A major scientific and technological achievement has been born in our city to solve the key bottleneck in the field of national strategic resources and basic materials.
On August 18th, Qinhuangdao Baigong Steel Co., Ltd. and Shanghai University jointly developed green rare earth super weathering steel, which achieved large-scale production and was sent to the site of national key infrastructure construction projects. This technological achievement, rated as "domestically pioneering and internationally leading" by the China Rare Earth Society, has successfully transformed China's rare earth resource advantages into industrial advantages, breaking the long-term monopoly of foreign countries in the field of high-end corrosion-resistant steel, and providing practical and feasible solutions for the transformation, upgrading, and green development of China's steel industry.
Currently, China's steel and rare earth industries are facing dual challenges. China's crude steel production accounts for more than half of the world's total, but about 90% of it is easily corroded plain carbon steel, which causes significant economic losses every year due to corrosion. At the same time, as the world's largest rare earth resource country, China has always faced the challenge of how to transform the resource advantages of high abundance rare earth elements such as lanthanum and cerium into technological and industrial advantages.
In response to these issues, Baigong Iron and Steel, guided by national strategic needs, has been collaborating with Shanghai University to form an interdisciplinary research team since 2020. After 5 years of technological breakthroughs, the R&D team has made significant breakthroughs in basic theoretical aspects such as rare earth microalloying mechanism and organizational regulation, and established a technical standard system for green rare earth super weathering steel products with completely independent intellectual property rights.
The core competitiveness of green rare earth super weathering steel comes from the company's pioneering "rare earth microalloying+controlled rolling and controlled cooling" composite process. By precisely controlling the microstructure of the material, it achieves "replacing zinc with rust and preventing rust with rust". Its corrosion resistance is 2 to 3 times higher than traditional weathering steel, and its service life is extended by 2 to 3 times. Its technical indicators have reached the international advanced level. The efficient addition of rare earth technology has stabilized the rare earth yield at over 75%, far exceeding the industry average, providing a solid guarantee for performance stability.
The significance of this technological breakthrough goes far beyond the enterprise level, "said Yu Yuanhao, Executive Vice General Manager of Baigong Iron and Steel." It has pioneered a new path of green steel corrosion prevention with rust prevention. It can not only replace high pollution galvanizing processes and promote the green and low-carbon transformation of steel throughout its entire life cycle, but more importantly, it has found high-value applications for the export of China's abundant rare earth resources such as lanthanum and cerium, which has strategic value in ensuring national resource security and industrial security
At present, green rare earth super weathering steel has formed a full strength grade product matrix covering Q195 to Q550 series, which has been applied and verified in projects such as Guangxi Guiping Expressway guardrail, Hebei Zhangjiakou 5G communication tower, Shandong Zibo photovoltaic panel bracket and steel structure, demonstrating good promotion potential. Not long ago, at the scientific and technological achievement evaluation meeting of "rare earth corrosion resistant plain carbon steel technology innovation and industrialization" sponsored by the China Rare Earth Society, an expert group led by Gan Yong, an academician of the CAE Member, made an authoritative evaluation of the achievement: "The overall technology of the project has reached the international leading level, breaking through the key technical bottleneck of rare earth application in steel, providing a practical plan for the transformation, upgrading and green development of the steel industry, which is of great strategic significance for promoting China's transformation from a manufacturing power to a manufacturing power.
Post time: Aug-27-2025