Iron and steel is the industrial backbone supporting national development and economic construction. After seventy-two years, China's steel output has grown from less than one thousandth of the world's steel output when the people's Republic of China was founded to more than 50% of the world's steel output, making China the second largest economy in the world.
Angang is a magnificent page in the history of iron and steel industry of new China. It gave birth to the first furnace of molten steel, the first furnace of molten iron, the first seamless steel pipe and countless "new China first"; It has sent more than 120000 professionals to all parts of the country and participated in the construction of metallurgical industry in more than 20 large-scale iron and steel enterprises and 13 provinces; It gave birth to such admirable models as Meng Tai, Wang Chonglun, Lei Feng and Guo Mingyi.
Walking into the main plant area of Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., which covers an area of 24 square kilometers, the "Dongfanghong" old locomotive shuttles back and forth, the cooling tower steam curls up, and the intelligent workshop of the hot rolling plant is in good order.
The rapid development of Angang not only reposes the dream of national economic take-off, but also soothes the youth and glory of generations of Angang people. Now, it puts forward the goal of building a new Angang with high-quality development, realizing the idea of green, low-carbon and sustainable development, and going to the next century.
Angang galvanized coil, products are sold all over the country
Industrial cradle standing up in ruins
During the centenary of the founding of the Communist Party of China (CPC), there are a lot of tourists coming to the Angang Museum“ How is steel made? "The handwriting on the display board in the square in front of the museum is strong; In the museum, tens of thousands of cultural relics quietly record the history of Angang.
Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. was founded in 1916. Its predecessor was Anshan Iron and Steel Institute and Showa iron and Steel Institute in the period of Japanese puppet regime. In November 1948, the whole northeast was liberated. However, at this time, most of the mechanical equipment of Angang was stolen and transported away, and the damage was extremely serious, leaving only the industrial base full of holes, and the production capacity was almost zero.
"We can only grow sorghum here, and it will take at least 20 years to recover." A Japanese metallurgical expert once asserted.
In order to develop the national economy as soon as possible, the Party Central Committee asked Angang to resume work quickly. At this time, Meng Tai, an old worker, came out and led his workers to dig ice and snow, find parts and repair the blast furnace. When he called out the firm oath of "go with the Communist Party, stick and never look back", thousands of workers followed. They either shouldered, shouldered or wheeled the equipment to the factory, and the team went straight from the factory to a few miles away.
In a short period of half a year, the first hot metal and the first molten steel of new China were produced here. On July 9, 1949, Anshan Iron and steel company held a grand commencement ceremony, announcing the birth of the first large-scale iron and steel complex in New China. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the Central Military Commission specially sent congratulatory messages to encourage Angang to "fight for industrial China".
In December 1953, the seamless steel pipe plant, large rolling plant and No.7 Blast Furnace of Angang were completed and put into operation. By the end of the first five year plan in 1957, Angang's output exceeded the highest year before the founding of new China, and the annual production of steel, iron and steel accounted for more than half of the total output of the country.
In November 1958, in response to the call of the state, Lei Feng came to the general chemical plant of Angang and devoted himself to the hot industrial production. You Na, director of Lei Feng Memorial Hall of Angang, is familiar with his story: "when Lei Feng first came to Angang, he wanted to be an ironmaker, but he was assigned to the workshop as a bulldozer apprentice. The workshop director told him that steelmaking can't rely on just a few open hearth furnaces. It also needs ore, hot metal, coke, gas and so on. It can't do without any of them. "
Large scale industrial production is like a machine, without which screw can't rotate. In this way, Lei Feng understood the "screw" spirit, after hard study, and finally became the "Stalin 80" bulldozer.
From the "five hundred Arhats" transferred to Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. to the heroes and model talents such as Meng Tai, Wang Chonglun, Lei Feng, etc., Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. has continuously realized stable and high production of ironmaking system with vigorous production force.
A group of figures can be seen clearly: in 1978, Angang's steel output reached 6.86 million tons; Over 8 million tons in 1988; In 2002, it broke through the 10 million tons mark; In 2010, Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Panzhihua Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. jointly reorganized and became a super large iron and steel enterprise group with a production capacity of nearly 40 million tons and a capacity to produce 3000 brands of high-tech, high value-added steel and vanadium titanium products.
Overlooking Anshan Iron and steel plant of Angang Group
Let the "people who can hear the guns" have the decision-making power
The long voyage of a great ship has never been smooth sailing.
In the face of external pressure such as weakening downstream demand and steel overcapacity, Angang has been in a five-year loss period since 2012, and its production and operation situation is grim. Behind this, it also exposes a series of internal reasons such as the rigidity of the system and mechanism of overseas enterprises. It is imperative to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises and speed up the improvement of modern enterprise system.
Since 2016, Angang Group has launched a new round of reform, implemented contract management of leaders, and promoted cadres to be able to go up and down; We should build the linkage mechanism of wage and benefit to achieve the goal of more or less income; Promote the optimization and reform of human resources, reduce production capacity, close production lines and enterprises, and enable employees of loss making enterprises to enter and leave.
Chaoyang steel is the beneficiary of this round of reform.
From 2010 to 2015, Chaoyang steel made a total loss of nearly 6 billion yuan. Chaoyang iron and Steel Co., Ltd. was identified as a "zombie enterprise" because of high debt and broken capital chain. Chaoyang iron and Steel Co., Ltd. had to work out a bankruptcy plan to apply for enterprise bankruptcy and local dissolution of employees.
Only reform can solve the problem. In 2016, Chaoyang iron and steel implemented the first round of reform, which made the enterprise turn losses into profits and solved the problem of survival; In 2020, Chaoyang iron and steel will launch the second round of reform to solve the problem of insufficient market competitiveness and promote high-quality development.
Anshan Iron and steel plant of Angang Group
"I didn't expect that grassroots units like us could have such a big decision-making power. For example, what has the final say to buy coal and what time to buy is the purchase of employees at the grass-roots level. Every week, we collect data and calculate costs. " Speaking of decentralization, Tan Xiao, director of Chaoyang iron and Steel coking plant, is full of emotion.
Data show that in 2020, Chaoyang iron and steel will achieve a profit of 940 million yuan, and the sales profit margin will reach 2.3 times of the industry average level; The cost of iron, steel and steel products ranked among the top 5 in the industry. In the first quarter of this year, it is expected to achieve a profit of 320 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 145.27%.
In this regard, Yang Xu, former general manager of Chaoyang iron and Steel Co., Ltd., introduced that Chaoyang iron and Steel Co., Ltd. accurately authorized the "people who pull cars and carry jobs" at all levels, decentralized the power of organization establishment, personnel selection and employment, salary distribution, procurement and by-product sales decision-making to the factory director, work area director or project team leader, and its subordinate "four factories and three centers" independently operated, closed responsibilities, and became an independent internal market subject, Effectively stimulate the internal motivation.
"Let the people who pull the carts have the right to speak and the people who can hear the guns have the right to make decisions." Yang Xu summed it up vividly.
Li Baoqing, deputy secretary of the Party committee of Angang Group, said at the typical media meeting on the reform of state-owned enterprises organized by SASAC in May this year that the three system reforms are pain points, difficulties and blocking points, which will inevitably become the power source of high-quality development. In the early stage, Angang Group has completed the top-level design and formed a "1 + n" policy system. At present, we are firmly implementing the five new breakthroughs. So far, the 76 three-year reform tasks of state-owned enterprises determined by Angang Group have been fully launched.
According to the data provided by Angang Group, in 2020, Angang Group will achieve a profit of 13.4 billion yuan, the best level in history. Since 2021, the operating efficiency of Angang Group has continued to reach a new high, with a total profit of 20.2 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 1477%, and the ranking of major indicators in the industry has risen sharply. Among them, the profit margin of sales in the first five months reached 2 times of the average level of the industry.
Liu Qi, senior manager of strategic planning department of Anshan Iron and Steel Group, told the reporter of No.1 finance and economics that at present, the group is making every effort to promote the development strategy of the 14th five year plan, reshape the new pattern of development, and realize the development goal of 7531 during the 14th five year plan, that is, 70 million tons of crude steel, 50 million tons of iron concentrate, 300 billion level of business income and 10 billion level of profit.
Green development
Walking into the 1780 production line of Angang hot strip mill, the heat wave comes and the rolling mill roars. A hot billet is gradually extended after blooming and finishing rolling to complete the transformation from slab to coil.
Qu Xiaodong, a national model worker, is the shift leader of class a of this production line. He told China first finance and economics that green and low-carbon production has been realized in the whole process of the production line. The so-called "three wastes" in the past have already turned waste into treasure and all of them have been recycled. This is the "green water and green mountains" in the eyes of Angang people.
Hot strip mill production line of Angang Steel
Since the ninth five year plan, Angang has been committed to building a clean and environment-friendly enterprise. Through strengthening process innovation, application of advanced energy-saving and environmental protection technology, upgrading of production equipment and transformation of energy-saving and environmental protection facilities, the cleaner production level of enterprises has been greatly improved.
The central economic work conference held in December 2020 made it clear that "doing a good job in carbon peaking and carbon neutralization" is one of the eight major tasks of this year, "we should pay close attention to formulating the action plan for carbon emission peaking before 2030, and support local governments with conditions to take the lead in peaking."
On May 27, 2021, Dai Zhihao, general manager of Angang Group, issued the declaration of Angang Group's carbon peak and carbon neutralization at the 11th China International Iron and Steel Conference.
According to the declaration, Angang Group solemnly promises to release the low-carbon metallurgy roadmap by the end of 2021; The total carbon emissions will reach the peak by 2025; In 2030, we will achieve a breakthrough in the industrialization of cutting-edge low-carbon metallurgical technology, promote the application of deep carbon reduction technology on a large scale, and strive to reduce the total carbon emission by 30% compared with the peak value in 2035; With the continuous development of low-carbon metallurgical technology, it has become one of the first large-scale iron and steel enterprises to realize carbon neutralization in China's iron and steel industry.
"We have set up a leading group for carbon neutralization work, including a technical group, a planning group, a carbon trading group, a Carbon Asset Finance Group, etc., to study and formulate carbon planning, a carbon summit action plan, and actively lay out cutting-edge technologies such as hydrogen metallurgy. In addition, by the end of 2023, Angang will complete the ultra-low emission transformation to significantly reduce the emission of air pollutants. " Yu Yang, general manager of safety and environmental protection department of Angang Group, said in an interview with China first finance and economics.
Beside the door of the office in Yuyang, there is a map of mining area reclamation planning. As the iron and steel enterprise with the most resource advantages in China, Angang Group has made great efforts to restore the ecology of mining area. Once barren mountains and barren hills were dusty, but now they are full of pear trees, jujube trees and apricot trees... In summer, the breeze blows and the orchards are fragrant.
By the end of 2020, Angang mining company has completed 2000 hectares of ecological restoration in Anshan area, with a reclamation rate of 95%. According to the "three year plan for ecological restoration of Angang mines 2020-2022" issued by Angang Group, it is planned to carry out systematic ecological restoration of 9 mines in three years, with a total treatment area of 434 hectares and 3.4 million trees planted, so as to realize the goals of ecological environment, scientific mining methods, efficient comprehensive utilization and harmonious community in the mining area, Continuously improve the "green color value" of Angang mine.
