In the afternoon of June 4, the seats in the conference hall of Pudong Kerry Hotel are fully occupied. More than 650 senior executives, specialists and professors from the iron & steel associations, enterprises and research institutes, colleges and universities of 21 countries and regions assembled in the 5th Baosteel Biennial Academic Conference with the theme of "new challenge, new steel" for in-depth discussions and exchanges on the topics such as industrial transformation, technology innovation, energy saving & emission reduction, sustainable developments, etc.
Former deputy chairman of the national committee of CPPCC, former president of Chinese Academy of Engineering and secretary-general of the Chinese Society for Metals Xu Kuangdi, chairman of Chinese Iron & Steel Association and chairman of Baosteel Group Corporation Xu Lejiang, chairman of Taiwan China Steel Zou Ruoqi, premenant advisor of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Keisuke Kuroki, director general of World Steel Association Edwin Basson made the keynote speeches. Vice president of Chinese Academy of Science Li Jinghai, president of Baosteel Group Corporation He Wenbo, and vice president of Illinois Institute of Technology Alan W. Cramb delivered speeches in "Sustainable industrial chain forum". Vice chairman and Party secretary of Baosteel Group Corporation Liu Guosheng, and deputy Party secretary Fu Zhongzhe attended the meeting.
The plenary session of this BAC consists of "keynote speech" and "Sustainable industrial chain forum", which are chaired by deputy director of Baosteel Planning Committee and vice chairman of Baosteel Science Association Li Haiping, and secretary-general of Chinese Society for Metals Zhao Pei respectively.
In the keynote speech titled "Challenges and pressures faced by Chinese steel industry" made by Xu Kuangdi, the challenges and pressures faced by Chinese steel industry in recent years is analysed insightfully, the formation of overcapacity in Chinese steel industry, the elimination of obsolete capacity and the experiences and lessons of international peers for overcapacity are introduced, and the development direction of Chinese steel industry in future is pointed out. Mr. Xu pointed out that, in view of the meager profit era that the steel industry is in, and the increasingly intensive pressure on environment, the science & technology workers shall strive to carry out technology innovation in an effort to realize maximized corporate value and international competitiveness of the enterprise.
With "Relying on innovation to push forward Baosteel's transformation from manufacturing to service" as the title, Xu Lejiang elaborated on why Baosteel must follow the way of service transformation, how to forge the soft power and the direction of service transformation for Chinese steel industry. He pointed out that, the service transformation of steel industry must insist on steel as the carrier; relys on innovation and have the aid of seepage force of service to expand the new application field of steel; and look at the service transformation of steel from the perspective of life cycle of steel. Chinese steel industry is entering the insemination stage of transformation, he believes that with the concerted efforts of the peers, Chinese steel industry is bound to realize a splendid turnabout.
Zou Ruoqi, Keisuke Kuroki, Edwin Basson made the keynote speeches with the titles of "Strengthening the differentiation of cost, product, energy saving and environmental protection, customer service and competitiveness enhancement ", "Sustainable growth strategy of former Nippon Steel", "Ensuring the sustainable development of steel industry in future" respectively. Zou Ruoqi systematically introduced Taiwan China Steel's practices of maintaining the sustained competitive edges by relying on differentiation strategy, which is quite instructive to the participants. Keisuke Kuroki introduced how former Nippon Steel tackled the difficulties such as alleviating the overcapacity, reducing the environmental burden and solving the employee re-employment, etc., providing references for the Chinese steel industry in meager profit era. Edwin Basson emphasized the importance of sustainable development, and gave unique views on how the steel enterprises shall pay attention to the customers, the product usage efficiency and recycling, which evoke attention from the participants.
In "Sustainable industrial chain forum", Li Jinghai, He Wenbo, and Cramb made speeches for exchange centering on technology innovation, transformation development and new steel technologies, etc.
He Wenbo pointed out in the speech that, now the pressure faced by steel industry is unprecedented, focusing on the challenges on steel industry brought about by overcapacity, unreasonable soaring prices of raw materials in upstream industries and environmental pressure. In an active response to the challenges, Baosteel is adjusting the capacity, will reduce 20 million tons of capacity in Shanghai and Guangdong, build a 10 million tons steel base in Zhanjiang and improve the steel manufacturing level. Baosteel chooses the road of environmental management, and contribute to the society by realizing value creation of steel industry. Afterwards, He Wenbo, Zou Ruoqi, Keisuke Kuroki, Edwin Basson also made in-depth discussions on the issues interested by the participants.
The forum also set up the section of interaction by short message, in which the honorable guests on the stage answered the relevant questions put forward by the participants. The keynote speeches and forum lasted for 4 hours with interactions and exchanges between the guests and participants in a warm atmosphere.
