Chinese Steel Giant Spends Heavily on Alloy Technology Renovation

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, December 21, 2001

Chinese Steel Giant Spends Heavily on Alloy Technology Renovation

China's biggest steel producer, the Shanghai Baogang Company, is spending 220 million yuan (26.5 million U.S. dollars) on its first-phase technological renovation project to increase production of titanium alloy and nickel base alloy.

Project construction began on Thursday, said Xie Qihua, general manager of the company.

Upon its completion, the company's titanium alloy capacity will reach 5,000 tons each year, and annual production value will increase from 109 million yuan (13 million U.S. dollars) to 524 million yuan (63 million U.S. dollars), company sources say.

China has only four enterprises engaged in producing such alloys. Their combined annual output is 1,700 tons of nickel base alloy and 2,000 tons of titanium alloy, well below the country's 7, 500 ton annual consumption of the alloys over the last five years. And the consumption of the alloys is expected to rise enormously in the future, according to experts.

The technological renovation project will greatly increase the company's alloy production, and bring its domestic market share to over 50 percent, sources say.

The two alloys are the third-generation alloy products after ferro alloy and aluminium alloy. Total consumption worldwide is 280,000 tons. The two alloys are widely used in aviation, aerospace engineering, nuclear power, petrochemical production, electronics and energy.

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