"China's steel industry has become the most internationally competitive industry in the manufacturing sector, and has come to the center of the world stage." As steel science and technology people, we must mind the country, always maintain the spirit of self-reliance, hard work, with higher requirements, higher standards, with the historical initiative of 'self-inflicted suffering', to contribute steel strength to the development of new quality productivity." On May 23, Jiang Wei, deputy secretary of the Party Committee, Vice president and secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said at the 2024 Annual meeting of the Science and Technology Innovation Working Committee of the China Iron and Steel Industry common technology Collaborative research and development meeting. At the same time, he pointed out that China's steel enterprises also need to strengthen the demand docking and project collaborative research and development of different stages with upstream and downstream enterprises, hoping that the steel industry will achieve breakthroughs in the system and mechanism of coordination, achieve industrial synergy, and drive the development of new quality productivity with innovation.

Jiang Wei said that steel is an important basic material for the development of the national economy, and the steel industry is a pillar industry of the national economy. The increasingly complex international political and economic situation, the increasing constraints on energy, resources and environment, and the deepening of the "global decarbonization agenda" have brought significant and far-reaching impacts on the world steel industry.  It is worth thinking about and comparing.

Actively face the opportunities and challenges to maintain strategic focus

Jiang Wei said that at present, the global economy is showing a moderate recovery trend, and the world's major economies have generally raised their growth expectations in 2024, but due to the lack of internal driving force for demand growth, inflationary pressure, geopolitical conflicts and other contradictions, economic recovery uncertainties still exist.  As a basic industry of the national economy, the steel industry has shown great development resilience, and the overall steel production has remained stable, which has strongly supported the development needs of the national economy. Although we are faced with the market supply and demand of the stage imbalance, the industry loss of the expansion of the problem, but the pillar position of the steel industry in the national economy has not changed, the basic trend of China's economy in the long term has not changed, the steel industry still has great development potential, great promise.

"The steel industry is in a critical period of transformation and development to achieve iron and steel power, the ship to stray more urgent, people to the semi-mountain road steeper, in the case of intertwined opportunities and challenges, we must have a strong and lasting strategic focus, adhere to the scientific and technological innovation through them, in order to the right course, stable and far." Jiang Wei introduced that on the basis of extensive consultation with the industry, the Steel Association has basically established a three-dimensional target system of "economy, ecology and safety" for the development of the industry, and formed a system of key industry work directions and key work projects. Scientific and technological innovation runs through all kinds of work, is the "cow nose" of living, seeking development and seeking breakthrough, is the internal driving force of green low-carbon development and intelligent manufacturing, scientific and technological progress is a move to deal with the current, as long as we really take scientific and technological progress as the primary option of efforts, and really take the downstream user needs as the direction of efforts. China steel will certainly be able to get out of the current scale and output of the dilemma. At the same time, scientific and technological progress is also the key to determining the future of the industry, whether it is green low-carbon transformation, or digital transformation, in the final analysis, it is the competition of scientific and technological progress. There should be no dispute that technological innovation is a top priority. The association establishes an industry science and technology innovation committee to coordinate and promote the industry's science and technology innovation work, hoping to build a platform for science and technology exchange and cooperation, especially to promote the upstream and downstream industry chain science and technology innovation, which is the original mission.

"Under the current market situation, we are very pleased to see that Shougang Group, Baosteel, CITIC Special Steel, Nangang, Hesteel, Longteng Special Steel and other enterprises adhere to scientific and technological innovation and development, adhere to specialized and special new enterprises, and continue to maintain a good level of profitability. Only a profitable and profitable enterprise and industry can be able to embrace the future. History has proved that the more we face the changing situation, the more we should seize the "bull nose" of scientific and technological innovation, in order to find the opportunity of certainty in the uncertain change. Energy conservation and environmental protection, green and low-carbon, industrial Internet, big data, intelligent manufacturing are the general secretary's new quality productivity discussion in the steel industry, but also the iron and steel enterprises through the down cycle of the only way, to achieve these development strategies and objectives, we must invest a lot of human and material resources for systematic research. How to meet market demand and guide the creation of market demand is the eternal theme of the development of the industry, steel products research and development and application has a long way to go. In addition, the steel industry has a long industrial chain, more upstream and downstream partners, one loss, one prosperity, the more important the industrial chain synergy in the period of market decline. We talk about innovation, on the surface is a technical problem, in fact, it is a system to plan today and tomorrow, now and the future, short-term and long-term relationship, today are the leading enterprises in the industry innovation, advantage enterprises, I hope you can unify thinking, maintain strategic confidence, continue to stand in the height of the industry, brave to resist the banner of innovation, take the lead, lead by example, Contribute to the healthy and sustainable development of the industry." 'he said.

Adhere to innovation-driven development

Jiang Wei introduced that the Steel Association Science and Technology Innovation Committee is the executive agency coordinating the promotion of scientific and technological innovation and technological progress at the industry level, and the members present are the heads of the industry science and technology innovation departments or senior experts, bearing the arduous task of promoting the high-end, green and intelligent transformation of enterprises through innovation. In the past year, we actively implemented the Shanghai Consensus of the Institute. Overall promotion of the world's cutting-edge low-carbon technology support plan, actively carry out industry common technology research and development, and achieved fruitful results: common technology research and development has made progress, blast furnace desulfurization has achieved remarkable results, corrosion resistant nuclear power rebar has entered the corrosion resistance test stage; Ansteel CO., LTD uses 690 mpa low-temperature steel for liquid cargo warehouse, 33 mm thick wall X80 high-strength large-strain pipeline steel plate, lightweight large-size thermoforming mining card materials, Baosteel Jipa steel, 1300 mpa high-strength high-bending high-corrosion resistance steel, high-strength high-weather resistance cold heading steel, super weather-resistant steel for photovoltaic brackets, etc. Tisco's ultra-high strength magnetic yoke steel plate for high head and large capacity hydropower units, soft magnetic materials for Shougang new energy vehicles, and new steel materials such as 08Cr9W3Co3VNbCuBN (G115) for 630 ° C ultra-supercritical demonstration project of Steel Research have achieved global debut; Baowu, Hesteel, Angang, Jianlong, China Steel Research Institute, Beijing University of Science and Technology, Northeastern University and other units carry out research and development, pilot test and industrialization around hydrogen metallurgy and other technologies, brave innovation no man's land, and accumulate strength to lead the development of world steel technology.

Jiang Wei said that at present, the importance of scientific and technological innovation in high-quality development and green low-carbon transformation has become an industry consensus, and enterprises have their own unique understanding of the pain points and blocking points of the implementation of innovation-driven strategy in the process of promoting specific work. However, from the industry level, the key core technology innovation driving force of China's steel industry still needs to be improved, which is highlighted in the following aspects: First, R&D investment is not commensurate with the future development of China's steel. In 2023, the key statistics of the Steel Association member enterprises R & D expenses of 100.72 billion yuan, accounting for 1.56% of operating income, the association focused on the overall research and development investment intensity of 28 listed steel enterprises is 3.5%, deducting some for the purpose of calculating deductions, the actual proportion is not high. Second, the exploration of cutting-edge low-carbon common technology is insufficient, and the industry needs to build a low-carbon common technology research and development platform. In the recent several association council presidents on behalf of the industry repeatedly expressed a strong call to build a common platform for low-carbon technology research and development, this year the industry two committees also actively called for the national top-level design, to build a low-carbon common technology research and development platform, the establishment of the national steel low-carbon technology innovation center. Third, some high-end steel products still rely on imports, mainly in the field of special steel, industrial software, testing and inspection equipment still need further breakthroughs. Fourth, the level of digitalization and intelligence is uneven, and the direction still needs to be further clarified. In order to always be at the forefront of the world, China's steel must break through the above constraints and shortcomings, especially in the downward cycle of the industry, to keep the intensity of scientific research investment can not be reduced, and collaborative common innovation continues to strengthen. Association statistics show that the industry's investment in scientific and technological innovation is increasing this year. Only in this way can we shoulder the responsibility of leading the world's steel innovation and development, and ensure that China's steel will not fall behind again.

Build an innovative ecological development of new quality productivity

Jiang Wei said that in today's world, major countries have taken scientific and technological innovation as the main battlefield of international strategic game. Whoever holds the "bull nose" of scientific and technological innovation will be able to seize the opportunity and win the advantage. For the steel industry, in order to open up new areas of development, new tracks, shape new development momentum and new advantages, the development of new quality productivity needs to accelerate the construction of an innovation ecosystem, and provide a safer and more reliable guarantee for the steel power.

First, we need to strengthen innovation synergy and build a solid foundation for transformation. Jiang Wei said that high-quality innovation synergy is the premise of high-quality transformation, and the steel industry has always had a good foundation in innovation synergy. The Steel Association organized the industry to set up the science and technology innovation Working committee, energy conservation and environmental Protection Working committee, low carbon work promotion committee, etc., regularly held the industry and finance cooperation and exchanges with the shipbuilding, automotive, photovoltaic, energy and other industries, carried out the three major projects of ultra-low emissions, extreme energy efficiency, and digital transformation, formulated the system promotion plan and held a series of docking exchanges. The organization compiled a low-carbon technology roadmap for the steel industry, continued to track the progress of the world's eight leading low-carbon technologies and international steel technology dynamics, and organized the industry to jointly create the first EPD (Product Environmental Statement) platform in the industrial field. The major enterprises and institutions in the industry have continued the fine tradition of joint technology forecasting, and industry experts and enterprise representatives discuss the direction of industry technology development every 5 years, which is the embodiment of the innovation force of the steel industry, and its results have also been recognized by the relevant ministries and commissions of the state.  In the next step, the evaluation of science and technology awards, the support of national scientific research projects will be appropriately corresponding to this. The "fifteenth Five-Year Plan" technology forecast can guide the concentration of scientific and technological innovation resources in the industry, while not affecting the development of innovation projects outside the forecast.

Second, focus on key common technologies to improve innovation efficiency. Jiang Wei said that in order for the steel industry to gain a dominant position in the fierce scientific and technological innovation competitive environment, it must realize the transformation from the "runner" to the "runner" and "leader" in the international frontier technology competition. Running with, and running is always someone's area, to a certain extent is to imitate and improve, leading into no man's land, the failure rate of original innovation will be higher, the cycle will be longer, the risk will be greater, so it is particularly important to improve the efficiency of innovation. This requires a holistic grasp and focus on the core and prominent issues of scientific and technological research such as subject collaboration, factor allocation, incentives and constraints, and open security, so as to more efficiently organize the participation of different innovation entities, mobilize the enthusiasm of different innovation resources, promote the innovation system to work in the same direction, form synergy, enhance effectiveness, and realize the application and transformation of innovation achievements.

Jiang Wei introduced that with reference to the World Steel Association's common technology organization model, the 2023 annual meeting of the Science and Technology Committee held in Nantong, Jiangsu Province, in April last year, proposed the industry common technical problems of "blast furnace gas refining desulfurization common technology research and development" by voting, and fully considered the needs of the downstream industry. The working joint mechanism has been established for hot-rolled steel sheet pile, photovoltaic galvanized aluminum-magnesium steel frame and rare earth corrosion-resistant rebar and other fields, and has achieved stage results after one year's work. In addition, the steel Association for the whole industry and collected steel slag resource utilization, digital research and development and other new common technical problems, in the steel industry common technology collaborative research and exchange meeting to vote, organize the common technology research and development work, I believe that under the joint efforts of everyone, will achieve results. The premise of common technology collaborative research and development is the urgent needs of enterprises and industries, through the cooperation between enterprises, upstream and downstream cooperation, innovation efficiency can be effectively improved, in the current situation of the industry downward, can reduce the impact on the market competitiveness of industry enterprises.

The third is to collude with the national steel creation center and create the source of original technology. Jiang Wei said that at present, in the world, Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea and other major international steel producing countries (regions) have formulated extremely challenging low-carbon technology development plans, hoping to lead a new round of economic recovery with green and low-carbon as the starting point. According to the survey, at least 23 domestic enterprises and research institutions have carried out 57 research and development projects of the world's cutting-edge low-carbon technologies, and some projects have led the world and achieved breakthrough results. However, compared with foreign countries, China's steel industry low-carbon transformation started late, with independent intellectual property rights of low-carbon technology reserves are insufficient, research and development research forces are more scattered, the national level has not yet formed for the core low-carbon common technology system support program.

"Therefore, effectively change the current situation of China's low-carbon technology research, repeated investment, and no system, and it is urgent to form the top-level design of China's low-carbon core technology research as soon as possible."  It has received positive response from major enterprises and institutions. During the two sessions in 2024, the Association organized NPC deputies and CPPCC members to put forward proposals and suggestions for the establishment of the National Innovation Center, established contact with the Department of Achievements of the Ministry of Science and Technology and continued to follow up; China Baowu has also submitted a statement of intent for the construction of the National Innovation Center to the SASAC and Shanghai, forming a construction plan. In the next step, the association will continue to track and promote the national ministries to support the steel industry to create a low-carbon national innovation center, and give tilted support to low-carbon steel metallurgy innovation in key research and development plans, research projects and other national projects." 'he said.