In the high-end shipbuilding sector, Nangang Steel’s order book for large cruise ships and liquefied natural gas (LNG) carriers is already filled through 2028;
Major national infrastructure projects—such as hydroelectric power plants, drilling platforms, cross-sea bridges, and natural gas pipelines—all feature products from Nangang Steel.
Nangang Steel has also formed a powerful partnership with Huawei to jointly develop the “Yuanye” steel large model, which enables the precise quantification and prediction of steelmaking processes based on data. Together with Xingcheng Special Steel and China Academy of Steel Research, they are jointly establishing China’s only national-level pilot testing platform in the metallurgy sector—the National Artificial Intelligence Application Pilot Testing Base (Metallurgy in the Manufacturing Sector).
At present, a new and thriving landscape for the steel industry is gradually taking shape in the Jiangbei New Area.
Nanjing Iron & Steel: Everywhere You Look
As a leading enterprise in the steel industry chain, Nangang Steel has contributed to numerous major national projects and mega-projects.
In the field of high-end shipbuilding, Nangang Steel is the exclusive supplier of steel plates for the GLOVIS LIGHTHOUSE, the world’s first 10,800-car LNG dual-fuel car carrier. Nangang Steel’s crack-resistant extra-thick steel plates have been supplied for more than ten of the world’s largest 24,000-TEU container ships, giving the company the top market share in China.
As part of the “Power from West to East” national initiative, the Baihetan Hydropower Station relies on high-strength steel plates for hydropower applications—including those used in its turbine base rings, generator top covers, control rings, water intake pressure pipelines, and steel Y-pipes—all of which are supplied by Nangang Steel.
Nangang Steel supplied 10,000 metric tons of high-strength steel plates for the “Blue Whale 1” and “Blue Whale 2” methane hydrate drilling platforms; It supplied pipeline plates for the China-Russia Eastern Route Natural Gas Pipeline project; it also provided materials for the construction of several mega-bridge projects, including the New Bay Bridge in the United States, the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia, and the Zangmu Yarlung Tsangpo Double-Track Super Bridge.
Nangang Steel is everywhere; its steel not only underpins the nation’s major industrial projects but is also exported overseas, showcasing the core strength of China’s steel manufacturing industry.
"Yuan Ye" Redefines Steelmaking
Nangang Steel is not just producing products; it is leading a transformation in the steel industry.
At the recently held “Yuan Ye” Eco-Smart Innovation Development Conference, Nangang Steel joined forces with a number of steel companies, technology firms, universities and research institutes, and industry associations to collectively witness the application outcomes and technological breakthroughs achieved one year after the launch of Nangang Steel’s “Yuan Ye” steel large model.
But first, let’s rewind to a year ago.
On June 21, 2025, Nangang Steel Group and Huawei jointly unveiled the “Yuanye” steel large-model architecture and industrial intelligence platform, which they had developed together. This marks the first industrial large model in China’s steel industry.
At that time, both within and outside the industry, there was a great deal of curiosity and anticipation. People were curious to see how artificial intelligence technology would be integrated into industrial manufacturing, and they were equally eager to see what kind of “synergy” the “Yuanye”—a joint venture between Nangang Steel and Huawei—would create to reshape the steel industry.
The smelting process in a steelmaking blast furnace has long been regarded as a mysterious “black box”; in the past, determining furnace temperature trends and internal reactions relied entirely on the extensive experience of veteran furnace operators. However, training such an expert is no easy task; it can take several years to become an outstanding blast furnace foreman.
Now that “Yuan Ye” has been launched, the logic has changed significantly.
“By using the ‘Yuanye’ steel large model, we’ve essentially given the blast furnace ‘X-ray vision,’” explained Li Jinyan, director of the Nangang Steel Artificial Intelligence Research Institute.
Unlike general-purpose large models, “Yuanye” consists of two parts—the “left brain,” which performs exact calculations, and the “right brain,” which performs probabilistic calculations.
At Nangang Steel’s Smart Operations Center, the entire process—from the iron ore’s entry into the blast furnace from the stockpile, through the converter, to its delivery to the rolling mill—is broken down into visualized data points. Thousands of sensors inside the blast furnace transmit real-time data on the steelmaking process to a large screen, where every variable is precisely calculated and accurately simulated by “Yuanye.”
For example, the accuracy of furnace temperature trend forecasts for the next two hours has remained consistently above 90%, providing a crucial basis for each decision.
Today, Nangang Steel has established a three-tier AI-native paradigm to create an intelligent entity for the steel industry. At the conference, Nangang Steel unveiled 25 core business intelligent entities covering key scenarios across the entire R&D, production, sales, and management process, and has implemented more than 200 lightweight AI applications.
Making Friends with Data
Huang Yixin, Party Secretary and Chairman of Nangang Steel, said, “Over the past year, ‘Yuan Ye’ has successfully transitioned from a technical framework to standardized implementation in real-world scenarios, marking a leap from ‘technical exploration’ to ‘practical validation.’”
To continuously advance “intelligent transformation and digital transformation” in the steel industry, Nangang Steel has taken a multi-pronged approach and presented a new model for “AI + Steel.”
First, Nangang Steel is fully committed to advancing the development of a trusted data space, as it serves as a national pilot for trusted data space innovation. High-quality datasets are the core and foundation of AI technology development, and they directly determine the level of achievement that AI applications can reach within the industry.
Nangang Steel has launched its Steel Trusted Data Space Platform and unveiled its first set of practical application scenarios. Nangang Steel’s goal is clear: to establish a “data-sharing ecosystem” in the steel industry that is jointly built by multiple parties and governed by unified rules. This ecosystem will enable collaborative data processing and value co-creation among all participants in the industrial chain, while strictly ensuring data security, thereby consolidating the industry’s dispersed data resources into a unified force.
As a result, Nangang Steel is not only a steel manufacturer but also a provider of digital and intelligent solutions.
At the same time, Nangang Steel has joined forces with a group of like-minded partners to launch in-depth collaboration between industry, academia, and research.
Leading technology companies such as Huawei, iFlytek, and the Chinese Society for Metals, along with authoritative industry associations, have joined forces with Nangang Steel to form an industry-academia-research ecosystem alliance. As a flagship smart factory, Nangang Steel brings together research capabilities, technical teams, and industrial resources from various sectors, breaking down the “walls” between enterprises, universities, and research institutes.
A healthy ecosystem is the real trump card
True experts are never stingy when it comes to sharing.
Nangang Steel has launched the construction of the Special Steel and New Materials Sub-Center of the Jiangsu Provincial Scientific Data Center and is building the “Yuanye Smart Community.” With “Yuanye” at its core, Nangang Steel is connecting with upstream and downstream industrial chains and empowering various business scenarios, transforming the company’s independently developed technologies into an open industry platform and making joint technology development, shared application scenarios, and shared outcomes a reality in the steel industry.
Recently, the National Artificial Intelligence Application Pilot Base (Metallurgy in the Manufacturing Sector), jointly established by Nangang Steel, Xingcheng Special Steel, and China Academy of Steel Research, was launched in the New District. This is the only national-level pilot platform in China’s metallurgy sector.
In that case,Nangang Steel is accelerating its transformation from a “manufacturer” to an “enabler” in the industry, turning its “showroom” into an “open space.”
To date, Nangang Steel has developed more than 200 products and solutions, providing digital services to over 2,000 companies across 22 industries nationwide.
Let’s return to the Jiangbei New Area, where, led by Nangang Steel, a comprehensive industrial ecosystem for steel R&D and manufacturing has taken root. This ecosystem acts like a powerful magnet, continuing to draw upstream and downstream enterprises, research institutes, and supporting resources along the industrial chain to this area.
Artificial intelligence is transforming steel manufacturing, and specialty steels are the backbone of major national projects—Nangang Steel does more than just produce high-quality steel.
