Enterprises are the main body of innovation, the person who writes the questions, and the answerers and the markers. China National Building Materials Group is transforming, and the core driving force is innovation.
On March 5, Premier Li Qiang made a "work report" at the second meeting of the 14th National People's Congress, proposing that the primary task of the work in 2024 is to vigorously promote the construction of a modern industrial system and accelerate the development of new quality productivity. Give full play to the leading role of innovation, promote industrial innovation with scientific and technological innovation, accelerate the promotion of new industrialization, improve total factor productivity, constantly shape new momentum and new advantages for development, and promote new leaps in social productivity. Promote the optimization and upgrading of the industrial chain, actively cultivate emerging industries and future industries, and further promote the innovation and development of the digital economy.
To develop new quality productivity, enterprises are the main body. China National Building Materials Group is the only central enterprise in the field of building materials in China, and it is also the vanguard of scientific and technological innovation and the construction of a modern industrial system of central enterprises.
In 2024, how will China National Building Materials Group develop new quality productivity? During the national "two sessions" in 2024, Zhou Yuxian, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chairman of China National Building Materials Group, said in an interview with the "Enterprise Observer" that enterprises are the main body of innovation, the person who writes the question, and the person who answers the question and marks the paper. China National Building Materials Group is transforming, and the core driving force is innovation. In 2024, CNBM will top its priority on scientific and technological innovation.
Zhou Yuxian believes that scientific and technological innovation cannot be simply understood as innovation from "0 to 1", but to promote industrial innovation through scientific and technological innovation. The core of industrial innovation is scientific and technological innovation, and we must firmly grasp innovation in the entire industrial development process of achievement transformation, industrial expansion, industrial upgrading, and industrial upgrading.
Build a new material ecosystem
Accelerate the transformation of innovation results
According to the operating data disclosed by China National Building Materials Group, from the proportion of the group's sales revenue in 2023, the basic building materials industry and the new materials industry are its two main industries. Among them, the annual revenue of the new materials industry exceeded 100 billion yuan, and the proportion of profits exceeded 50%; The revenue of the basic building materials industry exceeded 150 billion yuan.
Production workshop of China Building Materials Jushi Egypt Company.
Scientific and technological innovation has supported the layout of China National Building Materials Group's new material industry. On the whole, to promote the transformation, upgrading and high-quality development of China National Building Materials Group, the fundamental lies in scientific and technological innovation. Zhou Yuxian said.
China National Building Materials Group is a national team and state-owned capital investment company in the field of non-metallic materials in China. In the past eight years, China National Building Materials Group has invested nearly 90 billion yuan in research and development. It is the key work of China National Building Materials Group to support industrial development with scientific and technological innovation and promote the rapid transformation of a number of high-level scientific and technological innovation achievements.
Since 2023, China National Building Materials Group has made new breakthroughs in the construction of the source of original technology: it has undertaken 6 new national key R&D plans, 7 projects under research and development of the second phase of the "1025" project have been promoted on schedule, and the mid-term evaluation of the first phase of the group's "unveiling the leader" project and the launch of the second phase have been completed. Built the world's largest single 250,000 tons of high-performance carbon fiber base, forming a number of original achievements transformation demonstrations such as T1100 carbon fiber and 70MPa hydrogen storage cylinders.
Zhou Yuxian introduced that with the support of years of R&D investment, China National Building Materials Group has built a gradient industrial system with sales revenue of more than 1 billion yuan to 10 billion yuan and an ecological layout of new materials: the first echelon is an industry of more than 10 billion yuan, including glass fiber, wind power blades, gypsum board three major products; The second echelon is high-quality float glass and photovoltaic glass that are close to 10 billion or can reach 10 billion this year; The third echelon is about 5 billion new products, including refractories, carbon fiber, lithium battery separators, display glass materials and other products; The fourth echelon is about 1 billion new products, including hydrogen cylinders, advanced ceramics, high-end quartz, power generation glass, intraocular lenses, etc. China National Building Materials Group will use this as a basis to promote the continuous growth of various echelon industries.
China National Building Materials Group is also increasing the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements. On January 5, 2024, China National Building Materials Group signed a strategic cooperation agreement with China State Construction Construction Group and Tsinghua University.
We have chosen a leading partner in the industry, which is a signal that the group will be more open in 2024, gather more social resources to promote scientific and technological innovation, and open up the channel from basic research to application transformation. Zhou Yuxian said that in the next step, China National Building Materials Group will focus on accelerating the formation of new quality productivity, focusing on the supply of original leading technology, improving scientific and technological innovation capabilities and strengthening the construction of guarantee mechanisms.
Fill in the "Valley of Death".
Overcome the three difficulties of scientific and technological innovation.
It is very difficult to really do a good job in scientific and technological innovation. For the difficulty of scientific and technological innovation in the field of building materials, Zhou Yuxian has a personal feeling, and this process must cross three passes.
The breakthrough from 0 to 1" is the first pass. In Zhou Yuxian's view, China National Building Materials Group has a profound scientific and technological innovation heritage and has the ability to achieve a breakthrough from "0 to 1". The next task is to accelerate the creation of a source of original material technology with global competitive advantages, strengthen basic research, and improve the original innovation ability and R&D efficiency of "from 0 to 1"; On the other hand, it is necessary to transform high-level achievements into high-level patents, turn high-level patents into high-quality standards, actively participate in the formulation of international standards, truly participate in global competition, and realize the transformation from "technology leadership" to "standard leadership".
CNBM has set up joint laboratories in Egypt, Ethiopia and other countries. The laboratory jointly established by China National Building Materials and Egypt was officially put into operation, and Egypt's national glass fiber standard was formulated. In the next step, China National Building Materials Group is preparing to set up a "double carbon" laboratory in France, transform China's "double carbon" technology into patents and standards, and use the core technology of China National Building Materials Group to improve and upgrade factories in European countries.
The "valley of death" for the transformation of achievements is the second pass. "It is particularly difficult to go from the transformation of achievements to the large-scale application of products, or before the transformation of scientific and technological innovation achievements into industries. Looking back on the past, some of the innovative achievements of China National Building Materials Group may still stay at the level of one million or ten million in 10 or 20 years. It's just that Death Valley hasn't crossed it. Zhou Yuxian said, "For example, the carbon fiber of China National Building Materials Group has lost more than 10 years, if it stops investing in the process of losing money in the past 10 years, our carbon fiber will not have today's scale and market, and there will be no Zhongfu Shenying as a listed company." ”
8.5th generation TFT glass production line.
To fill the "valley of death" of the transformation of achievements, we must first have funds, and second, we must have equipment.
In recent years, China National Building Materials Group has tried to fill in the "valley of death" by setting up the first place, which has greatly helped the transformation of a number of scientific and technological innovation achievements.
In 2021, China National Building Materials Group took the lead in joining hands with 17 institutions to jointly fund the establishment of CNBM New Materials**, with a total scale of 20 billion yuan and an initial scale of 15 billion yuan. This is an important part of the layout of the material industry of China National Building Materials Group as a state-owned capital investment company. The company is positioned to solve the "stuck neck" technology of new materials, ensure the safety and independent substitution of the new material industry chain, promote scientific and technological innovation and breakthroughs in key core technologies, cooperate with investors to cultivate industrial ecology, and focus on investing in the field of new materials.
Being replaced or iterated on is the third threshold. "Once the developed product is replaced or iterated, then all the previous efforts are basically wiped out. Zhou Yuxian recalled, "China National Building Materials Group once used quartz ceramic crucibles for the production of polysilicon, and later polysilicon was replaced by monocrystalline silicon, and the crucible instantly became an invalid asset." Being completely replaced by a new material is very risky. ”
This made Zhou Yuxian more deeply aware that in order to avoid products being iterated, it is necessary to continuously develop and innovate products in order to keep up with the speed of iteration. China National Building Corporation's lithium battery separator is a successful example. In recent years, although the lithium battery separator has increased from more than a dozen yuan per square meter to more than a dollar, the lithium battery separator of China National Building Materials Group still maintains a high gross profit margin, which is due to continuous technological innovation. In China National Building Materials Group, such examples abound.
Accelerating the development of industrialization and paying attention to the risk of being replaced and iterated in advance is the next step of China National Building Materials Group. To this end, China National Building Materials Group will systematically promote the industrialization of innovation achievements, improve the forward-looking of innovation, simultaneously carry out the iterative upgrading of existing products, the pre-research layout of alternative products, strengthen the feedback mechanism from the back end to the front end, and form a closed-loop system of scientific and technological innovation.
Technology-driven
The new industry and the traditional industry at both ends of the force
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed for the first time to accelerate the construction of a modern industrial system, ** SASAC stressed the need to adhere to the strategic emerging industries and traditional industries at both ends, in this context, China National Building Materials Group to accelerate the layout and development of strategic emerging industries, and to accelerate the transformation of traditional industries.
In 2023, China National Building Materials Group will formulate a work plan for the new industry and the future industry in combination with the "9+6" systematic layout, increase the layout of the new industry unprecedentedly, and support the landing of the new industry with effective investment.
According to the data disclosed by China National Building Materials Group, in 2023, the group's revenue from the new industry will account for more than 30%, and the revenue of the new materials sector, which is dominated by the new industry, will exceed 100 billion yuan, and it has broken through a number of "stuck neck" technologies such as low-carbon cement, carbon fiber composite materials for large aircraft, and high-level waste liquid vitrification materials, with a cumulative investment of nearly 3 billion yuan in the integrated circuit and semiconductor industry.
Basic building materials are the traditional industry and "ballast stone" business of China National Building Materials Group. "In recent years, affected by factors such as sluggish market demand, intensified overcapacity, and high costs, the operation of traditional basic building materials has been under pressure. In this case, we mainly improve quality and efficiency through measures such as integration and optimization, transformation and upgrading, and comprehensively deepening the 'cement +' strategy to resolve the dilemma. Zhou Yuxian said.
Zhou Yuxian said that in 2024, China National Building Materials Group will continue to insist on making efforts at both ends of the new industry and traditional industries.
At the end of the new industry, China National Building Materials Group will flexibly use endogenous growth, mergers and acquisitions, and capital operation to deploy the innovation chain around the industrial chain, lay out the industrial chain around the innovation chain, and promote the development of strategic emerging industries.
Lithium battery separator.
In terms of endogenous growth, we will give full play to the leading role of the group's "unveiling the leader" project, and solve the difficulties, pain points and blocking problems in key areas such as basic building materials and new materials through the application of demonstration projects. Relying on world-class research projects, we will lay out the next-generation materials urgently needed by the country such as wartime emergency response, extreme environments, high-end equipment, frontier fields, and future industries.
In terms of mergers and acquisitions, we will focus on the two major directions of domestic substitution and "stuck neck" technology and the four major fields of new energy, new materials, new energy vehicles and semiconductors, and look for high-quality M&A targets.
In terms of capital operation, we have strengthened the role of "catalyst" and "incubator", and actively laid out a number of landmark projects, technological innovation projects and international projects.
On the side of basic building materials, we will increase the intensity of transformation and upgrading. In terms of transformation, we will expand profit space with "cement +", expand market space with internationalization, expand sustainable development space with "double carbon", and improve cross-cycle operation capabilities; In terms of upgrading, we will accelerate the development of high-end, intelligent and green through continuous innovation to consolidate our leading edge.
Now, China National Building Materials Group has 26 quite advanced smart factories in the cement sector, such as Tai'an Zoomlion and Huaikan South. In 2023, China National Building Materials Group has formulated a cement smart factory 20 standard, which improves the construction standard of every cement plant in the group, and also contributes to the intelligent development of the entire industry. Zhou Yuxian said.
"Intelligent transformation and digital transformation".
Promote the digital transformation of industries
On February 19, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission (SASAC) held a special promotion meeting on "AI Empowerment and Industrial Renewal", emphasizing that enterprises should put the development of artificial intelligence in the overall work and make overall plans, further promote industrial renewal, and accelerate the layout and development of the artificial intelligence industry.
In Zhou Yuxian's view, for China National Building Materials Group, whether it is scientific and technological innovation or efforts at both ends, digital transformation is an important support. Digitalization is also a part of scientific and technological innovation, and digital transformation is a must-answer question, not a multiple-choice question.
2023 is the first year of digital transformation of China National Building Materials Group, the group has accelerated the pace of digital transformation, built the "1254" digital blueprint, established the group's digital center, and promoted the implementation of specific digital measures step by step.
In 2023, New Tianshan Cement, a subsidiary of China National Building Materials Group, will build a total of 26 smart factories and 11 digital mines, the first phase of Ningxia Building Materials Industrial Internet Data Center will be completed and put into use, and 12 enterprises including Tai'an Zhonglian, Jushi Chengdu, Shandong Industrial Ceramics Institute, and Xiamen Standard Sand will be selected as intelligent manufacturing pilots by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.
The digital transformation I hope for is to start with the digitalization of R&D and design, to the digitalization of production, management and sales service, and realize the digitalization of the entire system. This is very important to us. Zhou Yuxian said.
It is understood that in the next step, China National Building Materials Group will take digital technology and the flow of data elements as the driving force, and take "intelligent transformation and digital transformation" as the core to comprehensively promote the "digital transformation of the industry" and "digital value improvement".
"Intelligent reform", that is, highlighting the guidance of standards and the application of technology. Released Cement Smart Factory 20 standard, formulate digital standards for glass, glass fiber, gypsum board, and intelligent mines, so that the new intelligent line is "born" in accordance with the standard, promote the list-type intelligent transformation in accordance with the principle of economic rationality, and deepen the application of new technologies such as "intelligent mine", "AI modeling value-added application", "air construction" and "smart safety".
"Digital transformation", that is, highlighting data flow and empowering value-added. The first is to speed up the flow of data elements. Build a digital R&D and design platform and an intelligent production and operation platform to realize the empowerment of data elements to lead industries. The second is to explore the path of digital value appreciation. Aggregate the group's internal and external technical service capabilities, optimize resource allocation, explore data modeling innovation incubation mechanisms, and develop market-oriented products and solutions. Innovate business models, consolidate industrial Internet platforms that empower industries and digital logistics platforms with industry characteristics, build professional digital technology companies, and enhance the capital value of data assets.
Zhou Yuxian said that the new quality productivity is a contemporary advanced productivity born by revolutionary breakthroughs in technology, innovative allocation of production factors, and in-depth industrial transformation and upgrading. New quality productivity and new industrialization complement each other, both of which are dominated by scientific and technological innovation, requiring a break from traditional growth modes and high-quality development. 2024 is a key year to achieve the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan", and it will also become a year for China National Building Materials Group to accelerate the cultivation of new quality productivity and build a modern industrial system.