On International Workers’ Day—a holiday that celebrates labor and honors craftsmanship—the workers on the front lines of China’s steel industry are injecting solid and inspiring momentum into the high-quality development of the sector through their unwavering dedication, relentless pursuit of excellence, and pioneering innovation. From the blazing heat of steelmaking workshops to the quiet depths of research and development centers, steelworkers have internalized the spirit of model workers, the spirit of hard work, and the spirit of craftsmanship, turning these values into action. In ordinary posts, they have achieved extraordinary results, jointly forging the resilient backbone of China’s manufacturing power.
Ⅰ.Craftsmanship in Action: Pursuing Excellence to the Finest Degree
For steelworkers, craftsmanship is no empty slogan—it lives in every precise parameter adjustment, every meticulous safety check, and every rigorous process refinement. It is the devotion to “choosing one craft and committing a lifetime to it,” and a vivid reflection of the relentless pursuit of product perfection.
Take Han Bo, senior engineer in the Equipment Management Office of the Energy Management and Control Center at HBIS Group’s Bengang Steel Plates. With 19 years of dedication, he has developed an intelligent operation and maintenance system that allows cold steel equipment to “speak,” predicting failures through data and greatly improving reliability and efficiency. His team carries the mission of “pioneering the path and accumulating experience,” controlling product quality to the millimeter level and ensuring that every steel cord meets extreme performance standards with near-stringent precision. It is this almost obsessive attention to detail that has laid the quality foundation for China’s steel products to reach the high end.
Ⅱ.Innovation as the Engine: Energizing the Industry with Intelligent Power
Only the innovative advance; only the bold break through. From following to keeping pace, and even leading in certain fields, every leap forward in China’s steel industry has relied on the innovative courage of frontline workers who face pain points head-on and venture into uncharted territory. They are pioneers of industrial upgrading and shock troops tackling technical challenges.
At TISCO, a subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group, Lin Yuan, director of the Silicon Steel Research Institute at the Technology Center, led her team through 17 years of dedicated research, overcoming key technical hurdles in silicon steel materials and driving a historic leap in China’s silicon steel technology from reliance on imports to self-sufficiency. At Daye Special Steel, part of CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group, Li Linsen, deputy director of the Special Metallurgy Plant, has focused on developing aviation bearing materials, with achievements widely applied in aerospace, major equipment, and other fields critical to national strategic security, laying vital material foundations for the nation’s heavy-duty equipment. Meanwhile, the Intelligent Control Center of Shandong Iron and Steel Group’s Yongfeng Lingang Co., Ltd. stands at the forefront of industrial transformation, actively exploring new paths for intelligent, green, and integrated development in the steel industry, painting a picture of the future factory through innovative practice.
Ⅲ.Green Transformation: Infusing Steel with “Eco-Friendly Warmth”
Facing the historic challenge of the “dual carbon” goals, green and low-carbon development has become an unavoidable imperative for the steel industry. Steelworkers in the new era are also steadfast practitioners of the green transition. With wisdom and hard work, they strive to shed the traditional labels of “high energy consumption and high emissions” from the steel industry, giving it a fresher, more sustainable “green warmth.”
The development of the steel industry is a grand journey that requires passing the torch from generation to generation. Personal excellence is dazzling, but the enduring vitality of an industry depends on the continuous cultivation of talent and the widespread inheritance of a fighting spirit. Many model workers, while pursuing their own excellence, are also willing to mentor others, ensuring that superb skills and fine traditions are passed down.
By establishing a dual-track talent development system for management and technical roles, the industry has created a broad stage for young talent to rise, enabling more and more young people to take on key responsibilities quickly. At the Sintering Plant’s No. 4 Sintering Team of Nangang’s Sintering Plant, long-standing mentorship activities, with veteran workers teaching hands-on and sharing their experience wholeheartedly, have cultivated batch after batch of outstanding operators and technical backbones. This spirit of “one team, one heart, one mission, one lifetime” lays the most solid talent foundation for the high-quality development of China’s steel industry.
Steel is the sinew and bone of a great nation, the cornerstone of a strong power. Today, the grand blueprint for the 15th Five-Year Plan period has been unfolded, and the clarion call for the new journey has sounded. The vast ranks of workers on China’s steel front will remain true to the original aspiration of serving the nation through industry, carry forward the mission of hard work, and move forward with confidence toward a new and better future. By vigorously implementing the three major transformation projects—quality improvement, energy-carbon efficiency enhancement, and digital intelligence transformation—and closely focusing on the “1231” high-quality development goals, they will continue to temper their original aspirations in the furnace and forge glory through hard work. They will strive and dedicate themselves to forging higher-quality steel products, higher-level technical capabilities, and a higher-caliber industrial workforce, contributing new and greater strength to the rise of China as a steel power and a manufacturing power.
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