On the morning of August 3, 2026, the bronze bell rang at the Beijing Stock Exchange. Hunan Juren New Materials Co., Ltd. (stock abbreviation: Juren New Materials; code: 920258, also known as Hunan Juren Chemical Hitechnology Co., Ltd.), a national-level specialized and sophisticated “Little Giant” enterprise from Yueyang, Hunan, officially listed as the exchange’s 44th new entrant of the year. Shares opened with a surge exceeding 300 percent (with a maximum gain reported at 339 percent), pushing the company’s market value past 70 billion yuan. Behind this milestone stands Wang Hanyu, the company’s founder, chairman, legal representative, and actual controller—a native of Yueyang whose career embodies China’s push to master high-end chemical materials long dominated by overseas players.
Born in September 1970 in Yueyang, Wang graduated in 1992 from the Chemistry Department of Xiangtan University. He began as an ordinary process technician at the nylon plant of Yueyang Petrochemical General Works (later part of Baling Petrochemical). Over the next 17 years he rose steadily through the ranks, serving as project engineer and eventually as production technology deputy director of the cyclohexanone workshop. The long years on the factory floor gave him deep command of chemical processes and production management.
In 2008 he left the state-owned system for a broader stage, becoming vice general manager of Fujian Dongxin Petrochemical Co., Ltd. The cross-provincial experience expanded his industry vision and sharpened his ability to run an entire enterprise. Yet in 2013, already well-established in his early forties, Wang made a decision that surprised many: he resigned from a high-paying post and returned to his hometown to start from scratch.
At the time, ε-caprolactone—an advanced intermediate prized for the flexibility, impact resistance, and solvent resistance it imparts to synthetic materials—was controlled by a handful of foreign companies. The monopoly constrained the development of China’s biomedical materials, eco-friendly polymers, and specialty engineering plastics. In March 2014, Wang and a group of partners founded Hunan Juren Chemical New Materials Technology Co., Ltd. (later reorganized as Hunan Juren New Materials Co., Ltd.) in the Yueyang Green Chemical High-Tech Zone. For more than a thousand days the team worked in what was effectively a technological “no-man’s land.” In June 2016 they commissioned China’s first industrial production line for ε-caprolactone, breaking a foreign technological blockade that had lasted four decades. Juren became the sole domestic producer and only the fourth company worldwide capable of industrial-scale manufacture.
Technology alone was not enough. In 2017 the young company faced a liquidity crisis after a shareholder withdrawal. Wang successfully brought in Shenzhen Capital Group (Shenzhen Innovation Investment Group), whose investment funded process upgrades that cut costs by more than 15 percent and lifted product purity to international standards. In 2018, under his leadership, a pilot base of the National-Local Joint Engineering Laboratory for Environmentally Friendly Polymer Materials (Sichuan University) and an academician workstation headed by Chinese Academy of Engineering member Wang Yuzhong were established at the company, strengthening its research backbone.
With consistent quality, Juren’s products entered global supply chains, winning approval from customers including Germany’s BYK, Japan’s Nippon Paint and Kansai Paint, South Korea’s SK, and domestic leaders such as Wanhua Chemical and Huafeng Group. Sales crossed the 100-million-yuan mark in 2021 and reached 250 million yuan in 2022. That same year the company was recognized as a national specialized and sophisticated “Little Giant,” and it took first prize in the national finals of the 11th China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition—the best result ever recorded by a Hunan entrant. Wang himself received the “New Hunan Contribution Award” as an advanced individual and the title of Hunan Science and Technology Entrepreneurship Leading Talent.
He did not stop. In August 2023 a 50,000-ton-per-year green biodegradable-material caprolactone project completed trial production, giving Yueyang the world’s largest single-unit caprolactone facility by capacity and placing the company among the global technology leaders. Juren now holds dozens of patents (reported figures include 34 total patents or 22 invention patents plus utility models) and has taken the lead in drafting multiple national and industry standards. Wang, as actual controller, holds decisive voting rights (reported as 56.61 percent in one account). The company has also been designated a national high-tech enterprise, national green factory, and exemplary smart-manufacturing scenario.
From a workshop technician in a state-owned petrochemical complex to the architect of China’s independent ε-caprolactone industry, Wang Hanyu’s path illustrates a simple conviction: only by mastering core technology can a Chinese firm claim a lasting place in the global competition for advanced chemical materials. With the capital-market platform now in place, he has set his sights on building a world-leading national innovation center for caprolactone and its derivatives, strengthening industrial chains, and contributing to the high-quality development of China’s new-materials sector.