Steel Giant's Efforts on High-Tech Pays offThe Capital Iron and Steel Company (CISC), one of China's major steel producers, gained last year revenue of 35.1 billion yuan (US$4.24 billion), 50.1 percent of which came from its non-steel sectors, according to company sources.It is the first time for the company's non-steel output value to exceed 50 percent. Aiming to become a high-tech-oriented complex in the next 10 years, CISC decided two years ago to reduce its output of steel and iron and focus on software and computer chips, which earned 2.6 billion yuan (US$314 million) in profit last year, up nearly 40 percent from 1999. The steel giant now can put out monthly 15,000 six-inch 0.35-micron integrated circuit chips. The construction of the production line of eight-inch 0.25-micron chips is under way. The company also invested in Zhongguancun software development zone last year, manufacturing compact discs in bulk, biological chips through cooperation with overseas counterparts. By the year 2010 iron and steel will no longer be the pillar products of CISC, also known as Shougang, when its sales volume of high and new technological products will exceed 50 percent. |
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