"Nickel based alloys have strong market demand and will continue to be produced, but nickel prices are still high. We should further explore the use of economic raw materials to replace precious metals." In a conference room, a regular production and operation meeting led by the No. 1 steelmaking plant of Taiyuan Iron and Steel Co. is under way. Personnel from all links such as technology, marketing, procurement and finished products gather together to have a heated discussion on the upstream and downstream markets and production technology. Since the beginning of this year, the delivery volume of nickel base alloy in steelmaking plant 1 has more than doubled year-on-year, creating good benefits for the company.
"We hold such regular meetings every week to explore the raw material market and the sales market, so that we can find more problems and organize production more scientifically." Wang Xin, director of the budget and cost office of the first steelmaking plant, said that due to the complex international situation, the price of nickel, a precious metal needed for stainless steel smelting, soared in the first quarter of this year, and the market called it the "demon nickel event". The soaring price of raw materials has brought great pressure to iron and steel enterprises. "Originally, we didn't know much about raw materials and both sides of sales. This year, we really felt the pressure after contacting. So we took the initiative to get familiar with the raw material market and try our best to choose economic raw materials that are more suitable for us to replace precious metals. At the same time, we launched a precious metal saving competition for teams this year. Everyone responded positively and achieved 'calculate and work' in their posts, and received good results." Through a series of improvements such as smelting process optimization, refined operation and precise control of alloy composition narrowing, the consumption of precious metal raw materials such as nickel, chromium and manganese in the first steelmaking plant in the first quarter fell by more than 20% year-on-year. Nickel based alloys, 304, 316 and other varieties achieved "0" metal nickel production, completing the transformation from "refined precious materials" to "economic materials".
"The rolling mill has come into contact with the market earlier through the 'double manager system'. We are just starting now. It can be said that our understanding has matured a lot since this year." Talking about the changes brought about by the transformation of thinking, Liu Ruizhi, deputy secretary of the Party committee of No. 1 steelmaking plant, said with emotion, "In the past, we were lacking in business philosophy. We always complained that the orders brought back by marketing could not make the production line run efficiently, and thought that the raw material structure of distribution was not ideal, which limited the cost reduction and efficiency increase. This year, according to the requirements of the company, we jumped out of our own vision and looked at the problem from the height of operation to solve the problem. How to solve the problem? I think we should first change our thinking and understanding, through the improvement of process technology and the optimization of production organization mode Take the initiative to adapt to the two major markets of raw materials and sales. "
At the first quarter business analysis meeting in late April, the company proposed to the No. 1 steelmaking plant the historical output target of carbon steel. After decomposition, the electric furnace smelting time should be shortened by an average of three minutes. "According to this standard, the passing rate is less than 20%. How can we do this?" The cadres and workers were afraid of difficulties. Liu Ruizhi encouraged everyone: "without extreme efficiency, there would be no extreme cost, our products would not be competitive in the market, and we would not be able to get orders. Therefore, this is not the company's requirement for us, but the way to break the situation for us, and it is the internal demand for the survival of our factory." Everyone nodded after listening. It is gratifying that by the end of April, the electric furnace smelting reached 100% of the requirements. "But I always tell you that extreme efficiency, safety is the premise, innovation is the means, and we must not take risks to grab production."
According to Liu Ruizhi, another positive change is to change from the thinking of a "production unit" to the concept of "company management", which is no longer just a "small 99", but a "financial fan" of the whole process, giving play to synergy and creating benefits. When using mold ingots, profile factories need to cut off the waste materials at both ends. The less the cut part, the higher the yield. The first steelmaking plant, together with the technical center and the profile plant, jointly studied and overcome. After several rounds of design modifications, the ingots produced by the new ingot mold can effectively reduce excess losses, which increases the yield of the rolling process by 3%, among which the yield of 7.5 tons, 3.1 tons and 6.2 tons of ingots is increased by 7.24%. "Looking at this matter alone, the cost of our first steelmaking plant has increased, but it can improve the yield of our whole process." rivers are full of water, rivers are full of water, and rivers are dry. "If it's a good deal, we'll do it."
The awareness of variety and product management of No. 1 steelmaking plant is becoming stronger and stronger, and the culture of "more methods than difficulties" has also spread among cadres and workers. After learning that the welding rod steel produced by the stainless wire rod plant is in short supply in the market, but the cost is not advantageous, the first steelmaking plant quickly took action, made in-depth analysis, found internal differences and tapped the potential, made the impossible possible, and made the electric furnace without dephosphorization function realize dephosphorization, which greatly reduced the cost of welding rod steel, and extended this successful experience to the production of low phosphorus steel such as dual phase steel and nuclear power steel, effectively improving the cost competitiveness of products.
With the support and efforts of all parties, the first steelmaking plant has made significant progress in various business performance indicators, especially the cost reduction task has been completed beyond the budget, and the completion rate ranks first in all production plants of the company. "At present, we are still studying the optimization of the process of steel and slag retention in electric furnace. The scheme is preliminarily feasible, and the experiment is being expanded. It is estimated that the power consumption per ton of steel can be reduced by 19%, which shows that our potential is still great." Facing the future, LAN Guangze, the technical host of the production technology office, is full of confidence.
Secretary of the Party committee of No.1 steelmaking plant Zhang Xiaodong, the factory director, said: "The second quarter is an important window period to complete the annual target tasks. The first steelmaking plant will establish a 'return to zero' idea, focus on 'profit per ton of steel', practice the new concept of 'benefit leading development', always master the market conditions of raw materials and product profitability, comprehensively carry out benchmarking to find differences, deeply tap the potential, improve the ultimate efficiency, realize the ultimate cost, make new contributions to building a high-end special steel production base, and contribute to the development of TISCO Quantity. "