Sharing the journey with China’s steel industry

In recent decades, steel has become one of the critical fundamental industries of the Chinese national economy and a pillar of China’s industrial modernisation.

Over the last 60 years, CISDI has been a staunch supporter of the establishment of New China’s independent industrial system, promoting China’s modernised steel industry and forging ahead to work with the world’s steel powers.

CISDI: A pioneer of China’s steel engineering

Chongqing Ferrous Metallurgy Design Institute, the predecessor of CISDI, was formed at the very outset of New China’s steel industry.

The company was born in response to the call for building a southwest steel base which would implement a new steel layout across the country.

The Anshan Ferrous Metallurgy Design Institute was relocated to Chongqing and renamed Chongqing Ferrous Metallurgy Design Institute.

The Institute braved numerous difficulties to set up two flagship steel complexes, Pangang and Baosteel. It also unveiled China’s steel modernisation drive by designing WISCO’s 1,700mm hot strip mill.

These early success stories laid a solid foundation for China’s steel development.

THE ACHIEVEMENTS:

Pangang: China’s first independently-designed and built large steel complex

Construction started at Pangang in the 1950s and became well-known for its ivory sculpture profile.

Chongqing Ferrous Metallurgy Design Institute designed the world’s first large vanadium-titanium smelting blast furnace for Pangang, becoming China’s first design institute able to independently undertake the engineering of a large steel complex.

The Pangang site before construction began

Pangang today

Baosteel: China’s most modernised steel complex

Baosteel Shanghai was the first steel complex in China to be modernised and was built in line with the new ethos of reform and opening up.

Chongqing General Iron and Steel Design & Research Institute was the general designer and main builder.

Baosteel’s buildup enabled China’s steel industry to step forward, away from technological imports to master planning and self-sufficiency. The country’s manufacturing and production levels were greatly enhanced.

The prototype for Baosteel Shanghai before construction

Baosteel Shanghai today

WISCO 1,700mm hot strip mill: China’s first imported hot strip mill

Chongqing General Iron and Steel Design & Research Institute took part in the supportive design and imported engineering management of WISCO’s 1,700mm hot strip mill.

This imported production line, which in the 1970s featured world-leading technological levels, had a revolutionary effect on China’s production. It enabled the country to create for the first time its own vast quantities of sheets for the automobile industry and for ship-building, bicycle strips, galvanised sheets, tin-plated and silicon sheets.

The WISCO 1,700mm hot strip mill has been producing smoothly since it went into production