The second generation of steel pipes Chen Zhaonian:
export steel pipes to more than 80 countries, orders for epidemic situation soared
Chen Zhaonian
Characters of Southern Guangdong 4
The new crown pneumonia epidemic has had a greater impact on domestic export companies.
But in the past few days, in the production workshop of Zhujiang Steel Pipe Co., Ltd. in Panyu, it has been full of enthusiasm.
Thousands of workers loaded steel pipes with a length of more than 70 meters one by one and transported them directly to the construction site through the wharf.
A few years ago, at the Panyu production base in Guangzhou, due to limited transportation methods, only 18 meters of steel pipes could be transported. In order to transport deep-sea steel pipes, Chen Zhaonian, executive director of Zhujiang Steel Pipe Co., Ltd., decided to set up a terminal base in Zhuhai. The specifications of the transportation steel pipes are higher, and the transportation cost is also reduced.
Today, Zhujiang Steel Pipe has become the only manufacturer of deep-sea oil and gas transmission steel pipes in China, and has become a well-deserved "leading" in the industry. The company's steel pipes are sold to more than 80 countries around the world.
Even if the epidemic hits, as of August this year, the company's orders have increased by 47% compared to last year.
"We are also actively responding to the central government's'six stability' and'six guarantees'. More than 3,000 employees will not lay off staff or reduce their salaries." Chen Zhaonian said proudly.
Text, picture/Guangzhou Daily all-media reporter Xiao Huanhuan, intern Hong Dou
Export orders grow against the trend
Since February 10 this year, Zhujiang Steel Pipe has resumed work and production under the premise of preventing and controlling the epidemic.
Chen Zhaonian said that the company's exports were not significantly affected during the epidemic.
As of August 25 this year, Zhujiang Steel Pipe has received more than 501,000 tons of new orders for steel pipes, an increase of 47% over the full-year order volume of 2019.
Among them, the order of 140,000 tons of steel pipes for Africa's natural gas transmission pipeline project is the largest order for the company in 27 years. The 140,000 tons of steel pipes are expected to lay 304 kilometers of pipelines.
"This is inseparable from our advance deployment and active product technology upgrade and transformation." Chen Zhaonian said that in recent years, the international offshore engineering market has been sluggish, and Zhujiang Steel Pipe has begun to deploy early, from a single oil and gas pipeline product to a large infrastructure. The development of comprehensive steel pipe and steel structure products, covering oil and gas transportation, ocean engineering, wind power new energy, bridge pipe piles, super high-rise steel structures, water engineering and other fields.
Today, exports and domestic sales account for roughly half of the company’s products.
Chen Zhaonian said that in recent years, the company has continuously expanded the scope of application of its products through technological innovation.
For example, the piling pipe of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge, which is more than 70 meters long and 2 meters in diameter, can be easily produced at the Zhuhai base and shipped directly to the sea through the wharf.
At present, a large number of steel pipes produced by the company are used for offshore platform construction, and offshore wind power projects also have a huge demand for steel pipes.
Chen Zhaonian said that Zhujiang Steel Pipe is the only manufacturer of deep-sea oil and gas transmission pipes in China.
In the past 3 years, the company's performance has been increasing year by year.
From the resumption of work to May this year, it has produced approximately 30,000 tons of steel pipe products such as the Hong Kong Airport Project, the Deep-Medium Corridor Project, the Pearl River Delta Water Resources Project, the CNOOC Lufeng Project, and the Zhuhai Water Supply Project.
Chen Zhaonian said that the country is currently preparing the "14th Five-Year Plan", and clean energy projects will certainly take up a large proportion of it. For example, the development of deep-sea natural gas projects, and the company has already accumulated a lot in the South China Sea deep-sea transportation pipeline. .
Therefore, Zhujiang Steel Pipe has made full preparations for the South China Sea marine engineering equipment manufacturing industry and the construction of the "Belt and Road".
Run the enterprise well and practice the "double cycle"
Since the beginning of this year, the central government has proposed to give full play to China's super-large-scale market advantages and domestic demand potential, and build a new development pattern in which the domestic and international "dual cycles" are the mainstay and the mutual promotion of domestic and international "dual cycles".
Chen Zhaonian has a deep understanding of this. She said that the development of a company must first rely on China's huge domestic demand market.
Chen Zhaonian said that when she proposed to use the money earned for technology research and development and to develop more customers, there were still certain disputes within the company. "I tell everyone, the first thing is to have enough customers. If you only rely on one Two or more than a dozen large customers. Once these large customers fail, you can’t do it.” For this reason, Zhujiang Steel Pipe actively expands abroad. Now the company has export business in Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. Steel pipe products are sold to more than 80 countries around the world.
In the steel pipe market, Chen Zhaonian also discovered a new "blue ocean" market.
During her inspection abroad, she found that direct drinking water in many European countries is transported by stainless steel pipes. However, the cost of stainless steel is very high, and it takes a process to become popular in China.
She said that as the country pays more and more attention to the safety of residents' drinking water, a "drinking water revolution" will definitely be set off in the future, and the innovation of drinking water pipelines is also inevitable.
Therefore, the company developed a composite pipe, which is made of thin stainless steel on the inside and ordinary steel on the outside, which can reduce costs and achieve the effect of direct drinking.
"Our water pipe technology is very mature. I believe that in the next 3 to 5 years, water pipes will become a new market with unlimited market prospects." Chen Zhaonian said, this is also the company's implementation of the "double cycle" development idea Specific actions.
"We run our own business well, which is the best way to fulfill our social responsibilities, because behind more than 3,000 employees are more than 3,000 families. The ability of the company to maintain orders without reducing staff and salaries is to respond to the country’s proposal. "Six Stability and Six Guarantees" policy."
At the beginning of this year when the domestic epidemic was severe, as the president of the Guangzhou Women Entrepreneurs Association, Chen Zhaonian took advantage of the association's overseas resources to actively contact the purchase of protective materials from overseas and donate them to domestic medical institutions.
In order to let the medical staff of Guangzhou aid Hubei work at ease, the association, under the leadership of Chen Zhaonian, strongly supported a series of charity activities initiated by the Provincial Women's Federation and the Municipal Women's Federation, and provided free vegetables and housework to the families of the medical and nursing staff in Hubei.
"Mastering the core technology is not afraid of having nothing to eat"
Speaking of steel pipe production, it sounds like a traditional industry at first glance, but Chen Zhaonian said that Zhujiang Steel Pipe is now a national-level high-tech enterprise and a national-level enterprise technology center.
Chen Zhaonian told reporters that as early as 1998, her father introduced China's first large LSAW pipe production line, and in 2000, he introduced another UOE large LSAW pipe production line. Both of these technologies have filled up. The domestic technological gap.
"The company later set up a technical research team to focus on this card-neck technology. The subsequent production lines are all developed, designed and assembled by ourselves."
"As long as you have mastered the core technology, you are not afraid of being out of food." This is a saying that Chen Zhaonian often talks about.
Chen Zhaonian said that Zhujiang Steel Pipe has formed a "forming, welding, anti-corrosion and non-destructive testing" technical system with core technical advantages. The JCOE LSAW pipe production line with a 6500-ton forming pressure unit has independently developed an electromagnetic system for material defect detection. Ultrasonic technology, high-precision controlled diameter expansion technology, multi-roll center pre-welder technology for joint pre-welding, multi-wire submerged arc welding technology and automatic seam tracking technology for high-efficiency welding of steel pipes.
Today, Zhujiang Steel Pipe has gradually become the maker of China's longitudinal welded steel pipe standards.
Chen Zhaonian said that the industry’s general deep-sea oil pipelines can only withstand 1,500 meters of deep-sea pressure, but the 3500-meter-deep steel pipe developed by the company’s academician workstation is very hard on land, but it is very flexible on the seabed and can withstand a depth of 3500 meters. Under the pressure of sea water, it can resist corrosion.
And this "unique" transportation technology has been applied in the previous South China Sea Liwan deep water project.
"We have mastered the core technology of 3,500 meters of ultra-deep sea welded pipes. This technology can play an important role in China's future development of the South China Sea." Chen Zhaonian said that the steel pipe industry has undergone a disruptive upgrade. After the epidemic, as the global economy recovers, the company The deep-sea transportation steel pipe will usher in more domestic and foreign orders.
Down-to-earth "stupid girl"
Today, Zhujiang Steel Pipe is China’s largest manufacturer and exporter of longitudinally welded pipes, ranking first in the country in output for more than a decade, and it is a veritable “leading leader”.
Chen Zhaonian sighed and said that all of this was explored step by step.
Chen Zhaonian is a "second generation" and his father Chen Chang is a well-known industrialist in Panyu.
In the 1990s, Chen Zhaonian went to Leeds Metropolitan University to study for a master's degree in accounting.
Chen Zhaonian's father gave her a sum of money for studying abroad every year. After she left enough for tuition and accommodation, the remaining money was used to deposit and collect interest, so that she had a certain income.
"I've been living as an ascetic in a foreign country. I never go to Chinatown to eat or play outside. It costs about 123 pounds a week for living expenses. If I can eat enough, I will buy air tickets in advance. , Because there are discounts. I usually don’t even want to take the bus and walk to school every day, so I can save 1.75 pounds a day.” Recalling the days when he was studying in the UK, Chen Zhaonian was like a treasure.
After finishing his master's degree in the UK, Chen Zhaonian chose to return to China to join his father's company to help, starting from an ordinary financial officer.
In order to improve herself better, she went to work in a securities company in Shenzhen in 2005 and became an ordinary "working girl" to learn financial management knowledge.
In 2007, when his father's company was about to go public, Chen Zhaonian came back to help, and his father asked her to be the secretary of the board of directors.
"People asked me why it took me 8 months to get a company listed. First, I am familiar with the process. I have participated in the first two listings. Second, the business is legal and compliant, and the approval of materials is fast." At the beginning of 2010, in Chen Zhaonian Under the leadership of Zhujiang Steel Pipe, after more than 200 days of intense preparations, it was finally successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. Chen Zhaonian was also hailed as a financial wizard by the industry.
"Where am I a genius, I am just a'stupid girl' who walks very steadily at every step." Chen Zhaonian said with a smile.