Full revitalization: NE China speeds up building of modern industrial system, develops new quality productive forces

Established in 1905, Bensteel Group – a time-honored enterprise located in northeast China's Liaoning Province – is the first large-scale steel enterprise to resume production since the founding of the People's Republic of China, with diversified businesses such as equipment manufacturing and engineering technology development.

Through restructuring with major Chinese steelmaker Ansteel in 2021, Bensteel has been revitalized from a traditional manufacturer to a smart factory, showcasing a new look and vitality brought about by industrial transformation and upgrade and contributing "steel strength" to Chinese modernization.

"The steel industry is an important basic industry of the country, and the real economy is the foundation of the national economy," Chinese President Xi Jinping said on Thursday during a visit to a Bensteel facility, emphasizing that the manufacturing industry should adhere to the direction of high-end, intelligent and green.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made an inspection tour to Liaoning from Wednesday to Friday ahead of the Spring Festival, which falls on January 29 this year.

Developing new quality productive forces

For a long time, the dispersed layout and low industrial concentration of China's steel industry have been among the main obstacles affecting its efficient operation and healthy development.

During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), China's steel sector deepened the supply-side structural reform, achieved a more reasonable industrial structure and made positive progress in green development, intelligent manufacturing and international cooperation.

In 2022, Chinese authorities issued a guideline on promoting the high-quality development of the iron and steel industry, aiming to achieve a significant improvement in the level of industrial agglomeration and an increase in the concentration of the steel industry by 2025.

For Bensteel, after industrial transformation and upgrade, its research and development and sales of car plates are in a favorable position in China, forming a product line of more than 60 categories and over 7,500 specifications. Its technology and equipment have reached a world-leading level.

Noting that Liaoning has a relatively complete industrial system, Xi called on the province to coordinate the transformation and upgrade of traditional industries and the cultivation and expansion of strategic emerging industries to accelerate the building of a modern industrial system.

He urged efforts to focus on strengthening the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation and developing new quality productivity according to local conditions.

Full revitalization in northeast China

Xi once said that to push for the full revitalization of northeast China, the real economy is the foundation, sci-tech innovation is the key, and industrial upgrading is the direction.

As a highlight of its revitalization efforts, the region has continued to deepen the reform of state-owned enterprises in recent years with large-scale actions, strong force and wide scope.

The ShenGu Group Co., Ltd., a state-owned manufacturer of process and energy equipment in Liaoning's capital of Shenyang, has completed a series of institutional reforms, improving its vitality and efficiency.

Institutional innovation also drives technological innovation. Through digital transformation, the enterprise's traditional workshops have been moving towards intelligence, with online control of data such as staff, machines and materials, which has greatly improved work efficiency and product quality.

Meanwhile, the region helps its traditional manufacturing industry, such as equipment, energy and materials, break away from extensive production through developing new quality productive forces and gradually establish an intelligent, modern and intensive industrial system.

The full revitalization of northeast China lies in reform and opening up, Xi stressed, calling for efforts to build a law-based government, optimize the business environment and improve the modern enterprise system with Chinese characteristics.