Steel plate led the continuous development of special steel into the “Twelfth Five-Year” industry development focus

A few days ago, the iron and steel sector, which has been sluggish for a year and was dubbed the “mummy” by the investment community, has become the best-performing industry since the first quarter of this year. Caused widespread concern. The revival of the "Mummy" became the representative of the start of the current round of low valuation cycle stock market.

However, just a few months ago, the “average operating profit margin of the industry 3.5%” was the most cited data in 2010 when describing the status quo of the steel industry. At present, under the circumstances where the industry's economy is improving, but it has not been reversed, the current round of market conditions is also largely understood as a "recovery of valuation." Ordinary carbon steel is still facing the problem of excess production capacity and high variety of products.

How can we get the iron and steel companies out of the current market and create higher profits?

The research and development of new varieties and new fields, as well as steel products with high technical thresholds and high added value, will become the real sustainable breakthrough in the steel sector.

In the 12th Five-Year Plan announced recently, high-speed railways, urban rail transit, offshore engineering and offshore oil exploration, large-scale and special-property ships, naval vessels, automobiles, clean energy, and other emerging applications have become the focus of the next development. direction. In these areas, leading companies each have specialization and actively create "exclusive" advantages.

Automotive panel: Baosteel's third-generation product has been mass produced

If Baosteel is a profitable machine for the steel industry, then the automobile plate is the profit engine of Baosteel.

“Automobile panel has always been the strategic leading product of Baosteel. At present, Baosteel is the most complete domestic auto panel product supply chain with the strongest supply capacity.” Lu Jianxin, deputy director of Baosteel Research Institute, said in an exclusive interview with this newspaper. The annual report shows that in 2010, the output of cold rolled auto plates of Baosteel was about 4.8 million tons, accounting for 52% of the market share. The cold-rolled carbon steel coils, which mainly consist of auto plates, accounted for 39% of sales revenue, and profit contribution accounted for 69%. Undoubtedly, the overwhelming control of the automotive panel market is a key battle for Baosteel now and in the future.

On this basis, Baosteel continues to overweight heavyweight high-end varieties. According to this report, Baosteel actually completed the industrial sample production of “the third generation of advanced high-strength automotive steel” that was highly concerned by the industry in 2009, and achieved mass production at the end of 2010, and began accepting Changchun FAW. Batch orders. "The third-generation automotive panels will impact the existing first-generation products and become the trend-oriented products in the future."

In order to reach the goal of mass production, the research and development of the "third generation advanced high-strength automotive steel" came into being, which is what is now called the third generation of automobile panels. As a result of adopting a different technical route from competitors, Baosteel has achieved mass production of third-generation automotive panels in advance and has begun to accept trials and bulk orders from manufacturers. In other words, Baosteel has already won the "head soup" of the third-generation auto board market.

It is worth noting that the reduction in weight and safety of automobiles based on the high strength of automotive sheet steel has become a key technology for improving the competitiveness of the automotive market. The third-generation automobile plate is an important application material developed to comply with this requirement. In the future, the third-generation automobile panels will gradually become the mainstream varieties, and will combine with the first-generation products to form more safer, more energy-efficient and environmentally friendly automotive products.

Therefore, while occupying the commanding heights of the third-generation automobile plate production, the first-generation automobile plates are also continuously developing to high-strength performance. “At present, in the first generation of automobile plates, ultra-high strength steels with a strength of 800 MPa or more are mainly used in structural and safety parts of automobiles.” Lu Guixin introduced that the application of domestic automotive high-strength steels is increasing each year. The use rate has reached 40%-60%. The proportion of applications in China in the past five years has risen to around 30%, but there is still a gap.

It is reported that the technical barriers to ultra-high-strength steels are relatively high. At present, only Baosteel can scale production. The company's high-strength steel production line was put into production in 2009 with an annual production capacity of 200,000 tons. Among them, ultra-high strength steels with high profit margins produced more than 15,000 tons in 2010. The annual report shows that in 2010, the operating profit margin of Baosteel's cold-rolled carbon steel coil reached 22.16%, which was far higher than other varieties. The reporter learned that compared with the profits of ultra-high-strength steels, the current mainstream automotive plate varieties still appear to be "small profits but quick turnover."

Train Wheels and Heavy Rail: Ma Gang and Anshan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd.

China's leap-forward development in rail transit has made this field another imaginative emerging application field during the “12th Five-Year Plan” period.

According to the railway’s “12th Five-Year Plan” development target disclosed by Minister of Railways Sheng Guangzu recently, at the end of the “Twelfth Five-Year Plan”, the national railway operating mileage will increase from the current 91,000 km to about 120,000 km. Among them, about 45,000 km of express railways and about 50,000 km of railways in the western region, and the double-line rate and the electrification rate have reached 50% and 60% respectively. Correspondingly, the performance requirements for high-end train wheels and track steels are also increasing.

In the manufacture of high-speed train wheels, Masteel is a leader.

The high-speed train wheels are considered by the industry as the most promising emerging varieties of rail transit development. As the most competitive wheel manufacturer in China, Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. was designated by the Ministry of Railways in 2008 as a domestic cooperation unit for EMU wheels and high-power machine wheels.

The high-end train wheels, including the trains, high-speed rails and high-power wheels, have always been our country's technical shortcomings. At present, China has mastered the core technologies of the EMU assembly, body, bogies, main converters, drive devices, traction motors, and brake systems. It has also achieved localization of high-speed rails with a speed of 350 kilometers per hour. High-speed wheels have always depended on imports.

The reporter was informed that in recent days, the 1250 mm high-power machine wheels that were trial-produced by the localization project of Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd. have been safely operated for 100,000 kilometers on the Locomotive No. 0346 locomotive of the Lanzhou Railway Bureau. Experts believe that the test results of Maanshan High-Power Machine Wheels are satisfactory. After the completion of a certain operational mileage test and meeting the inspection requirements, it can be put into mass production after the approval of the Ministry of Railways.

At the same time, Masteel has also made breakthrough progress in the trial production of dynamic wheels. It is expected that all inspection tests will be completed by the middle of the year. After the technical review of the Ministry of Railways' expert group, it can be used to test the loading operation.

The reporter learned from Maanshan Iron and Steel that Maanshan Iron & Steel is stepping up its efforts in technical R&D and trial production of high-speed rail wheels. At the same time, Maanshan Iron & Steel will smelt the electric furnace for the raw materials for high-end wheels.

Masteel executives revealed that the company is currently building a production line for processing trains and high-speed rail wheels with a production capacity of about 50,000 pieces/year. As the EMU and high-speed rail wheels are typical high-value-added products, the profits will be considerable if they are successfully put into production. Given that the demand for locomotive equipment lags behind the construction of railways, Qilu Securities analysts said that it is expected that peak demand for high-speed train wheels will emerge in 2012.

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