Visiting Metrohm Global Ion Chromatography Market Support Manager

Markus Läubli was one of the original initiators of Metrohm IC (Ion Chromatography) and has been working at Metrohm for 30 years. During these 30 years, he has been the director of IC Global Markets from IC product managers. He can be said that he witnessed the establishment and growth of the Wantong IC brand and has a deep understanding and understanding of IC technology and the market. This time, we would like to hear how he evaluated the performance of Vantone IC in the Chinese market, especially under the new economic situation and new policies. What opportunities and challenges does Switzerland Wantong face in China?

Mr. Markus Läubli, Director, Global Marketing, Ion Chromatography, Metrohm

Unaffected by China's economic environment, it is very pleased with the Chinese market

How do you evaluate 2013 Wantong's performance in the Chinese market?

Markus Läubli was very pleased with the performance of Metrohm China in China. He said, “Overall, China’s performance is steadily increasing. Although I’m mainly responsible for IC work and I’m not very familiar with other areas, I’m concerned I have seen very good growth and I am very happy about it."

Then, Markus Läubli added, “In fact, the Chinese market is also undergoing a transformation. The initial market growth was mainly entry-level, relatively simple products, and it has now shifted to the high-end market. For Wantong, it has also improved from low to high. The end-to-end product layout gives the user more selectivity."

At present, China's economic growth has slowed down, and its GDP has also been adjusted from about 10% to 7.5%. Under such circumstances, has Vantone's development in China been affected?

In this regard, Markus Läubli said, “I understand that the slowdown in China’s economic growth” is not a slowdown, but it is not as fast as it was previously. Maybe China is expecting a higher growth rate. Actually, I think the current increase. The speed is already very good."

“According to my personal opinion, unless China’s economy has experienced a serious decline, this current slowdown will not have much impact on Metrohm, because our application market is mainly focused on environmental protection, including soil and water. This is a very large market for China. At the same time, Vantone's team in China, especially the IC division, is also growing and has accumulated a lot of experience. I believe in our team."

On July 1, 2014, the China-Switzerland Free Trade Agreement (FTA) came into effect. It is reported that China will impose zero tariffs on 84.2% of the export of the Swiss side, including precision instruments and fine chemical products. What will be the catalyst for the development of Vantone in China?

Speaking of the FTA, Markus Läubli said, “I hope this is an improvement.” According to Markus Läubli, it is very complicated to export and export instruments from Switzerland to China in addition to paying taxes. The project, even if a part is returned to Switzerland for repair, also requires a lot of documents. Therefore, as a Swiss company, it is particularly hoped that the procedures for customs clearance work will be simplified. “At present, any measure that can simplify transactions will greatly help Metrohm. For the time being, tariffs and freight will not be mentioned. If there is some simplification in the submission of documents, it will be a very big improvement,” said Markus Läubli. .

Seizing the opportunity of the new EU directive, Vantone in China has become a single

In July 2009, the European Union implemented the new toy safety directive 2009/48/EC. The directive sets an overall two-year transitional period and went into effect in July 2011. The transition period for chemical safety performance is four years, effective on July 20, 2013. The directive requires restrictions on Cr(III) and Cr(VI), respectively. The requirements of the Directive for Cr(III) and Cr(VI) in various types of samples are as follows: 1. Dry, brittle, powdery, or flexible samples: 37.5, 0.02 mg/kg; 2. Liquid or viscous materials: 9.4, 0.005 mg/kg; Third, scraping toy materials: 460, 0.02 mg/kg. The implementation of this directive is a good news for companies doing morphological analysis. Does Vantone have seized the opportunity?

Markus Läubli said that "the IC can meet two relatively high limits of testing requirements so far."

“Cr(VI) detection uses a spectrophotometer method, but the detection limit is not good for IC. A few years ago, EPA had changed the UV method to IC method. We think that IC may enter national standards. DIN is also working on the development of related methods for toys. A few years later, EN, DIN, ISO, etc. may release relevant standards."

Vantone has attached great importance to this and has prepared for the follow-up impact of the new directive. According to Li Tao, product manager of Vantone China, due to the entry into force of the new directive, Vantone currently has a presence in the Chinese market. With certain benefits. For example, many manufacturers in Guangdong that export toys to the EU must comply with the new toy directives, and must therefore be equipped with appropriate testing instruments. And since Vantone is ready, it has already sold some IC instruments in South China, such as Guangdong.

For the minimum limit requirements, Markus Läubli said, “The limit of 0.005 mg/kg should be met using ICP-MS, but I haven’t seen the actual ICP-MS analysis report for the minimum amount. For some viscous materials, sample handling is a key issue and ICP-MS cannot detect it without proper sample handling methods.” At the same time, Markus Läubli also said, “At present, I think that the IC detection method can already meet 80% Market demand."

Product Philosophy: Any work related to product quality is “hand-in-hand”

In spite of the continuous changes in the economic environment and the market, the concept of "Scientific Rigorousness" of Swiss Wantong has remained unchanged for decades. From hardware to software, any work related to product quality is "hand-in-hand."

The current global trend is globalization, division of labor and collaboration. In order to better control costs, many companies often save money through the purchase of finished products or semi-finished products. In contrast, Metrohm wants to do almost everything on its own. In this way, we cannot help wondering how Metrohm Want controls production costs.

Before answering this question, Markus Läubli first told us a story. He said that this tradition of “being hands-on” for Vantone is related to its history of development.

According to its introduction, in 1943, Bertold Suhner, a mechanical engineer, founded Vantone in Herisau, a German-speaking district in north-eastern Switzerland, and the main business direction of the company was initially electronics. Later, one of the company's founders left, and Bertold Suhner turned the company's direction toward electrochemical analysis equipment.

One of Bertold Suhner's most important ideas is to maintain independence. For example, Vantone's investment funds come from corporate profits rather than from bank loans. In order to ensure that Metrohm will not be sold, Bertold Suhner discussed with the other two founders that he did not convert the company into a joint-stock company. He finally decided to donate the shares to the “Vancent Vanstone Science Fund” for free, so now Metrohm is It is owned by Vantone Science Fund. The goal of the Vantone Science Fund is to create jobs and support education. This is one of the reasons why Vantone has everything it takes to do it.

Speaking of this, Markus Läubli specifically showed us three buildings in the new plant of Vantone in Switzerland. He said with pride that "This is all invested by Metrohm itself and it does not have any bank loans."

"Of course there are other reasons," said Markus Läubli. "One of them is that we realized during the development of Metrohm in Switzerland. Especially when developing IC, we can conduct conductivity detectors ourselves, but we do not have ourselves. The pump, so we had to cooperate with another company. Although we did a lot of things with this company, but we also realized that if we can master this technical operation will be easier, and the Development will also be more beneficial.For another example, initially, Vantone also did not have its own computer integration system. At that time, it would be very difficult to make any changes to the software based on the needs of Metrohm products. Work After experiencing these similar things, Metrohm decided to do whatever it takes to influence the quality of the product. Of course, for jobs that do not affect the quality of the product, such as spraying paint on the instrument, we also have our own external supplier."

Regarding the concerns raised by the author about production cost control, Markus Läubli said, “Even so, we can still maintain a very good profit.” According to reports, the main way for Wantong to control costs is to use automation as much as possible in the production process. Equipment, so that most of the profits will return to the company, and Vantone also has sufficient funds to ensure that the industrial park can operate at a higher level, and ultimately achieve the purpose of reducing costs. However, although Vantone is trying its best to control costs, in order to ensure product quality, Metrohm does not currently move production plants to other countries like China and Italy.

For the future of Metrohm IC products in Switzerland, Markus Läubli said, “Vancetone has accumulated rich experience in IC and will have very good development in IC field in the future.” According to its introduction, currently, Vantone is under development. The research work of a generation of ICs hopes to make people use the IC instruments as flexible and safe as possible.

Markus Läubli's Resume

Markus Läubli was born in Winterthur, Switzerland, on July 31, 1955. He received his Ph.D. in science from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in 1985. His main direction is the development and application of ion-selective electrodes. After receiving his PhD, Markus Läubli has been working for Vantone headquarters in Switzerland and has been close to 30 years.

During his work at Metrohm in Switzerland, he first worked as an ion chromatography product manager and participated in the research and development of Metrohm 600 and 700 series ion chromatography in Switzerland. He also chaired the development of the chemical suppressor module, the core component of Metrohm IC. At the same time, they presided over the establishment of Indo-blue dialysis technology in the pretreatment technology of Swiss Vantone Inline Blue.

In the past 10 years, its focus has shifted gradually to the development and support of the IC market. As the global ion chromatographic market support manager, its main work focuses on gathering global market information and providing guidance and advice for the research and development department and application development department of Vantone headquarters.