitable for start-ups to further invest.


TopOlefin Technology_applications.jpg


TopOlefin Technology’s high-end optical materials are used in applications, such as smartphone camera lens and HUD curved screen.

 

APN: TopOlefin has established for five years. In its first stage, any stories that are most memorable?

 

Wang: We have a lot of memories. To launch the technology in shortest time, we only spent 13 months for the first phase, from approval to construction completed, which the industry usually needs 2-3 years on average. At that time, we haven’t had an office in Quzhou. For higher work efficiency, our whole team worked and sleep in a shipping container. Gradually, we built up the facility and set up the equipment. As phase two is almost completed, we are moving to temporary dwellings.


TopOlefin Technology_site.jpg


Production facility of TopOlefin Technology.

 

APN: What technical challenges have you faced?

 

Wang: We have faced a lot of challenges. Take localized production of COC as an example. Firstly, in terms of raw material, as there is no Chinese company that has the production capacity for the key COC monomer, the raw material supply may be easily affected. Therefore, we have to invest in developing COC monomer.

 

Besides that, COC is a high-end polyolefin material, produced through solution polymerization, of which the process development is rather weak in China. After putting efforts in researches and experiments, we found that the existing catalyst cannot meet our demand on transforming efficiency and option.

 

Therefore, we set up an exclusive R&D team to develop catalyst. The team has tried out numerous catalyst formulations and adjusted them. Eventually, we succeed to develop a catalyst that can precisely control the molecule and distribution of COC material. This significantly enhances the optical and mechanical performance of the material, allowing the product to meet international standards.

 

APN: What is TopOlefin’s core competitiveness?

 

Wang: Our core competitiveness is based on three areas – independent R&D in complete line, quick response to technical services, and the pursuit of innovations.

 

The TopOlefin team achieves independent R&D in complete line, from catalyst design, monomer polymerization, polymerization process to engineering design and core equipment construction. At the present, we have built R&D centers, spanning 12,000 square meters, in Hangzhou, Quzhou, and Ningbo. Our investment accounts for more than 20% in our revenue per year.

 

Compared to conventional material companies, we have closer proximity to customers. Therefore, we can offer quicker technical response to them, to adjust formulation and processes according to their demand. Once customers have requests, we can respond within 60 minutes. Moreover, our technical team is involved in the whole process certification and provides personalized R&D solutions according to customer’s demand.

 

As 10% of our team owns educational background from Zhejiang University, we are deeply immersed in the University’s motto “Seeking Truth, Pursuing Innovation”. There is a stele in front of the door of our Quzhou production site, carved with this motto, always reminding us to pursue innovations.

 

APN: What is the strategic blueprint of TopOlefin in the future?

 

Wang: We are planning on listing the company on stock market, aiming to be the most influential company in the global optical resin sector. We plan to expand, both horizontally and vertically, as well as expanding downstream market and global market.

 

Horizontal expansion focuses on expanding the optic sector, such as developing ECMO film, optical reflection/mold release film material, and high-reflection material.

 

For vertical expansion, we plan to expand in upstream key raw material, such as Alkene (C=C), through cooperation or independent research. We will invest 10 billion to gradually promote the third phase of COC project – annually producing 60,000 tons of COC monomer, and 100,000 tons of COC material. Downstream expansion focuses on direct supply of sheet materials to better serve customers.

 

In terms of market expansion, we will focus on the growing downstream sectors, such as AR/VR, and life science (including medicine, Aesthetic medicine, in vitro diagnosis). For quick expansion, we will first approach end market and core customers, and then build cooperation in middle stream processing.


TopOlefin Technology_medical.jpg


TopOlefin Technology will focus on the downstream sector, such as life science.

 

For global market expansion, we will target market expansion in Japan, Korea and Europe. In South-east market, we have established cooperation with optical and medical technology companies in Singapore, Malaysia, and Vietnam to accommodate the industrial chain of customers.

 

APN: What is the key to high-end transformation in China’s chemical industry?

 

Wang: Chinese chemical industry is facing a core problem: product quality does not match with the increasing production capacity. This is the reason why some companies with several hundred billion production capacity only earns very low profit. We should not only focus on expanding the capacity and scale, but also upgrade the technology and add value to products.

 

To make changes to this situation, we must develop towards the middle-to-high-end market in the future. Just like the polymer pyramid I have mentioned, majority of Chinese chemical industry handle “commodity plastics” through importing foreign technologies. However, we have almost zero local supply in middle-to-high level of materials.

 

Undoubtedly, this development progress cannot be done in one step. It can only be achieved through long period of technology advancement. For example, we are developing COC, optical-grade TOPC, and TOPM. These materials demand high technological requirements, which have to be supported with strong fundamental research and production ability.


TopOlefin Technology_products.jpg


TopOlefin Technology independently developed multiple patented polymer technologies, such as (from left) TAMT COC, TOPM, and TOPC.

 

From the view of the whole industry, it is necessary for chemical companies to develop middle-to-high-end products in order to achieve industrial upgrading and high quality products. In such progress, we should promote according to strategies and planning, instead of the conventional way to plainly compete in scale and price.


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(Interview) TopOlefin breaks foreign domination in high-end optical materials market

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