Digital transformation of Chinese iron and steel enterprises: Problems and countermeasures

(2) Digital application scenarios are increasing

At present, under the dual efforts of the government and enterprises, China's iron and steel industry has formed six application models of platform design, intelligent manufacturing, personalized customization, service extension, digital management and network collaboration, covering dozens of typical application scenarios, and digital application scenarios such as smart mine, intelligent workshop, intelligent warehousing, intelligent online testing, and intelligent logistics are increasing. The application effect is good. For example, after Baowu Group launched the smart center project in Shaosteel, Shaosteel established an integrated intelligent control platform through blast furnaces, sintering, coking, materials, and energy media, and realized cross-process, cross-regional, long-distance, large-scale centralized control over a distance of more than 5 kilometers, so that 42 central control rooms were streamlined and merged into one centralized control center, and the operation area was reduced from 50 to 18. Greatly improve the production and management efficiency of Shaosteel. In the 2021 smart manufacturing excellent scene list of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 14 projects such as the "predictive maintenance and operation optimization" project and "intelligent warehousing" project of Angang Group, the "Intelligent online detection" project of Shougang Group, the "Dynamic process/parameter optimization" project of Baowu Group, and the "Intelligent online detection" project of Valin Iron and Steel Group were among them.

(3) Leading backbone iron and steel enterprises have achieved remarkable results in digital transformation

In recent years, China's leading backbone steel enterprises have actively embraced digitalization, networking, and intelligence, and the development of digital transformation has achieved obvious results, and digital transformation is at the forefront of the industry. Due to the effectiveness of digital transformation, at the beginning of 2022, leading steel enterprises such as Baobu Group, Delong Iron and Steel, Nanjing Iron and Steel, and Zhongtian Iron and Steel were shortlisted for the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's 2021 Industrial Internet pilot demonstration project list. At present, more than 80% of the domestic steel enterprises have been promoting intelligent manufacturing, steel leading backbone enterprises have basically completed the production line level basic automation, process control system, production execution system, manufacturing management system top-down vertical integration of the four-level system. Taking Baowu Group as an example, Baowu Group has continued to promote the "four unambiguates" in recent years, accelerating the application of industrial robots, unmanned driving, artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, blockchain, 5G, simulation, AR and other new technologies. 

The number of unmanned reservoir areas, digital workshops, black light factories and intelligent enterprises in Baowu Group has increased, especially in Shanghai Baoshan Base. It has not only successfully been selected as the "Lighthouse Factory" of the World Economic Forum (WEF), but also has taken the lead in realizing "one-click steelmaking" in the world. For example, Shagang Group innovatively implemented the intelligent project of "Application of new mode of intelligent Manufacturing of high-end wire whole process" and invested 400 million yuan to transform and upgrade the converter special steel, billet repair mold and rod line workshop. After the completion and implementation of the project, the production efficiency was increased by 31.5%, the operating cost was reduced by 23.2%, and the energy consumption per unit of output value was reduced by 19.7%. With the continuous advancement of digital transformation, the main process processes of mining, ironmaking, steelmaking, and rolling in China's leading backbone iron and steel enterprises have realized the intelligent control of grinding classification operations, the intelligent closed-loop control of sintering machine, the platformization of blast furnace operation, the full process automation of converter steelmaking and the intelligent refining control system, and the digital transformation has achieved obvious results.

Third, the problems in the digital transformation of the steel industry

Although the digital transformation of iron and steel enterprises has achieved obvious results in recent years, due to the multiple layers of the iron and steel industry chain, complex production processes, and increased difficulty in material control, the integration of data and reality in the steel industry still faces no small problems and challenges, especially the weak foundation of intelligent manufacturing, the lagging construction of industry standards and application scenarios, and the lack of key core technologies. Has seriously restricted the smooth advancement of the digital transformation of iron and steel enterprises.