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The origin and development of China stainless steel manufacturing

At the beginning of the founding of New China, China's special steel (stainless steel) production technology was seriously backward. At the beginning, it gradually established some steel enterprises by studying in the Soviet Union. At that time, it mainly met the needs of domestic key construction projects. At that time, several key stainless steel enterprises mainly had: Dalian Special Steel, Benxi Special Steel, Fushun Steel Plant, Chongte, Taigang; Reconstruction and new construction during the Great Leap Forward: Daye, Beiman, Shanggang No. 5, Shougang Special Steel Co., Ltd.; Great Wall Special Steel, Xining Special Steel, etc.


When was the first furnace stainless steel born?

In 1952, the first furnace stainless steel was born in Taigang. Under the support of the state, the Taigang electric furnace workshop was put into operation and the trial of stainless steel began. I remember that Taigang used the oxidation method to produce the first stainless steel of China (grade 2Cr13).


When was the first furnace superalloy born?

However, the first furnace high temperature alloy was born in Fushun Special Steel in China. At the beginning of 1956, the domestically-made imitation Sumig aircraft and the new aircraft to be developed required the replacement of imported superalloys to manufacture turbine engines with domestic superalloys. The party group of the Ministry of Metallurgy decided to undertake the development task by Fushun Steel Plant. After receiving the task, Fugang began to study high-temperature alloys. Sure enough, in 1955, Fushun Special Steel successfully developed China's first furnace high temperature alloy.

 

When was the first stainless steel tube blank born?

Since the research of stainless steel materials in Taigang, the demand for stainless steel materials in China has gradually increased, and then the demand for stainless steel pipes has increased. At this time, the first stainless steel pipe blanks were born in the No. 5 Steel Plant. (February 1961) At the same time, Shanggang No. 5 Factory was also the first enterprise to research the first stainless steel pipe for aviation in China.

 

During the period from 1952 to 1957, China's demand for stainless steel was mainly based on the use of cutting-edge industries in industry and defense. With the following argon-oxygen furnace, high-power electric arc furnace, oxygen top-blown converter, 1000 mm roughing mill, 2300 mm four A batch of stainless steel production equipment such as roller reversible plate mill, 1700 mm furnace rolling mill, 1450 mm partial eight-roll cold rolling mill and Ron-type twenty-high cold rolling mill were successively built, and the stainless steel production line was initially opened. At this stage, from the birth of China's first furnace stainless steel in 1952 to 1979, the annual output of domestic stainless steel exceeded 100,000 tons.

 

China's stainless steel rapid development (1980 to 2000)
In the 1980s (after 1980s), under the call of the party, China vigorously developed the economic construction of the stainless steel industry and entered a period of rapid development. On December 28, 1985, the first stainless steel slab was successfully cast.

 

When was the first stainless steel plate born?
The first stainless steel slab was successfully cast in Taigang. At 2 am on December 28, 1985, the first stainless steel slab continuous casting of Taigang was successful. The completion of the stainless steel slab continuous casting machine ended the history of no stainless steel slab continuous casting machine in China, filled the blank of China's alloy steel continuous casting technology, and declared that China's stainless steel production entered a new stage.

 

Private stainless steel industry belts also emerged at this time, especially in China's coastal areas, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Guangdong and other places, people's living standards have improved significantly, civil stainless steel industry has entered a period of rapid development, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and other coastal areas of private entrepreneurs emancipate the mind , has entered the field of stainless steel manufacturing. The successful completion of the annual production of 100,000 tons of cold-rolled stainless steel in Taigang in October 1996 indicates that China's stainless steel equipment has reached the international level.

 

In the mid-to-late 1990s, the stainless steel industry really ushered in the golden period of development, because at this time the country increased the construction of state-owned enterprises, and also increased the stainless steel production capacity of Baosteel and Taigang to an annual output of 400,000 to 500,000 tons, and then passed Policy guidance has attracted overseas international companies to invest in China and build factories. Such as Ningbo Baoxin, Zhangjiagang Pohang, Shanghai Krupp, Guangzhou Lianzhong and so on. Third, the rise of private enterprises has rapidly formed three industrial belts of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Guangdong. These three investment models have promoted the rapid development of production capacity and the changes in the structure of the stainless steel industry.


After entering the 21st century (after 2000)
After China entered the new century, the national economy developed rapidly, the people's living standards continued to improve, and the demand for stainless steel increased rapidly. Domestic demand for stainless steel raw materials such as nickel and iron has reached a short supply, so since 2005, China has started to export from the Philippines and Indonesia. New Catalonia and other countries import red clay nickel ore that has been abandoned, and use fire method to produce new technology to produce nickel-containing pig iron for use in stainless steel plants. 1998-2007 China's stainless steel production sales statistics

 

During this period, large-scale stainless steel projects have been completed or put into production, with an annual production capacity of about 3.5 million tons, and an average annual growth rate of more than 50%. At the same time, local private stainless steel enterprises also seized opportunities and quickly formed three industrial belts: Xinghua, Dongtai, Jiangyin and Wuxi in southern Jiangsu; Yuyao, Cixi and Fenghua around Zhejiang, Wenzhou, Ningbo and Ningbo; Foshan, Guangdong , Jieyang, Dongguan, Jiangmen and other cities. At this time, the total number of stainless steel private enterprises in the country exceeded one thousand, and the production capacity of crude steel accounted for about 40% of the total domestic. At this stage, domestic stainless steel production exceeded 5.3 million tons, becoming the world's largest stainless steel producer. The consumption exceeds the sum of the US and Japanese consumption in the previous year and is approaching Europe.

 

 

Nowadays, China's stainless steel manufacturing  is facing the challenge of overcapacity. We only have the sincere cooperation to continuously improve the quality of stainless steel products, even if the overcapacity is not terrible.

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