In the just-announced 2017 Shougang Science and Technology Awards, there were two important trophies of “Special Contribution Awards”, one of which went to Zhou Deguang, the Deputy General Manager of Shouqin.

Zhou Deguang, 54 years old, is a professor-level senior engineer and a D.E. in iron and steel metallurgy, enjoying special government allowances from the State Council. He has long been engaged in science and technology innovation and technical management work, and presided over, participated in and completed a number of major science and technology research projects with a number of achievements reaching international leading and advanced levels. Meanwhile, he has published more than 100 science and technology papers, applied for more than 50 patents, and been granted 29 national invention patents. With his main science and technology achievements, he has won 1 state-level award, 10 provincial and ministerial awards, and more than 20 group-level awards. Great achievements have been made in the development of new steelmaking technologies and new products, the promotion of technological advancement of enterprises, and the enhancement of economic efficiency.

The hard work behind the honors

In July 2013, Zhou Deguang was transferred from the Technical Research Institute to Shouqin as the deputy general manager. Shougang has also entered a new stage of comprehensively deepening reform for transformation and development in recent years with continuously advancing technology and product innovation by adhering to the drive of innovation.

After Zhou Deguang took office in Shouqin, he was mainly responsible for product development and technical marketing. He knew that his burden was heavier and his responsibility was greater. Therefore, on the basis of in-depth investigation and analysis, he organized a production and sales research team consisting of the relevant professional backbones of Shouqin and the station technicians from Shougang Technical Research Institute to start continuous research and development on promoting technological innovation, product research and development, and market development.

In the past few years, under the unremitting efforts of the team led by Zhou Deguang, Shouqin has made breakthroughs in the development of bridge steel, hydropower steel, pipeline steel, marine steel and composite panels, and has also obtained a number of scientific research achievements. Among them, the project of the “development and application of high-strength easy-to-weld thick plates and associated welding materials and welding technology for large hydropower plants” was developed by Shougang Group with Shouqin as the main body in cooperation with University of Science and Technology Beijing, Sinohydro Corporation and other units. After the relocation adjustment of Shougang, the plate products won the first prize of science and technology in Beijing and the metallurgical industry for the first time.

According to statistics, since the “11th Five-Year Plan”, hydropower has become the top priority for the clean energy development in China. The installed capacity of hydropower in China has increased by 300 million kilowatts, which is nearly three times more than 50 years before the “11th Five-Year Plan”. The new extra-large hydropower stations have occupied four seats in the world’s top ten hydropower stations. The demand for steel products for hydropower use has increased rapidly, and product grades and technical requirements have also increased.

Shougang began to develop hydropower steel around 2009. Through nearly a decade of development and improvement, the products have replaced, kept pace with and even surpassed the imports in the market, which proves that persistence is the key to success. In particular, under the lead of Zhou Deguang, the fruits of the “development and application of high-strength easy-to-weld thick plates and associated welding materials and welding technology for large hydropower plants” were finally achieved, which fundamentally broke through the biggest technical bottleneck affecting the expansion of hydropower units in the world, namely the problem of lacking high-strength and thick plates and associated welding materials and welding technology for large hydropower plants, and a number of “first” and “exclusive” were achieved, so that Shougang hydropower steel products and technology leapt to the international advanced ranks in just a few years.

On February 5th, this year, at the Beijing Science and Technology Awards Conference, Zhou Deguang, as the award representative of Shougang, received the first prize of Beijing Science and Technology Award.

All these honors achieved over the years, especially the ultimate breakthrough in this project, owe much to the hard work and sweat of Zhou Deguang and his colleagues.

According to Zhang Xuefeng, the Technical Section Chief of the Steel Rolling Division of Shouqin, since 2014, Zhou Deguang has led the team to vigorously promote the development of hydropower steel varieties.

The most representative market development projects are the IV phase of the hydropower station in Tarbela, Pakistani and the XPXN hydropower station in Laos, both of which are located along the “Belt and Road”.

The IV phase of the hydropower station in Tarbela is regarded as the “Three Gorges Project” in Pakistan. It is located in the center of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor and is highly concerned by the governments of both countries. It employed a British supervision company to review the execution standards, technical plans, and manufacturing instructions of all steel plates during the design and tendering stages. In the organization bidding stage, Zhou Deguang and the members of the research team stayed up all night to formulate detailed technical instructions and translate them into English. They also answered in detail the questions raised by the supervision company and finally succeeded in winning the bid.

The XPXN hydropower station in Laos is located on the plateau of Laos. The maximum design drop is 902 meters, which is the highest in the world and extremely difficult for the technology. At the beginning of the construction of this project, Sichuan Jiajiang Hydraulic Machinery Factory put forward high requirements on the properties of steel plates, especially the welding performance. It also visited major domestic steel companies to seek suitable suppliers. Under the active organization of Zhou Deguang, Shouqin and the Technical Research Institute closely cooperated with each other to provide users with a complete set of solutions ranging from steel plates to welding materials and welding technology through independent innovation, which won users’ full trust in technology. In the end, in the competition with other steel mills, non-lowest bids were achieved.

This process seems to be easy, but according to Zou Yang, a technician from the Shougang Technical Research Institute stationed at Shouqin, we learnt that it is not easy.

It was July. Sichuan Jiajiang Hydraulic Machinery Factory was scheduled to bid one afternoon. Zhou Deguang and three team members booked tickets from the Capital Airport to Chengdu at 2 p.m. on the day before the bidding, but that day it was raining heavily in Chengdu, so the flight was delayed from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., 9 p.m. and cancelled at last. The delay in the bids would cause them to lose the opportunity, and the technical breakthroughs in the past six months would also fail, so they were worried. What to do? The tickets for the early flight from the Capital Airport on the next day had been sold out, but fortunately, they finally bought the tickets to Tianjin in the early morning of the second day and caught the last airport bus bound for Tianjin at 11 p.m. It was early in the morning when they arrived in Tianjin, after that, they got off the bus and took a taxi directly to the airport in order not to miss the early flight and they even didn’t look for a hotel but slept on the bench in the waiting room until 7 a.m. to take the flight.

“Fly to Chengdu in 24 hours.” It usually takes only 5 hours from Beijing to Chengdu, plus two trips, while Zhou Deguang and his “comrades-in-arms” spent more than one night and sat on a bench for more than five hours...

It is this spirit of perseverance and hardship endurance and strong senses of responsibility mission, coupled with excellent products and technology, that the market share of Shougang’s steel products for hydropower use has been the highest in recent years. It has made important contributions to China’s “West Power Transmission to the East” and the international energy cooperation along the “Belt and Road”.

Let “manufacturing + service” bloom in the market

In 2018, Shougang’s “two sessions” pointed out that the steel industry must continue to promote the “manufacturing + service” strategy and achieve the comprehensive improvement in quality, efficiency, and effectiveness.

As a heavy and medium plate-based company, Shouqin always upholds the user-centered concept of “manufacturing + service”. The high-end heavy and medium plate is generally used in large-scale engineering projects. There are separate design requirements and high strength and toughness requirements for products, and welding is difficult, so the development process of the heavy and medium plate product is actually how to meet the requirements of users.

Focusing on the topic of how to get products and technologies to market, Zhou Deguang and the team insisted on early intervention and developed products based on the standards of users. He said, “We don’t provide the most expensive, nor the cheapest, but the most cost-effective. My working time is arranged as followed: one-third in the office or conference room, one-third in the field, and one-third is in the market.”

“Try to be in the market, seize business opportunities, and provide services for users; try to reach the site and solve practical problems in technology and so on”. This is the connotation of Zhou Deguang’s “three one-third work concept” and reflects his clear working ideas and pragmatism.

“He attaches great importance to the product development guided by the needs of users. In order to quickly open the high-end market, he often leads us to visit users and design institutes such as pipelines, hydropower, and bridges to understand users’ concerns about service performance, welding performance, processing efficiency and other needs. After grasping the needs of users, our production and sales research team holds product promotion meetings on a regular basis every month, and organizes problem-solving and detailed measures against problems and difficulties to solve technical problems.” “He is approachable and is very important in the team. We communicate and get along with each other very well together. This is where the unity of the team lies.” Meng Dongli, head of the International Trade Division of the Rolling Steel Division of Shouqin said.

Indeed, in recent years, Shouqin’s bridge steel is rapidly developed. It is inseparable from Zhou Deguang and team members who are far-sighted, capable and active in work.

Han Chengliang, 36 years old, is in charge of the bridge steel products of the Technical Section of the Steel Rolling Division of Shouqin. In the past few years, he has participated in the entire process of research and development of bridge steel. “By taking the initiative to keep a foothold in the market, we have established a long-term cooperation and exchange platform with China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd., China Railway Shanhaiguan Bridge Group Co., Ltd., China Railway Engineering Consulting Group Co., Ltd. and Yanshan University to timely master the new development direction of bridge steel and jointly study the new technology of bridge steel. We have regular technical exchanges with major bridge manufacturers, and participate in international and domestic bridge steel conferences to understand the new needs of users and the progress of key bridge projects. Products should be developed at the right time as early as possible (with pre-research + opportunities), and the sales team receives orders. The teamwork which is technically capable and guarantees production lays the leading position of Shougang bridge steel in the industry.”

“In the product and market development process, leading technology has always been the cornerstone of success.” Zhou Deguang knows this well. Therefore, in the development of bridge steel, he has led the team to overcome technical difficulties. By promoting the close cooperation between Shouqin and China Railway Major Bridge Engineering Group Co., Ltd., a leading enterprise in the bridge industry, the two companies jointly lead the rapid development of the industry, achieve a number of technological innovations and technological breakthroughs, and build several high-quality projects, which have made significant contributions to the rapid development of the bridge construction in China.

He was in charge of the project of “development and application of high-performance and easy-to-weld bridge steel with low yield ratio for extra-large steel bridges. The multi-phase organization coordinated control technology he proposed solves the technical problem of high yield ratio of high strength steel plate produced by TMCP process; he originally created the integrated control technology for ultra-thick bridge steel performance with “low temperature rolling + on-line forced cooling + self-tempering”; his achievements have passed the evaluation of the Chinese Society for Metals and reached the international advanced level; especially, the yield ratio control and ultra-thick plate production technologies reach the international leading level; more than 1,200,000 tons have been applied to over 100 extra large bridge projects along the “Belt and Road”; the market share is the first in the country; among them, the fruits of the “development of the new generation of 370-420MPa grade high-performance bridge steel” won the Science and Technology Award in Beijing in 2016.

The development of Shouqin bridge steel in recent years can be seen from the relevant reports of “Shougang Daily”. From “Shouqin steel plate became the first choice for Bangladesh’s largest highway & railway bridge” on July 22, 2014 to the news that “Shougang bridge steel boosted the Tianjin Haihe Bridge” on March 7, 2018, in the past few years, “Shougang steel plate propped up the first Sino-Russian cross-river railway bridge”, “Shougang won the bid for the steel of the extra-large bridge over the Yongding River on the west side of Chang’an Street,” “Shougang weather-resistant bridge steel was used in the world’s tallest bridge”, “Shougang high-end bridge steel propped up the world’s largest highway & railway bridge”, “Shougang bridge steel was applied to the key supporting projects of the Winter Olympics” and other series of reports and pleasing bridge photos are the true portrayal of the fruits of the “manufacturing + service” in the market led by Zhou Deguang....

Develop a liking and strive for steel science and technology

Sharpening makes a mighty sword. The reason why Zhou Deguang can make great achievements on science and technology innovation is inextricably linked to his years of hard work, endeavor and accumulation.

After graduating from Kunming Institute of Technology in 1984, Zhou Deguang first worked at the Steel Research Institute of Hubei Daye Steel Mill and was admitted to the University of Science and Technology Beijing for postgraduate study in 1995. In December 2002, as a post doctor in his prime, he worked in Shougang and was selected as the temporary deputy director of Shougang No. 3 Steelmaking Plant after only less than four months as a research scientist at the Technical Research Institute. Since then, he has gradually become a leader in Shougang’s science and technology innovation frontier with Shougang steel technology progress.

In August 2003, Zhou Deguang was officially appointed as the deputy director of No. 3 Steelmaking Plant to be in charge of technology and became the director in January 2006. While working in No. 3 Steelmaking Plant, he devoted himself to the research and organization of the production of bearings, gears, and special steels such as 82B with the converter process, and achieved the fruits of the “development and innovation of process technology for the production of high-quality special steels with the converter process”. With the continuous advancement of science and technology research, he has won the first prize of Shougang Science and Technology Award, the first prize of the Beijing Science and Technology Award, and the second prize of the National Science and Technology Progress Award, leading the transformation of traditional domestic special steel smelting processes and becoming one of the second batches of Shougang technical experts.

At the end of 2008, Zhou Deguang returned to the Technical Research Institute and served as deputy chief engineer and chief of the Technical Management Department. He excelled in the management of the technologies, varieties, and standards he was responsible for, and actively participated in issues such as technological innovation and cost reduction. Five achievements, such as “high-efficiency, low-cost production process and technology”, “research and development of high-strength long products for high-speed railway infrastructure won science and technology awards in Shougang and Beijing respectively.

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Since Zhou Deguang worked at Shouqin, he has mainly organized the production and sales research team to engage in product development and technical marketing, and obtained a number of scientific research achievements, which play a huge role in promoting the technological innovation of Shouqin. Under his leadership, Shouqin made great progress in the development of bridge steel, hydropower steel, pipeline steel, marine steel, and composite boards, and explored the technology of heavy and medium plates with low yield ratio to create the mass production of “relaxation” process… Especially in the past three years, Shouqin has newly launched 5 new products and its products have been successfully applied to the country and other extra-large projects at home and abroad along the “Belt and Road”... This is the recommended content of the “Unit Recommendation Form of Shougang Special Contribution Awards to Science and Technology.” The voiceless writing and shining trophies are the heartfelt affirmations of Zhou Deguang’s strive for science and technology innovation over the years.