en.Wedoany.com Reported - Nanjing Iron and Steel Group is driving a profound transformation of traditional steel production processes through artificial intelligence and data-driven factors. This veteran steel enterprise, located on the banks of the Yangtze River, features a 42-meter-long, 6-meter-high ultra-high-definition giant screen in its smart operations center, which displays real-time production details from the raw material dock to finished product delivery. Data from thousands of sensors dynamically reflects production statuses ranging from belt speeds to furnace temperature curves.

The "black box" state of the blast furnace ironmaking process is being dismantled. NISCO has deployed over a thousand sensors around its blast furnaces to collect multi-dimensional data such as temperature, pressure, and images in real time. This data is fed into a "digital twin" model, constructing a virtual factory corresponding to the physical blast furnace. NISCO's trained AI model can predict furnace temperature changes two hours in advance, with an accuracy rate consistently above 90%. This has improved the first-grade molten iron rate by 10 percentage points compared to the manual operation era and increased the ironmaking process turnover rate by 5%. Li Jinyan, President of NISCO's Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, stated that the blast furnace is now equipped with "X-ray vision," making the distribution of gas flow, the descent speed of furnace burden, and the trend of temperature changes within the furnace clearly visible. Liu Yonghui, Director of the Digital Application Office at the Ironmaking Division's Technology Department, pointed out that production is shifting from a "workshop-style" operation reliant on veteran workers' experience to standardized production based on data algorithms. A young worker with just one year of experience can quickly grasp the essentials of furnace condition judgment with the help of an AI assistant.

In June 2025, NISCO, in collaboration with Huawei, released the "Yuanye·Steel Large Model." This model aims to address challenges such as the complexity of steel production processes, the long growth cycle for new employees, and the difficulty of replicating experience. Wang Suyang, General Manager of NISCO's Jinheng Technology, explained that "Yuanye" functions like an intelligent entity with both a left brain (precise mechanistic models) and a right brain (AI models for massive data), capable of integrating data across the entire process from raw materials to customers. In the intelligent ore blending process for blast furnaces, the AI model replaces the previous method of veteran workers relying on intuition for calculations, achieving precise predictions of molten iron temperature and composition, thereby reducing annual production costs by over 300 million yuan. Currently, "Yuanye" has incubated over 200 high-value AI models covering areas such as visual inspection, process optimization, and quality prediction.

Since launching its "311" data strategy project in 2021, NISCO has invested 100 million yuan over three years to train 1,000 data management professionals, with the goal of transforming data from a "byproduct" into a "core resource." Currently, NISCO has established a data collection system covering 21 major business areas, with over 95% of core data assets entering the data lake. In 2024, NISCO became one of the first listed companies in China to include data assets on its balance sheet; by 2025, data assets on the balance sheet reached 23.24 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 125%. Additionally, two self-developed data products have been among the first to be listed on the Jiangsu Provincial Data Exchange. Through its industrial internet platform, NISCO has achieved seamless integration of orders, quality, and logistics with upstream and downstream enterprises, reducing the capital occupation cycle by 45% and the inventory turnover cycle by 33%. Ru Jintong, President of NISCO's Digital Application Research Institute, stated that NISCO has provided digital services to over 2,000 enterprises across 22 industries nationwide. Huang Yixin, NISCO's Party Secretary and Chairman, pointed out that the essence of digitalization is to liberate people, allowing employees to lift their heads from the sea of data and focus their energy on more creative work.

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