Cross the river and the sea to see Shougang

In the process of the development of bridge steel in Shougang, Shouqin Company, as the main body of product research and development, technology tackling and market development, has worked closely with Shougang Institute of Technology, and has successfully developed a new generation of six major products such as 370, 420 and 500MPa grade high performance bridge steel for TMCP+ tempering, 345 to 420MPa grade weather-resistant bridge steel, 420 to 460MPa grade European standard high performance bridge steel and Q370qD+316L stainless steel composite plate, which are widely used at home and abroad, especially in a number of extra-large bridge projects along the “Belt and Road”.

The world’s highest bridge - the Beipan River Bridge, is located at the border between Yunnan Province and Guizhou Province, and is an important bridge built along the Belt and Road. The distance between the bridge deck and the surface of the river is 565 meters, equivalent to a height of a 200-storey building. The steel structure of the bridge weighs a total of 25,000 tons, of which the most important and core part weighs 24,000 tons and is supplied by Shouqin Company.

The world’s largest-span rail-cum-stayed bridge, the Hutong Yangtze River Bridge, is a controlled project of the whole newly built Hutong Railway, with a total length of 11,072 meters. The main span is a 1,092-meter steel truss girder cable-stayed bridge structure. It is the first bridge in the world with a span of more than 1,000 meters. The main bridge and the shipping channel bridge of the bridge use 14,800 tons of high-end bridge steel, which are supplied by Shouqin Company.

The world’s first high-low low tower rail-cum-stayed bridge—the Wuhu Yangtze River Bridge, is the Shanghehang Railway’s control project. The amount of steel used in the high-end steel structure of the bridge is 103,200 tons and is exclusively supplied by Shouqin Company.

The largest bridge in Bangladesh, the Padma rail-cum-Bridge, is known by the local residents as the “bridge of dreams”. At present, it is the largest bridge project overseas undertaken by China and an important channel connecting the “Pan Asian Railway” between China and Southeast Asia. Shouqin Company is the steelmaker with the largest contract volume, supplying 75,700 tons of high-end bridge steel.

The world’s first ail-cum-bridge combing various bridge types, the Yibin Jinsha River rail-cum-Bridge, is a railway controlled project from Chengdu to Guiyang with a main span of 336 meters and the distance between the road and the railway deck of 32 meters and is the largest bridge in the world. The steel structure of the bridge weighs a total of 20,000 tons and is supplied exclusively by Shouqin Company.

The first Sino-Russian cross river railway bridge, the Tongjiang Bridge, connects the arteries between the railway network in Northeast China and the Siberian railway in Russia. Shouqin Company supplies 15,000 tons of bridge steel.

The first ail-cum-bridge with the heaviest load across the Yangtze River, the Jingzhou Yangtze River Bridge, is located in the Jingyue section of the Menghua Railway, and is 6,317 meters long. Its main span is 518 meters, and design load is 10,000 tons. It is a multi-purpose bridge with the longest span and the heaviest load among bridges of the same type in the world. The bridge uses 25,000 tons of steel, of which 10,000 tons of bridge steel are supplied by Shouqin Company.

The key supporting infrastructure of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games in Beijing is the Jingzhang High Speed Rail Guanting Reservoir Super Large Bridge. The bridge uses 16,000 tons of steel, of which 10,000 tons are supplied by Shouqin Company.

The longest span bridge in Beijing is the bridge “Joint Gate” in the westward extension of Chang’an Avenue across the Yongding River. The bridge uses 44,000 tons of steel, of which 35,700 tons of high performance bridge steel are supplied by Shouqin Company.

The world’s first double-deck railway steel truss bridge, the New Baishatuo Yangtze River Bridge, is an important passage crossing the river for the Chongqing-Guizhou passenger train line and the Chongqing-Guizhou freight train line connecting the Chongqing hub and also the first six-line railway steel truss girder bridge in the world. Shouqin Company supplies 16,800 tons of bridge steel.

The first domestic cross-sea ail-cum-bridge is the Pingtan Strait Railroad Bridge. Shouqin Company has completed the batch trial production and production supply of TMCP rolled stainless steel clad plate, and is the first manufacturer to supply in bulk in China.

The source is sought after a deep chasm turns into a thoroughfare

Reviewing the history of the development of Shougang bridge steel, the source can be traced back to the early reform and opening up period in the 1980s and the 1990s. After the implementation of the contract system, Shougang accelerated the transformation and replacement of the main equipment, and the output of steel reached 2 million tons in 1984, but the steelmaking still could not adapt to the 3 million tons of iron making capacity. Therefore, Shougang daringly introduced foreign second-hand equipment, built a second steelmaking plant in 1987, and truly ranked among the largest iron and steel enterprises in terms of scale. In March 1993, with the completion and production of Qinhuangdao Shougang Plate Mill Co., Ltd., it began to form the basic development pattern of medium-thick plate of “Shougang Beijing Medium Plate Factory + Shougang Qinhuangdao Medium Plate Factory”.

From the 1990s to the early 21st century, Shougang products were mainly made of long materials and wire rods, and the plates were mainly low alloy structural steels, ship plates and so on. At the beginning of 2003, the reform project of Shougang Beijing Medium Plate Factory was completed, and Shougang Second Steelmaking Plant was reformed. Moreover, as the construction of Shouqin Company and the relocation of the steel base started, Shougang further confirmed the goal of “developing high strength ship plates, bridge plates, automobile steel and other high added value products to improve the competitiveness of the product market”. Shougang Institute of Technology started the upgrading of bridge plate production qualification synchronously.

Before 2006, Shougang bridge steel relied on the original production line equipment level (no vacuum, no heat treatment line) of Shougang Beijing Medium Plate Factory and Shougang Qinhuangdao Medium Plate Factory and mainly consisted of Q345q series products. In addition to the Sutong Bridge, the rest bridges to be supplied undertaken by Shougang were small and medium highway bridge projects using less than 10,000 tons of steel.

Speaking of the Sutong Bridge, the first bridge with over 10,000 tons of bridge steel products supplied by Shougang, it set four records in the world at that time, the largest span, the deepest foundation, the highest bridge tower and the longest cable, but the construction process was full of complications.

The Sutong Bridge started construction in 2003, which lasted for 5 years and was officially opened to traffic in 2008. Considering the special geographical environment, the design adopted a cable way to build a bridge. However, at that time, no factory in China was able to produce steel cables that met the standard of construction. As the only Japanese enterprises that could produce such steel cables all over the world refused the Chinese side, the completion of the bridge was delayed. However, it was because of such helplessness that the Chinese people believed more firmly that they should rely on themselves instead of others. Through the tackling of scientific researchers organized, it took only 3 months to develop the strongest and longest cable in the world. Although the research and development process was very difficult, the morale of the Chinese people was improved.

A lot of advanced science and technology in our country come out due to blockade, and the development of the bridge steel of Shougang was the same. It was just because of such self-reliance and self-improvement in technology and products that Shougang made a leap from “following” to “leading”.

From 2006 to 2008, Shougang bridge steel made a breakthrough when “following”, and there were breakthroughs both in technology and sales. In terms of technology, Shougang developed controlled rolling Q370qD and Q420qD in delivery state successively, and guaranteed the quality of steel plate during flaw detection under the condition of steelmaking without vacuum treatment. In terms of the sales, Shougang successively won the bidding of the bridge projects using more than 10,000 tons of steel, such as the Chongqing Chaotianmen Yangtze River Bridge, the Edong Yangtze River Bridge, and the Mingzhou Bridge in Ningbo, Zhejiang.

From 2009 to 2012, Shougang bridge steel used a three-party direct supply sales mode and entered a steady development stage. Shougang supplied more than 20 major bridge projects using more than 10,000 tons of steel, such as the Deda Railway Yellow River Bridge, the Ma’anshan Yangtze River Highway Bridge, the Aizhai Bridge and the Jiashao Bridge. In the technical aspect, Shougang successfully developed the series of products such as normalized Q370qE and relying on the platform of “Shougang - Northeastern University Wide and Heavy Plate R&D Center”, it started the R&D and reserve of the products above 420MPa grade.

During this period, Shougang undertook more bridge projects, but few high-end featured products and mainly concentrated on Q345q, Q370q and other varieties. However, the high performance Q420qE (the fifth generation of bridge steel products) developed by Wugang together with China Major Bridge Engineering Co., Ltd. (MBEC) was already applied in China and Wugang and Anshan Steal even completed the pre R & D and reserve work of Q500qE.