The 40th Anniversary Celebration and Technical Summit Forum on Cold-Rolled Electrical Steel in China was held in Lanzhou.

　　The "40th Anniversary Celebration of China's Cold-Rolled Electrical Steel Production and Electrical Steel Technology Summit Forum" was held in Lanzhou

　　From October 25th to 26th, 2018, the "40th Anniversary Celebration of China's Cold-Rolled Electrical Steel Production and Electrical Steel Technology Summit Forum" was successfully held in Lanzhou. Approximately 200 representatives from the upstream and downstream industries of electrical steel from home and abroad gathered together to celebrate the 40th anniversary of China's cold-rolled electrical steel production and to in-depth discuss the future development trends of the electrical steel industry. The meeting was chaired by Chen Zhuo, Secretary-General of the Electrical Steel Branch of the China Metallurgical Society, and Hu Shoutiian, Deputy Secretary-General.

　　Liu An, Standing Committee Member of the Party Committee of Baosteel Co., Ltd., Vice General Manager of Baosteel Co., Ltd., and General Manager of Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., delivered a welcome speech. Academicians Yin Ruiyu, Zhang Shourong, and Wang Yide of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, Wu Baozhong, former chairman of the SASAC Supervisory Board, Wang Tianyi, director of the expert committee of the China Metallurgical Society, Xie Li, deputy general manager of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Corporation and deputy director of the Electrical Steel Branch, Shi Yijun, director of the Steel Division of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's Raw Materials Department, and Li Yu, director of the Development, Technology and Environmental Protection Department of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association, attended the meeting and delivered speeches, fully affirming the achievements made by China's electrical steel industry in the past 40 years and expressing expectations for the future sustainable development of electrical steel.

　　Zhang Shourong, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and a former senior leader of Wuhan Iron and Steel, who is over 90 years old, delivered a report titled "China's Electrical Steel Industry Has Taken a Path of Self-Development Through the Introduction of Advanced Technologies, Digestion, Absorption, Mastery of Technologies, and the Formation of Capabilities"; Cao Yang, executive deputy director of the National Silicon Steel Engineering Technology Research Center, delivered a speech on behalf of Zou Jixin, member of the Standing Committee of China Baowu Group, general manager of Baosteel Co., Ltd., and director of the Electrical Steel Branch of the China Metallurgical Society. In their speeches, Zhang Shourong and Zou Jixin fully affirmed the achievements made by China's electrical steel industry in the past 40 years. China's electrical steel industry has grown from nothing to something, from small to large, from relying on imports to becoming a net exporter, from a few products to full coverage production, from tens of thousands of tons of capacity to nearly tens of millions of tons of capacity, and has broken away from foreign monopolies, achieving the goal of domestic production. National large-scale power transmission and transformation projects, aerospace, colliders, the world-renowned Three Gorges Project, high-speed trains, household appliances, and the automotive industry have all used domestically produced electrical steel. China's electrical steel industry has been developing rapidly and making continuous progress, and is now moving towards high-quality development. However, it also pointed out the gap between the overall level of the electrical steel industry and its foreign counterparts, the overcapacity of low-end products, the shortage of high-end products, market order, equipment, and management levels, etc., which need to be seriously studied and resolved.

　　The forum specially invited four major electrical steel manufacturers: Baosteel Co., Ltd., Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd., Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Corporation, Shougang Group, and experts from large and small motors, household appliances, and transformer industries, to put forward suggestions for the future development of electrical steel from the perspectives of production, academia, research, and application. Among them, Cao Yang introduced the innovation platform of the National Silicon Steel Engineering Technology Center and the scientific research and innovation work done in Wuhan Iron and Steel in the past 10 years, and also put forward a ten-year scientific and technological development plan for the silicon steel field; Wang Bo, chief engineer of Baosteel Research Institute, introduced the development and technological progress of high-end silicon steel in Baosteel Co., Ltd., and clarified that Baosteel's grain-oriented and non-grain-oriented silicon steel will be developed in the future towards lower loss, higher efficiency, thinner specifications, lower noise, higher strength, and environmental protection; Zhang Wenkang, chief engineer of Taiyuan Iron & Steel Silicon Steel Plant, focused on introducing Taiyuan Iron & Steel's research and development and application of non-grain-oriented electrical steel for "railways, air conditioning compressors, new energy vehicles, and thick coatings", showcasing its path of continuous progress through technological innovation; Gong Jian, deputy general manager of Shougang Zhixin Qian'an Electromagnetic Materials Co., Ltd., introduced Shougang's rapid development and significant technological advancements in silicon steel from 2010 to 2017, and Shougang silicon steel will continue to develop towards environmental protection, energy saving, and intelligence through innovative technological research; Han Shaigen, director of the Distribution Transformer Research Institute of China Electric Power Research Institute, pointed out the development direction of distribution transformers towards high efficiency, low noise, stable operation, and "green transformers" through the analysis of the current situation of distribution transformers, changes in procurement methods, and changes in user requirements for performance; Meng Qingmin, chief engineer of Shenyang Transformer Research Institute, introduced the national transformer industry and its development history, as well as the evolution of transformer and electrical steel standards, pointing out that energy conservation and emission reduction policies will accelerate the application of high-efficiency distribution transformers, and three-dimensional wound core transformers will become a direction for transformer development, increasing the demand for high-end heat-resistant silicon steel strips; Xiao Haihang, senior engineer of Dongfang Electric Corporation Dongfang Electric Machinery Co., Ltd., proposed the requirements for silicon steel in terms of transverse loss, anisotropy, transverse plate difference, and environmental protection of coatings for future hydropower, wind power, thermal power, and nuclear power generation equipment; Huang Jian, chief engineer of the Small and Medium-sized Motor Division of Shanghai Electric Power Research Institute, analyzed the development of small and medium-sized motors in the industry, and with the improvement of environmental protection requirements for motors in industry standards, future small and medium-sized motor products will still focus on "high efficiency, lightweight, and new materials", requiring further thinning, lower loss, and higher magnetic induction of silicon steel; Qiu Xiaohua, senior engineer of the R&D Center of the Parts Division of Midea Group, discussed how silicon steel products can meet the requirements of the motor frequency conversion trend from four dimensions: "high efficiency, low noise, environmental protection, and manufacturability".

　　The forum's theme was clear, focusing on the new technological focal points of industrial development. It also specially invited Beijing Renhua Engineering Technology Co., Ltd., Sandvik International Trading Co., Ltd., Changsha Tianheng Temperature Control Technology Co., Ltd., Suzhou Yingci New Energy Motor Co., Ltd., and a technical representative from POSCO Korea to give presentations on "The Latest Technology of Heat-Resistant Laser Refined Magnetic Domain", "Using KANTHAL APMT Furnace Rolls to Effectively Improve Productivity and Efficiency, Improve Product Quality, and Reduce Maintenance Costs", "Technical Discussion on Automatic Detection Equipment for Magnetic Properties of Electrical Steel Samples", "EVI Technology for Silicon Steel Used in New Energy Vehicles", and "Current Status of POSCO's Latest Non-Oriented Products" respectively.

　　During the forum, experts and representatives conducted extensive and in-depth discussions on current structural problems in production capacity, technological innovation and progress in new materials, standard implementation and the application of green and environmentally friendly coatings, and orderly competitive markets. From the current volume of production capacity and demand, supply and demand have been saturated, and overcapacity of low-end products has emerged, and market duplication should be controlled or regulated; from the perspective of technological innovation and progress in new materials, the technology and quality of electrical steel have made great progress in 40 years, but we need original innovative technologies, such as breakthroughs in thin strip technology in electrical steel, and the research and development of heat-resistant and higher-grade, more energy-efficient materials needs to be accelerated; from the perspective of standard implementation and the application of green and environmentally friendly coatings, in recent years, the enforcement of national standards has been low, which has been hindering the cooperation between electrical steel manufacturers and downstream enterprises. In order to seize the market, manufacturers have been using high-grade low-level products, while users need low-price high-performance products, which urgently needs to be resolved. At the same time, the environmental problems of electrical steel and the environmental problems of the entire life cycle of silicon steel should be given high attention by manufacturers, and it is urged to accelerate the promotion and application of green and environmentally friendly coatings; from the perspective of orderly competitive markets, disorderly competition still exists in the market, and how to improve the profitability and cost-effectiveness of electrical steel and make prices more transparent and reasonable is worth studying.

　　Xie Li, deputy general manager of Taiyuan Iron & Steel (Group) Corporation and deputy director of the Electrical Steel Branch, announced the list of winners and organized an award ceremony at the meeting.

　　The meeting was a complete success. The meeting proposed that in the next five to ten years, China's electrical steel industry will enter the ranks of world powers, and China's electrical steel industry is moving from rapid development to high-quality development. The application needs of electrical steel in new energy vehicles, intelligence, robots, high-efficiency motors, frequency conversion motors, low-noise transformers, traction transformers and motors will change, that is, thin specifications, high efficiency, high speed, low loss, high magnetic induction, environmental protection, large-tension coatings, new processes, and new technologies will lead the new era.

　　We aim to build a jointly open platform for researching technological and equipment advancements. We must shoulder our national and social responsibilities, doing a good job in energy conservation, applying better products to national construction and the Belt and Road Initiative, creating a better living environment, and working together for a better life.