China Minmetals Corporation held the 2024 Annual Working Conference on December 28. Weng Zuliang, Party Group Secretary and Chairman of China Minmetals, presided over the conference and delivered a speech. At this conference, he summarized the annual work in 2023, and arranged the key tasks for 2024. Guo Wenqing, Director, President and Deputy Party Group Secretary of China Minmetals, made a work report.
It was pointed out at the conference that in 2023, China Minmetals made a series of impressive achievements and deepened its understanding of regularity by implementing the "Five Core Principles" at depth and accelerating the promotion of the "Five Action Plans" and "Five Types of China Minmetals", delivering an encouraging performance in high-quality development on a new journey. Its operating revenue in 2023 was expected to reach RMB 930 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 3.5%, and its net profit was also expected to increase significantly on a year-on-year basis. Its cost and scale of interest-bearing liabilities both decreased, and its operational quality and efficiency continued to be improved.
In his speech, Weng Zuliang summarized the main highlights in the work of China Minmetals in 2023. First, China Minmetals adhered to the principles of "outperforming the market, leading the industry and making continuous self-improvements", with its operating performance reaching record high, reflecting a momentum of further consolidating high-quality development. China Minmetals forged ahead and effectively responded to internal and external pressures and challenges. Its operating revenue, total profit and net profit grew against the trend, and with constant improvements on quality and efficiency, its asset structure was continuously optimized. This shows that China Minmetals took a major step to solve the "China Minmetals' Questions". Second, China Minmetals acted quickly after planning and achieved qualitative breakthroughs in key responsibility and major business, demonstrating a responsible image in high-quality development. Significant progresses have been made in prospecting at mines such as Shuikoushan, Xikuangshan, Xianglushan, Las Bambas and Saindak. The construction of Chentaigou Iron Mine has been in full swing, while the exploitation of Nihe Iron Mine and Zhaopingfang Iron Mine has sped up. In addition, China Minmetals independently designed and manufactured the world's first heavy plate mill with a width up to 5,600 mm, utilized self-developed technologies to build the world's first low-carbon blast furnace with a size of 2,000 m3, and developed a gas-based direct reduction ironmaking device with completely independent intellectual property rights, which significantly enhanced the advantages of independent innovation in metallurgical construction. Meanwhile, its major projects such as the lithium?salt?lake?project in Qinghai, the construction project of green intelligent mine on graphite resources in Heilongjiang, and the battery?foil?project?of North China Aluminum Co., Ltd., have been completed and put into operation. Its business integration in ecological environmental protection and inspection and testing has delivered results, fully unleashing the potential of new industries. Third, China Minmetals kept pace with the times and endeavored to promote reform and innovation, further enhancing its momentum of high-quality development. The equity management rights of its subsidiaries have gradually been defined, indicating that an important step has been taken in authorization and delegation of power. With the development and launch of core functions, the treasury system and the supply chain governance platform have become important means for the corporation to modernize its governance system and governance capabilities. Meanwhile, China Minmetals put great efforts to ensure the sound growth of the Central Research Institute, and Zeng Bin, chief scientist on civil engineering, was elected as an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Fourth, China Minmetals rose to the challenge, worked hard under pressure, and solved a number of urgent and difficult problems, further enhancing its confidence in high-quality development. It provided emergency support for flood prevention and rescue in Zhuozhou, and offered emergency assistance for earthquake relief in Gansu and Qinghai, winning numerous challenging battles. It also solved a number of remaining problems by effectively revitalizing projects, actively resolving risks and fully promoting ecological restoration.
Weng Zuliang emphasized that changes and chaos were intertwined in today's world, resulting in a sluggish economy and an obvious trend against globalization. However, China's economy would maintain the general trend of recovery and long-term growth. In 2024, China Minmetals should focus on the main business of metals and minerals, and make efforts in both traditional and emerging industries. In terms of metals and minerals, it should vigorously increase its reserves and outputs and make advances in three aspects, i.e. mergers & acquisitions, deep and side prospecting and a new round of strategic prospecting actions. It should also advance resource continuity projects, as well as the production and expansion of ongoing projects. In terms of engineering construction, it should pay more attention to sorting out product lines so as to improve quality and build brands. It should firmly strengthen the leading role of original and innovative technologies such as green, low-carbon and intelligent model control and continuously provide "hard support" for core equipment design and manufacturing, so as to constantly enhance its core competitiveness. In terms of trade & logistics, it should deepen and expand cooperation with international mining companies, and put great efforts to promote digital empowerment and supply chain integration innovation. It should also strive to achieve the integration of industry and trade, the linkage between warehousing and freight transportation and the matching of futures and spot goods to upgrade its value chain. In terms of battery materials, it should step up efforts to acquire upstream resources, continue to consolidate its position in the positive electrode material industry, and further extend the applications of negative electrode materials. In terms of hard alloy, it should increase the proportion of high value-added and high-tech products such as CNC cutting tools and micro drills, and create "specialized, refined, unique and new" product sets in segmented fields. In terms of silicon-based materials, it should establish a composite innovation system characterized by independent innovation and cooperative development and form three major product clusters: zone-melting polycrystalline silicon, silicon-based electronic special gas and silicon-based functional materials. In terms of ecological environmental protection, it should highlight water environment treatment and expand its businesses to such fields as ecological environment restoration, mine land reclamation, solid waste treatment, air pollution treatment and industrial energy conservation. In terms of inspection and testing, it should deepen cooperation with industry leaders and outline its key responsibilities and major business, so as to build a business system with prominent focuses and distinctive characteristics.
In his work report, Guo Wenqing summarized the achievements of reform and development of China Minmetals in 2023 from the aspects of production and operation, metals and minerals, engineering construction, high-tech materials, technological innovation, management and control, risk prevention and control, etc. He expressed that in 2023, China Minmetals withstood the pressure of economic downturn, and maintained a sound momentum of steady development based on consistent growth in business scale, steady improvement in operation performance and continuous increase in operating efficiency, with better key operating indicators than expected. The supporting role of metals and minerals has been enhanced in China Minmetals’ businesses. Positive progresses have been made in resource continuity, and the production and operations of its mines have been carried out in a stable and orderly manner. Its resource trade channels have been further expanded, and the first physical delivery of domestic blended ores for iron ore futures was completed on the Dalian Commodity Exchange at?the?100-million-ton?international?ore?trading?center?in?Caofeidian. Its engineering construction business has maintained steady growth for consecutive years. The amount of newly signed engineering contracts was expected to achieve a year-on-year growth of 4.5%. Besides, its metallurgical construction business has maintained its leading position in the industry, and the number of high-end projects in basic construction projects has steadily increased. The number of national awards that it has received is also historically high. Its high-tech materials business has achieved rapid growth. Its major projects of new energy and new materials have been gradually put into operation, and its application of materials has been effectively extended and expanded to other fields. Micro drills with the minimum diameter have been delivered in batches, and ultra-high pressure resistant top hammers and dental drills have been successfully localized. Furthermore, its technological innovation efficiency has been significantly improved, with a year-on-year increase of 21% in invention patents. Its management and control have been constantly strengthened and optimized, with 10 affiliated scientific and technological reform enterprises and Double Top 100 enterprises rated as benchmarking and excellent enterprises, and 3 subsidiaries added to the list of Double Top 100 enterprises.
At the conference, Guo Wenqing proposed 6 specific tasks for the corporation to achieve its objectives in 2024. First, China Minmetals should devote itself to improve its operational quality and complete the annual operation tasks with high quality. Second, it should outline key responsibilities and major business, and accelerate the optimization and upgrading of its industrial structure. Third, it should firmly uphold the concept of "one game of chess" and unwaveringly adhere to the principle of "competing in the market externally and enhancing management internally". Fourth, it should vigorously promote technological innovation at a high level, so as to support and lead the high-quality development of industries. Fifth, it should hold on to the bottom line of law-abiding compliance operation and thoroughly investigate, resolve and prevent major risks. Sixth, it should further promote the entrepreneurial spirit and encourage its employees to take on responsibilities in practical work.
It was particularly emphasized at the conference that China Minmetals should ensure work safety and care more for its employees at the turn of the year, and that it should strengthen overall planning, make work arrangements for the first quarter of 2024 in advance, and work to usher in a stable and good start for the new year.
