Handan City, Hebei Province is an important steel production base in the country. With the acceleration of the transformation to high-quality development, the steel industry in Handan is faced with problems such as large overcapacity pressure, weak product competitiveness, and low carbon development level to be improved. How to get rid of the "growing pains" and make the industry glow with new vitality? In recent years, Handan has deepened the supply-side structural reform of the steel industry, adhered to independent innovation, vigorously extended the industrial chain, and guided the steel industry to the high-end, intelligent, and green direction of transformation. Speaking of Handan City, Hebei Province, iron and steel is an inescapable topic, iron ore resources are rich, metallurgy has a long history, "Handan iron and steel experience" in the country to promote, is the country's important steel production base. The glory of the past can not hide the growing pains. After years of development, the city's iron and steel industry is faced with overcapacity, lack of innovation, low profits, environmental pollution and many other problems, the traditional path is unsustainable, innovation-driven imperative.
In recent years, Handan has successively issued documents such as the implementation plan for accelerating the high-quality development of the steel industry and the development plan for the fine steel industry, deepening the supply-side structural reform of the steel industry, taking innovation as the driving force, taking variety structure optimization and quality improvement as the main line, optimizing the layout and mergers and acquisitions as the starting point, and vigorously extending the industrial chain to create green mild steel iron as the core. We will promote high-quality development of the steel industry. How to go about innovation? How to extend the industrial chain? How to refine green steel? Economic daily reporter into Handan, to explore the transformation of the steel industry.
Although it is the winter season, the production heat in the workshop of Handan Iron and Steel Group Handan Iron and Steel Company, located in the west of Handan, is not reduced, and the huge rolling mill runs steadily, and the 100-meter heavy rail whistles out. "This batch of steel rails are high-speed heavy rails produced by the company specifically for the high-speed railway under construction in Shanghai and Suzhou. We are working overtime to ensure that the supply is on time." Handan steel rolling mill technical room director Jiao Jianpeng said. As one of the important iron and steel production bases in the country, Handan is also facing many difficulties in the transition to high-quality development, and shortcomings such as excess capacity, reduced profits and environmental pollution brought by extensive development for many years have gradually emerged. How to solve the problem, only innovation. In recent years, Handang has insisted on independent innovation, focused on the research and development and production of fine steel, built and put into operation the first heavy rail steel production line in Hebei Province and the fifth in China, developed low-carbon emission automotive steel, and has an annual output of more than 10 million tons of high-quality steel production capacity. "Handan Iron and Steel firmly grasp the adjustment of industrial structure, automotive steel to achieve 'complete vehicle production', high-speed heavy rail production in the forefront of the country." Handan steel technology center automotive home appliance board research and development center deputy director Yu Xiaofei said.
Not only Handang, Puyang Iron and Steel Company established in 1992 is a private steel enterprise with 10 million tons of production capacity. While comprehensively reducing production capacity by 30%, it invests more than 1 billion yuan every year, equivalent to 5% of its operating income, for technological innovation. It has built a national post-doctoral innovation practice base, Hebei Province High plastic toughness wear-resistant steel plate technology innovation center and Hebei Province high toughness wind tower steel engineering research center, a number of products won the national steel industry "Golden Cup Award", products exported to Japan and South Korea, Europe and the United States, Southeast Asia and other more than 70 countries and regions. Hebei Longfengshan Casting Co., LTD., located in Handan, Wuan, is a high-tech enterprise of high-end cast iron based new materials. In recent years, it has successively developed and produced high-purity pig iron, ultra-high-purity pig iron, hypoeutectic pig iron and other products, and the main technical indicators of high-purity iron have reached the international leading level. "The company adheres to scientific and technological innovation, and has established technical cooperation relations with more than 20 research institutes such as Tsinghua University and University of Science and Technology Beijing, providing technical support for product research and development and upgrading." Company market high-quality development minister Sun Xueming said.
Cutting, forging, quenching... In the production workshop of Gangnuo New Materials Co., LTD., Guangping Economic Development Zone in Handan, more than 10 automatic production lines are arranged in turn, and the steel ingot calcined red by the fire is cut into segments, forged into balls, and finally quenched and cooled to form a round finished steel ball. "The ball mill steel ball developed by the company is a grinding medium, which is widely used in mining, cement production, thermal power generation and other grinding industries. Wear-resistant steel balls seem simple, but they are actually very high-tech." Feng Hongxi, chairman of the company, said that the company, in cooperation with the University of Science and Technology Beijing, uses high-efficiency forging and rolling technology to produce ball grinding steel balls, so that the product is more adaptable when grinding objects with different hardness. At present, the company has an annual output of 300,000 tons of ball mill steel balls, which is a new production base of ball mill steel balls in north China.
Innovation is the entry point, but also the source of power. In recent years, Handan City has promoted the innovative development of the steel industry, encouraged steel enterprises to increase investment in research and development, strengthened key core technology breakthroughs, and supported key steel enterprises to establish research and development institutions. Support enterprises to develop high-end new iron-based materials such as high-quality special steel, special alloy steel, high-purity iron, ultra-pure iron, and encourage steel enterprises to build steel industry innovation alliances with scientific research institutes and universities. While increasing investment in technology research and development, Handan also pays attention to the equipment renewal and intelligent transformation of iron and steel enterprises, promotes the deep integration of digital industry and steel industry, and promotes the application of 5G, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence and other technologies in the steel industry. Support enterprises in implementing technological transformation demonstration projects, encourage enterprises to build industrial big data integration platforms and big data centers, and improve the level of digital management and intelligent manufacturing. Data show that in the first three quarters of 2023, Handan's iron and steel industry achieved operating income of 230.54 billion yuan, accounting for 48.9% of the city's industrial enterprises above designated size. Among the 22 categories of iron and steel products in the national statistics, Handan can produce 20 categories, of which automobile steel, household appliance steel, heavy rail, ductile cast pipe, high purity pig iron and other products are in a leading position in the country.
