The 5th Steel Industry Digital Solutions Exchange Conference was held in Zhengzhou
The 5th Steel Industry Digital Solutions Exchange Conference and the Launch Meeting for the 2026 Digital Transformation Assessment were held in Zhengzhou on 2–3 July. During the event, two data element innovation competitions were officially launched, and the Data Element Working Group of the Steel Industry Smart Manufacturing Alliance was established, marking a crucial step forward for the industry in implementing the national data strategy and fully embracing AI. Li Yiren, Vice-President of the China Iron and Steel Association, pointed out that the industry has entered a new phase of growth through reduction, with innovation as the fundamental solution, digitalisation as the key, and intelligentisation as the direction. He emphasised that, at present, few enterprises have genuinely restructured their organisations through the use of AI; the future gap will lie in the ability to restructure organisations, and it is essential to adhere to process re-engineering and scenario-driven approaches to build a new ecosystem of collaboration.
In his keynote address at the conference, Cong Liqun, a national expert on smart manufacturing, argued that smart manufacturing has evolved from 'Internet+' to 'AI+'. He stated that the 15th Five-Year Plan must foster a new form of smart economy, but that this faces four major challenges, including business restructuring. These challenges should be addressed through approaches such as data standardisation and the parameterisation of knowledge, with priority given to implementation in high-value scenarios. Zhang Yungui, Chief Expert at China Steel Research Group, proposed the 'AI-native steelworks' architecture and the 'Bach Conjecture' clarifying that AI is applicable to metallurgical problems where the context is describable, behaviour is programmable, results are assessable, and human intervention is possible, thereby providing guidance for enterprises in defining the boundaries of application. The roundtable forum reached a consensus that the industry is at a historic turning point, shifting from reliance on human experience to a model of steelmaking driven by human-machine collaboration.
During the same period, a kick-off meeting for the digital transformation assessment and a kick-off meeting for the group standard Guidelines for the Development of High-Quality Datasets in the Steel Industry were also held. Following the meetings, guests toured the 'Lighthouse Factory' smart industrial park. The conference reached a consensus that digital transformation in the steel industry has moved from pilot projects and exploratory phases to systematic implementation. In the future, it will be necessary to strengthen the data infrastructure, standardisation and ecosystem collaboration, using AI to deeply empower the sector and foster new forms of the smart economy, thereby driving the industry's sustained development towards greater efficiency, environmental sustainability and high quality.
Tags: The steel industry, digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI), smart manufacturing, the Industrial Internet, organisational restructuring,
