"Two Chemicals" Deeply Integrate to Promote Steel Industry Upgrade

“We must change our concepts, integrate the traditional iron and steel industry with modern information and intelligence, further promote the upgrading of the steel industry, and build an upgraded version of the steel industry.” January 12th, 5th General Assembly of China Iron & Steel Association At last, Chi Jingdong, who was elected vice chairman of China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said in an exclusive interview with the reporter of China Metallurgical News.

Technological innovation is the driving force for industry upgrading

“Technological innovation is an important driving force and driving force for the transformation and upgrading of the steel industry. The key to the development of the steel industry in the future is how to upgrade on the basis of existing technologies. At present, we have solved the quantitative problem, and in essence also solved the problem of varieties. How to go up one step again. The essence of the next step is to upgrade the problem,” said Chi Jingdong.

“The key to achieving an upgrade is to do quality work. But this quality not only refers to product quality, but at least to the quality of development and the quality of the environment. The quality of development includes benefits, management, technology, products, and the quality of the environment. It will require the maximization and efficient use of resources and energy to create an environment-friendly enterprise.” Chi Jingdong further explained that “in the past, enterprises had developed economies of scale, but in the future this extensive development based on economies of scale alone would not be feasible. We must stress the quality and efficiency of development, and the improvement of quality and efficiency includes innovation in management, improvement in production efficiency, and further improvement in technology."

Change Concept and Move Forward to Iron and Steel Intelligence

Germany proposed "Industry 4.0" which is dominated by smart manufacturing. However, Chi Jingdong believes that the concept of steel 4.0 should not be easily thrown out, because the concept of 4.0 is not in line with the laws of China's steel development, but to build an upgraded version of China's steel industry through intelligence.

Chi Jingdong said: “The deep integration of steel manufacturing automation, information, and intelligence has brought about changes in concepts and ideas for the development of the iron and steel industry. In the past, we were shoulders and shoulders and people are now automation. In the past, users In order to order from iron and steel companies, product specifications are fixed, and this model is based on iron and steel production centered on demand, and the future trend is centered on the market and downstream end users, and scientifically customized according to customer needs. Scientific production and scientific customization and scientific production require informatization and intelligence. Because the needs of each user are very different, this development thinking and development strategy will lead to different development paths for each company."

“This change of mindset will affect the future development and planning of the enterprise. The most important thing in intelligentization is customization, and the most critical factor in customization is professionalism. If the enterprise cannot achieve specialization, how can it provide users with intelligence? Service?” Chi Chien-dong added, “In addition, the intelligence has also changed the production and business model and sales model. In the past, the sales model relied on intermediate traders, but now it is the company’s own international trade company, producing and processing according to the requirements of users. Future competition depends entirely on price, but it should be user-centered, through intelligent and customized manufacturing, to better serve users. Then, this competition is not just production itself, but The competition in the whole industry chain.For example, a car worth hundreds of thousands of yuan will use about 1.5 tons of steel. What's the value of this steel and how much it can account for? This shows that customers have higher requirements for quality and performance. It is the competition of quality, performance and service.In the future, the upgraded version of the steel industry will focus on the thinking mode, thinking mode and ideological concept. Big difference."

Using "First-rate" to Build a Powerful Steel Country

Chi Jingdong said: “What should the steel industry do during the 13th Five-Year Plan period? In fact, it is around how to turn China into a world’s most competitive steel power. In summary, the iron and steel powers are China’s steel. The industry must create a world-class enterprise, first-class new technology, first-rate new products and a first-rate environment."

“What is first-rate? First, there are 35 or more steel enterprise groups that can stand at the forefront of the world. Second, in the past, our country’s steel companies introduced foreign technology. We can now rely on our own strength to solve the development process of the steel industry. The technical and technological problems encountered in the meeting will not only meet their own needs, but will also be able to export the most advanced technologies to the world, which can be called first-class technology. Third, the first-class products mean improving the grade of products. Following the others, we must focus on the research and development of products that will lead the future and meet the current needs of downstream users.We are at the forefront of technology. Mr. Shi Changxu once said that a generation of materials, a generation of equipment, a generation of engineering. Visible materials How important is the upgrade in equipment and engineering.Fourth, the steel industry without a first-rate environment will certainly not work. Environmental harmony is a social issue for the survival of enterprises."

To build a strong steel country, the key is to build a fair market environment. Enterprises must participate in market competition under a good market environment, and they must have self-discipline and must be fair and just. At the same time, building world-class steel companies requires mergers, reorganizations, and optimization. "In some places, the environmental capacity is already saturated. It is not acceptable not to adjust the layout. However, it must be made clear that steel companies do not promote mergers and acquisitions for mergers and acquisitions, but rather they want to form the most competitive steel group to reorganize. A good competitive environment to adjust.If the reorganization after the formation of the most competitive steel group, the elimination will be eliminated, the withdrawal will have to exit. Without these basic work of deepening, there is no good market environment The goal of a strong steel country is also very difficult to achieve. This will be a very pressing issue facing the steel industry in the 13th Five-Year Plan period,” Chi Jingdong said.

Energy conversion focuses on efficiency

Chi Jingdong believes that with regard to green development and energy conversion, the steel industry has done a lot of work on energy conversion and resource utilization, and has achieved remarkable results. The future focus is on the more efficient use of resources and energy, and steel and social waste. Whether the recycling and consumption of materials is more efficient.

“In the future, the iron and steel enterprises must focus on efficiency improvement in their energy conversion function. The first is the efficiency of conversion. For example, steel plants have the function of energy conversion, but the efficiency of energy conversion is not the best. There are To the development and use of many more advanced technologies, the second is the efficiency of recycling.Now, we can achieve the recovery of energy and resources, but the efficiency of recycling, whether it is the most scientific and rational, and whether it is efficient, these are the need to consider Some companies think that the recovery of some energy and resources is very laborious, and it is not economical, and it will not be done in the future. This is not the case in the future. The third is the efficiency of the use. If some resources are used for other purposes, the current use is better. The method is inefficient use, and does not exert the higher value of resources.” Chi Jingdong added.

Internal and external attention to environmental protection

Regarding environmental cost pressures and risks, Chi Jingdong believes that consideration should be given to both the external environment and the internal environment. "The purpose of a good external environment is to do a good job in environmental protection. Such a good environment includes whether the government can enforce the law in the law enforcement process and whether the law enforcement will be implemented in strict accordance with the standards."

Chi Jingdong said there are three main areas that need attention. The first is how to upgrade the technology. Although there is the same technology, if the efficiency is not good and the efficiency is not high, it will have to be upgraded. The second is management upgrades. Without overall considerations, system considerations, and system optimization, there is room for further improvement in management. The third is the escalation of ideas. It is necessary to have an overall, life cycle, system-wide idea of ​​optimizing and upgrading, and to consider environmental protection from the entire life cycle. “For example, everyone is mentioning sintering*, but if the problem of *removal is considered in the production of raw materials such as beneficiation and coal washing, will it be less important to reduce the discharge pressure of carbon dioxide* in steel production? We supply downstream The best product is to make the product have long service life and corrosion resistance. Can the user not be able to save energy? This is the initial concept of the whole life cycle. It is to consider it in a unified way, not just consider steel manufacturing itself. Therefore, environmental protection The external needs of the environment, the internal needs to be upgraded.” Chi Jingdong said.