Baogang

Baogang is one of the 156 key projects constructed by the state during the First Five-Year Plan period. It is an important iron and steel industrial base and the largest rare earth industrial base in China, as well as the largest industrial enterprise in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. It has two listed companies: "Baotou Steel Union" and "Rare Earth Hi-Tech". Baogang was founded in 1954 and was restructured into a corporate enterprise in 1998. By the end of 2004, its total assets reached 35.1 billion yuan.

Baogang's Baiyun Obo Mine is a world-renowned multielement共生矿 of iron and rare earth, with rare earth reserves ranking first in the world and niobium reserves ranking second. This unique resource advantage forms Baogang's industrial advantage with steel and rare earth as its main businesses. Currently, Baogang's steel industry has formed two steelmaking systems (No.1 and No.2 steelmaking plants) and a layout of four production lines for plates, pipes, rails, and wire rods, with an annual capacity of over 8.5 million tons of crude steel. Steel products include cold-rolled sheets, hot-rolled sheets, seamless steel pipes, heavy rails, large sections, high-speed wire rods, etc., totaling 63 varieties and 1,970 specifications. It is one of the three largest rail production bases in China and a seamless steel pipe production base with a relatively complete range of varieties and specifications. The rare earth industry has an annual production capacity of 100,000 tons of rare earth concentrate and over 55,000 tons of rare earth products equivalent to oxides. Main products include rare earth concentrate, rare earth compounds and metals, NdFeB permanent magnets, rare earth polishing powder, hydrogen storage powder, etc., totaling 53 varieties and 155 specifications. It is the largest rare earth production and research base and an important rare earth information center in China. The capacity of functional materials such as NdFeB, negative electrode powder, and polishing powder accounts for over 20% of the national market share, and the total rare earth oxides account for 40% of the national market share. It can produce 27 varieties and 31 specifications of coke and its by-products.

Baogang's steel industry boasts national-level technology centers and chemical inspection centers, while its rare earth industry has China's largest rare earth research institution—the Rare Earth Research Institute—and the "Ruike National Engineering Research Center for Rare Earth Metallurgy and Functional Materials".

Baogang has passed the ISO9001—2000 quality system certification. Its seamless steel pipes have passed the American API certification and German TUV certification; structural plates have passed China Classification Society certification; welded gas cylinder plates have passed the National Pressure Vessel Committee certification; and niobium-rare earth rails for passenger dedicated lines with speeds of 200 km/h have passed the expert review of the Ministry of Railways. Thirteen products, including 60 kg/m railway rails, 50 kg/m railway rails, seamless steel pipes for low and medium pressure boilers, hot-rolled ribbed bars for reinforced concrete, hot-rolled I-beams, hot-rolled round bars of carbon structural steel and alloy structural steel, hot-rolled wire rods of low carbon steel, high-quality carbon steel no-twist controlled cooling hot-rolled wire rods, structural seamless steel pipes, hot-rolled channel steel, hot-rolled 310 Z-shaped steel, hot-rolled carbon structural steel strips, and hot-rolled low alloy high strength structural steel strips, have won the National Metallurgical Product Quality "Golden Cup Award". Baogang's heavy rails have been awarded the title of "China Famous Brand Product", and it is the first time that metallurgical products have entered the evaluation catalog of China Famous Brand Products and won the title. Nine products, including 60 kg/m heavy rails and rare earth ferrosilicon alloys, have won the title of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Famous Brand Products. The continuous casting project, Hohhot Telecom Second Hub Project, and thin slab continuous casting and rolling project constructed by Baogang have successively won the highest quality award in China's construction projects—the Luban Award.

Baogang is located in the western part of Inner Mongolia, in Baotou City, which is the connection hub between North China and Northwest China and the "bridgehead" of the Western Development Strategy. As a hub connecting North and Northwest China, Baotou has favorable investment conditions, complete urban functions, and a beautiful environment. Transportation in Baotou is very convenient, with flights and railways directly reaching Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Nanjing, Jinan, Xi'an, Shijiazhuang, Taiyuan, Wenzhou, Ningbo, Yinchuan, Lanzhou. The urban area of Baotou is 240 kilometers from Mandula Customs on the China-Mongolia border. The Hohhot-Baotou Expressway, National Highway 110, National Highway 210, and the Dandong-Lhasa transit expressway form a smooth road transportation network. Baogang is adjacent to the coal-rich areas of Shanxi and Inner Mongolia, and close to resource-rich Mongolia and Russia. It is near the Yellow River and has sufficient electricity, providing good development conditions.

In recent years, Baogang has conscientiously implemented the Scientific Outlook on Development. After becoming the first enterprise in the autonomous region with sales revenue exceeding 10 billion yuan in 2002, it entered its best development period in history in 2004. Sales revenue reached 21.5 billion yuan, making it the first enterprise in the autonomous region with sales revenue exceeding 20 billion yuan; it paid nearly 2.3 billion yuan in taxes. Baogang insists on transforming traditional industries with high-tech and applicable technologies and intensifying structural adjustment. At the end of 2001, it built a thin slab continuous casting and rolling production line, and in the first half of 2005, it built a cold-rolled sheet production line, filling the gap in the northwest region that did not produce cold-rolled sheets. With the transformation and commissioning of universal mills and long-rail processing lines, the heavy rail production line can meet the needs of high-speed passenger railways with speeds above 300 km/h. With the commissioning of processing lines for petroleum pipes, the seamless pipe production line can produce various types of seamless steel pipes, from ordinary fluid pipes and hydraulic support pipes to pressure vessel pipes, oil casing pipes, and oil well pipes. Through large-scale technical transformation, Baogang's continuous casting ratio and plate/pipe ratio increased from 28% and 11% in 2000 to 95% and 62% in 2004, respectively. While significantly optimizing product structure, it has vigorously promoted energy conservation, environmental protection, and comprehensive resource utilization projects. The "Baogang Ecological Industrial Park Construction Plan", as the first steel ecological industrial park plan in China, passed national review, and Baogang has gradually embarked on the path of circular economy development. Through industrial wastewater treatment, the reuse rate of industrial water in Baogang is close to 93%. By converting boiler coal combustion to gas combustion, it can reduce ash emissions by 250,000 tons and ash-water discharge by 2.5 million tons annually, reducing sulfur dioxide emissions by 7,000 tons and soot emissions by 6,125 tons. The top-pressure recovery turbines of three blast furnaces can generate about 100 million kWh of electricity per year. In 2004, Baogang's qualified rate of external wastewater discharge was 94.87%, the qualified rate of external waste gas discharge was 98.51%, the comprehensive qualified rate of pollutant discharge was 95.1%, and steel slag has basically achieved zero emission through comprehensive utilization. The synchronous operation rate of environmental protection facilities is 100%, pollution sources meet discharge standards, and all pollutant emissions are lower than Baotou City's requirements, achieving increased production without increased pollution. This not only effectively protects and manages the environment but also improves the level of comprehensive resource utilization.

In the next stage of development, Baogang will continue to follow the requirements of the Scientific Outlook on Development and the construction of a harmonious socialist society, strive to build a "characteristic Baogang", "green Baogang", and "humanistic Baogang", and actively construct a harmonious enterprise. By 2007, based on the development of circular economy, it will deeply tap the potential of existing processes, vigorously adjust the structure, form an annual capacity of over 10 million tons of crude steel, achieve main business revenue of over 40 billion yuan, and reach and exceed the average advanced level of the domestic industry in the same period in terms of main economic and technical indicators, contribution rate to society, and employee income, thereby recreating a new Baogang with new systems, flexible mechanisms, scale advantages, structural advantages, distinctive corporate culture, and strong core competitiveness.