From December 10th to 12th, the 25th National Invention Exhibition - Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development & Technology Innovation Competition was held in Foshan, Guangdong Province. The Shougang Group Labor Union organized a total of 163 patent projects from Beijing Shougang, Jingtang, the Mining Company and Changzhi Steel to participate in the exhibition. After expert evaluation, 91 Shougang projects won the “National Invention Exhibition Invention Entrepreneurship Award - Project Award”, including 16 gold awards, 31 silver awards and 44 bronze awards. The Shougang Group and Jingtang Company won the “National Invention Exhibition Outstanding Exhibition Group Award”.

More than 1,000 projects were displayed in the national exhibition area of employees’ inventions and innovations where the Shougang Group was located. Exhibitors came from Beijing, Shanghai, Heilongjiang, Liaoning, Fujian, Gansu, Shaanxi, Hebei and other places. Many other central enterprises, state-owned enterprises and private enterprises such as China Baowu Steel Group Corporation Limited and Anshan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. participated in the exhibition.

The Shougang Group has long vigorously promoted the spirits of model workers, labor and craftsmanship; held in-depth innovation and benefit creation activities for all employees; actively built various innovation and benefit creation platforms such as expert workstations and innovation studios; and continuously created an innovation atmosphere for the training of innovative talents. The Labor Union actively organizes workers to participate in the invention exhibition so as to provide a platform for workers to exchange with and learn from foreign countries, broaden their horizons and spread their thinking.

At the exhibition site, the achievements of 163 employee innovation and invention patent projects selected by the Shougang Group were displayed on an exhibition board. A number of feature films of the Shougang Group and various participating companies were played on a loop. The participants explained Shougang’s three strategic products to exhibitors, visitors and news media from all over the country. The stories behind Shougang’s innovative projects and its bond with the Summer and Winter Olympic Games won frequent praise from the visitors. Numerous exhibition groups and media were attracted to communicate with and interview Shougang. The Group actively communicated with the China Association of Inventions, Baowu Group, FAW and other units, visited and exchanged at various booths, broadened its horizons and enhanced its innovative thinking.

After being appraised and scored by expert judges, 16 projects won the gold medal of the “National Invention Exhibition Invention and Entrepreneurship Award - Project Award”, including “A Method and Device for Controlling the Stability of Steel Strip Heads” by Li Chunyuan of Beijing Shougang and “A Grinding Roller Method” by Ren Xinyi of Jingtang; 31 projects won the silver medal, including “A Kind of Construction Machinery and its Hydraulic System and Vehicle Oil Filter” by Bai Baogang of the Mining Company, and “Research and Development of a Wire Rope Lock Compilation Device for Blast Furnaces” by Wang Xiaodong of Changzhi Steel; and 44 projects won the bronze medal, including “Self-repairing Cylinder Bulge Test Device” by Li Wenshan of Jingtang.

Representatives from all units of the Group said that they benefited greatly from participating in the invention exhibition, and will take the innovative methods and experience they have learned back to their units in order to influence and motivate more of their colleagues to participate in innovative activities, create an innovation atmosphere and make new and stronger contributions to Shougang’s high-quality development through innovation.

The National Invention Exhibition was sponsored by the China Association of Inventions, BRICS Business Council, Guangdong Science and Technology Department, and Guangdong Provincial Association for Science and Technology, and hosted by the Foshan Municipal People’s Government. Themed “Invention, Innovation, Self-reliance and Self-improvement”, the exhibition covered an area of 40,000 m2, and special exhibition areas were set up, including innovations of institutions of higher learning, national high-tech innovations, national defense intellectual property rights, energy conservation and environmental protection, inventions and innovations of employees nationwide, teenagers’ inventions and innovations, big health and intangible cultural heritage achievements, Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Belt & Road and BRICS Skills Development & Technology Innovation Competition, and the comprehensive area. The exhibition attracted more than 800 enterprises, universities and research institutes from all over the country.