The world’s largest steel producer changes ownership!
On March 4, the reporter learned from China Baowu iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. that the crude steel output of the company last year was 95.22 million tons. In terms of crude steel output last year, Baowu of China surpassed ArcelorMittal to become the world’s largest steel producer. ArcelorMittal disclosed in its full year results released in February this year that it produced 89.8 million tons of crude steel in 2019.
“Lighthouse factory” helps prevent and control epidemic situation in iron and steel enterprises
Black light factory, unmanned reservoir area, digital workshop, smart factory; the massive application of artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, 5g, simulation, and AR technologies have made the iron and steel plant that people think of as “stupid, big and black thick” has become a “high-tech company”.
According to Chen Derong, Secretary of the CPC Committee and chairman of Baowu group of China, Baosteel’s Shanghai Baoshan base plant was selected for the first time in the list of global “lighthouse factories” released by the world economic forum in January this year. In the face of the epidemic situation, the newly listed “lighthouse factory” shows unique advantages: intelligent manufacturing covering the whole plant not only improves production efficiency, but also achieves an effective balance between epidemic prevention and control and stable and high yield in special periods.
“Intelligent manufacturing can avoid people’s direct contact. If, as before, most of them rely on manual operation, as long as one shift is isolated, the impact on production will be very big. ” Chen Derong deeply felt, “through the test of this epidemic, the intelligent transformation of traditional factories will become a trend.”
The reporter interviewed Baoshan base’s cold rolling and hot dip galvanizing intelligent workshop and found that two 200 meter long production lines have basically realized the work of machines acting for people, and only two or three workers are required to inspect each line. Since the application of information technology to realize unmanned driving and robot operation, the traditional hard-working workers waiting at the side of the production line have “transformed”, and become the operators who sit in the “six in one” operating room and remotely control the production line through the electronic screen. In the clean and comfortable operating room with more than 100 square meters, several scattered operators wear masks and separate each other. Through the intelligent remote control system, Baoshan base is controlled orderly, and the production line of Dongshan base in Zhanjiang is fully tracked.
In fact, the cold rolling workshop is only one of the representatives of the intelligent manufacturing achievements of this “lighthouse factory”. In Baoshan base, five smart manufacturing projects have been awarded the best practice cases of “lighthouse factory” of world economic forum this year. At present, intelligent manufacturing has been widely promoted in the whole process, process and link of Baosteel’s production and manufacturing.
Chen Derong’s determination is more than that. He stressed that “to develop intelligent manufacturing, we are not making bonsai, but landscape.” In other words, the intelligent manufacturing of the whole Baowu system is promoted in an integrated way. The light of intelligent manufacturing should shine on every base, every process and every post of Baowu in China.
Realize the vision of “becoming a global steel leader”
The realization of the strategic target of 100 million tons is imminent. Baowu has the ability and strength to impact the top 100 of the world’s top 500.
China Baowu was formed by the joint reorganization of the former Baosteel Group and the former WISCO group in December 2016, with a steel production capacity of 70 million tons, ranking first in China and second in the world. As a pilot enterprise of state-owned capital investment company, Baowu of China reorganized Maanshan Iron and Steel Group in a market-oriented way last year and implemented substantial management of Chongqing Iron and steel. The annual steel production capacity of the group is nearly 100 million tons, ranking first among the world’s largest steel enterprises.
Many people once questioned the Baowu merger and thought that once the market changed, it would be difficult for the ship to turn around. But now it seems that the opposite is true. The Baowu joint reorganization is successful, which provides a reference for the merger of domestic steel enterprises. Chen Derong said that the expansion of scale is for better development.
Baowu of China actively explores the road of integration and integration of large enterprises, vigorously promotes professional integration, “one industry, one enterprise, one industry”, vertically promotes the integration of upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, optimizes the allocation, horizontally integrates the assets of similar businesses, reduces homogeneous operation, repetitive construction and disordered competition, achieves the improvement of ability with the ultimate specialization, pursues the ultimate efficiency and cultivates “Singles champion” in various professional fields to achieve the ultimate high efficiency.
For example, China Baowu consciously obeys the national strategy and strives to make breakthroughs in the key core technologies and products of “neck sticking”. “Development and application of green and efficient electroslag remelting key technology for high quality special steel” in cooperation with Northeast University won the first prize of national science and technology progress award. Six new products, such as ultra-low core loss oriented silicon steel and high-performance mooring chain steel, have been launched in the world. It is the exclusive supplier of Superalloy series turbine rotor forgings and ultra long high temperature alloy thin-walled pipes for the Long March 5 remote 3 launch vehicle engine, and 300M steel for landing gear of C919 large passenger aircraft.
“Of course, compared with some private enterprises, our profit per ton of steel is not high enough.” Chen Derong also saw the shortcomings in the development of many enterprises. Technology leading is to be stronger, benefit leading is to be better, and scale leading is to be bigger. Baowu General of China realizes the vision of “becoming a global steel leader” from three dimensions of technology, efficiency and scale.