“We are a big country in steel and we are on the way to becoming a big country in steel.”Li Wei, member of the Standing Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), academician of Chinese Academy of Engineering and deputy chief Engineer of China Steel Research Technology Group, said in an exclusive interview with China Metallurgical News on July 31 during the second Council meeting of China Iron and Steel Association.Earlier, on July 28, he attended a meeting of non-Party members of the CPC Central Committee.He told China Metallurgical Daily that listening to the important speech of General Secretary Xi Jinping has strengthened his confidence in building a high-quality steel country.
The transformation from a steel country to a steel country should be problem-oriented and promote development
Li said that since the beginning of this year, coVID-19 has had a big impact on all sectors of the world, including China’s steel industry, but overall, we have withstood the test of the epidemic.The iron and steel industry has resolutely implemented the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. In the face of the challenge of the epidemic, it has taken active actions, dealt with resolute decisions, and faced up to its responsibilities. It has sought opportunities from the crisis and found a way to win.
Li said That China is the only country in the world with all kinds of industries, and it also provides many products made in China to the world.The biggest advantage of China’s manufacturing industry, especially the raw material industry represented by steel, is that it is big, but it has not achieved real strength yet.There is still much work to be done in China’s transformation from a big country of steel to a strong country of steel.In recent years, the steel industry has done a lot of work in this area, and the actual results are commendable, such as green development, intelligent manufacturing and so on.
“There are still many challenges for China’s steel industry to become a steel power, and one of them is that the concentration is not high enough.”Li noted that China produces more than half of the world’s steel, but there are hundreds of steel mills in China and only a few in other countries.Although Chinese iron and steel enterprises have invested in equipment renovation, they still need to further improve their production technology, product structure and management efficiency.
How to realize the transformation from a steel power to a steel power?Li Wei believes that to adhere to the problem – oriented, one difficult problem gradually broken.There are mainly four problems in China’s material industry:
One is that there is no material available.At present, China is leading the world in the equipment manufacturing industry, but there are still some materials that have not caught up with the development. We need to replace them with imported materials, and once people get stuck in the neck, there will be no materials available.
“A manufacturing power must be a material power, and a manufacturing power must first be a material power.The materials represented by iron and steel are the support of all manufacturing industries and can be said to be the ‘food’ of the manufacturing industry.Without ‘food’, there can be no growth from big to strong.A great country cannot do without steel.”Li said.
Second, there is no material to copy.“Some companies offer materials to do as needed, but the essence is that materials should go first.”Li Wei thinks.At present, After decades of development, China’s material industry has been in the forefront of the world in many aspects. There is no basis for absorbing, introducing and creating new foundations. Instead, independent innovation is needed, starting from the most basic research.“As China’s material industry develops to a certain extent, we need to change the past development model of one generation of equipment and one generation of materials, and instead develop new equipment based on materials to realize one generation of materials and one generation of equipment.This is the future of the material industry’s biggest direction of development.”Li Wei emphasized.
Third, it is not easy to use.“The biggest problem we face is that talent is not available.”Li wei pointed out that developed countries, especially Japanese and German enterprises with relatively famous quality management systems in the world, their products are relatively more refined and their products have higher added value.
Four is good material dare not use.Because of the fear of responsibility, materials used in aircraft engines and precision materials used in steel are not used. As a result, good materials produced by domestic enterprises are difficult to replace imported materials.
Five implementation paths to further promote scientific and technological innovation in steel industry
Iron and steel power is based on the number of first, further reflect our big country attitude and responsibility.In terms of innovation, we should be able to lead the trend of scientific and technological development of the world steel industry, to develop advanced products to meet the development needs of downstream industries, to maintain the sustainable development of the steel industry, and to make irreplaceable contributions to the development of China and the world.
How to further promote technological innovation in steel industry?Li Wei believes that further efforts can be made from the following five aspects:
First, the integration of scientific and technological innovation resources in the industry, differentiated layout, collaborative development.Both the state and enterprises have invested a lot in scientific and technological innovation resources, but the innovation resources are not well integrated, and the achievements created by scientific and technological innovation resources are of low quality, and some of them are even inefficient.Take the steel industry as an example. On the one hand, our current basic research is not enough, but on the other hand, there are a large number of research institutes and research institutions that repeat many studies with serious homogenization. Because of different evaluation systems, resources are relatively dispersed and inefficient.
The scientific and technological innovation of iron and steel enterprises should not pursue the big and complete, but should be small and refined, differentiated and personalized development, each enterprise is a hidden champion in a certain field or several fields.Li Wei pointed out that at present, the steel industry is going in a good direction in terms of differentiation and personalized development. Almost every steel enterprise has its own characteristics.But he also pointed out that this development is still in the initial stage, in the future to truly make every steel mill has its own characteristics, and eventually form an orderly competitive pattern.
Second, the division of labor should be further clarified.Scientific and technological innovation resources integration, further promote the division of labor.Research institutes do what research institutes should do, big enterprises do what big enterprises do and small enterprises do what small enterprises do.In this way, the efficiency of scientific and technological innovation will be high and the road of scientific and technological innovation will be stable and lasting.
Third, we should increase the training of scientific and technological personnel and establish a complete system for transforming scientific and technological achievements.In the past, China’s scientific and technological innovation has followed a path of digestion, introduction, absorption and innovation, but less investment has been made in independent scientific and technological innovation and research.Now, to establish a complete system of scientific and technological innovation, we need to pay more attention to scientific and technological innovation, further strengthen the training of scientific and technological personnel, strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, so as to help scientific and technological innovation results can be effectively translated into productive forces.
Fourth, we will give full play to the role of market regulation.The development of China’s steel industry has China’s unique institutional advantages, can concentrate on big things, but the role of the market is limited.In the process of promoting scientific and technological innovation, the iron and steel industry should not only play the advantages of the system, but also play the role of the market, so as to further allocate resources effectively and accelerate the pace of scientific and technological innovation.
Fifth, we will further improve efficiency.“Whether we look at technological innovation or the steel industry as a whole, we still need to improve our efficiency.”Li wei pointed out.
He went on to point out that much of the work is repetitive.In terms of the layout of steel, it is now as far as possible to keep steel away from the city, the steel plant moved to the coast, along the river.In the short term, this is conducive to pollution prevention and control and is relatively close to transportation lines. However, in the long term, relocation should not be “one-size-fits-all”, because the development of short process in the steel industry should be a big trend, and the development of short process must be around the city.Rather than tear down or replace the old steel works and equipment, it is better to increase the intensity of scientific and technological innovation or enhance the ability of scientific and technological innovation to create greater benefits with better and newer technologies.We should regard effectiveness and usefulness as the only criterion, sometimes even need to rise to the height of strategy.
Li said that in the past 40 years and more since the reform and opening up, the development of the steel industry has come to a turning point. At the early stage, the question of “is it good or not?” had to be resolved.
