From: Anhui Daily

N New materials are an important support for new industrialization, one of the strategic emerging industries that the country is vigorously developing, and an important industrial direction for accelerating the development of new quality productivity and solidly promoting high-quality development. Aluminum, as a silvery-white metal, has the characteristics of light weight and good ductility, electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, heat resistance and radiation resistance. Aluminum and aluminum alloys are getting more and more widely application.

As one of the top five aluminum-based material manufacturers in China, Xinbo has been following national strategies and market trends since 2007, from traditional architectural aluminum profiles to industrial aluminum profiles for high-end equipment, and then to aluminum components for strategic emerging industries such as photovoltaics and lightweight of new energy vehicles. It is currently deploying recycled aluminum project and getting to the fields of aviation, aerospace, and shipbuilding aluminum alloy materials. In this short period of decade, its sales revenue has grown from 30 million yuan to approximately 10 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of more than 30%, which is astonishingly fast.

How did Xinbo achieve successful transformation and development? How is the new quality productivity reflected? What is the secret of the company's rapid rise? Recently, the journalist interviewed Tang Kaijian, chairman of Anhui Xinbo Aluminum Co., Ltd.

Journalist: Xinbo started out as a traditional architectural aluminum profile company with only two extrusion production lines and a 3,200-square-meter factory. In this short period of decade, it has kept pace with the times, achieved precise transformation and upgrading, and become a well-known domestic listed aluminum company. What are the main reasons for this?

Tang Kaijian: The main reason is that the company closely follows the national strategy and takes the path of differentiated development. Through the judgment of trends, it transforms in time and is highly consistent with the development strategy of the country, province and city. From 2007 to 2013, the company made traditional building profiles, catching up with the rapid development stage of urbanization; from 2013 to 2017, it developed industrial profiles, adapting to the national high-speed rail and other strategic fields of technology products localization and independence requirements; from 2017 to 2021, it focuses on photovoltaic aluminum frames, which is also consistent with Chuzhou City's goal of building a "World Photovoltaic Capital"; in 2022, it began to focus on lightweight key structural parts for new energy vehicles, in line with Anhui Province's strategic plan to accelerate the construction of an internationally competitive new energy vehicle industry cluster; now it is aiming at more cutting-edge aviation, aerospace and other fields for technology reserves, which is also in response to the country's strategic layout in the future high-tech field. The company has achieved overtaking on the curve and latecomers have surpassed the others. The most important thing is fast and accurate transformation, and the strategic direction of corporate planning is scientific and different from others.

Journalist: Technology and talent are the foundation for enterprises to transform and upgrade and achieve high-quality development. What good practices does the company have in technology research and development and talent training?

Tang Kaijian: Cooperating with universities and research institutes to tackle key problems is our main method. Around 2000, 90% of the alloy core parts of my country's rail transit transmission network were imported from abroad. Through cooperative research and development with Hefei University of Technology, our products have successfully replaced European imported products, and their performance exceeds European standards. At present, the company's products of this type have accounted for more than 70% of the domestic market. In recent years, we have carried out two cooperations with Central South University, which not only provide internship platforms for universities, but also retain some undergraduates and graduate students to work for the company. We will also cooperate to establish an alloy material research institute, with the help of the technical strength of universities, cultivate the company's own technical talents, and jointly carry out research and development. At present, by improving the new materials of photovoltaic aluminum frames, a 15% cost reduction has been achieved. The new technology is being protected by intellectual property rights. It has passed small-batch production tests and inspections by relevant departments, and is expected to be mass-produced in June this year. Once entering the market, it will increase profits by more than 300 million yuan per year.

Journalist: How do you understand new quality productivity? How does Xinbo accelerate the formation of new quality productivity? What is the secret?

Tang Kaijian: The core of new quality productivity is a substantial increase in total factor productivity. I think it is mainly reflected in three aspects. First, it is reflected in new technologies. Through school-enterprise cooperation and joint research and development, technology should play a leading role in the industry, and both technology application and technology reserves should be leading. Second, it is reflected in the internal management of enterprises. Through the implementation of information and digital construction projects, enterprises have improved scientific governance and management levels, improved production efficiency and reduced production costs. Third, we must closely combine the industry and market conditions, and make layouts around national strategies, new industries, and high-end industries. At present, we have become a benchmark for domestic photovoltaic aluminum frame companies. Last year, the output was 290,000 tons, and this year it will reach 450,000 to 500,000 tons. Our customers are all global photovoltaic leading companies, and the new energy vehicle sector will also achieve a sales target of 2 billion yuan in 2024.

Journalist: An important feature of new quality productivity is revolutionary technological breakthroughs. For the aluminum-based materials industry, how is the revolution reflected?

Tang Kaijian: The technological breakthrough in the aluminum-based materials industry is, as I understand it, a revolutionary breakthrough in aluminum. For example, aluminum was not used before, but is now used instead. For example, aluminum buildings and all-aluminum bridges in Europe are not available in China yet. The hardness of aluminum profiles was only 10-11HW 10 years ago, but now we have achieved 16.5HW, and adding alloy materials can reach 18HW in the laboratory. With the continuous advancement of technology, aluminum alloy materials will be used in more and more scenarios, which will also bring greater convenience to people's lives.

Aluminum is not only light, but also has a high recycling rate, which can reach 96% to 97%. In addition, aluminum consumes very little energy during the recycling process, 700 yuan per ton, which is only half of steel. Therefore, it is in line with the national dual-carbon development strategy and has a relatively large market space. We are launching a 600,000-ton recycled aluminum project, which is expected to be put into production by the end of this month.

Journalist: In addition to closely following the national strategy, the company's rapid development is also due to the leadership's judgment, acumen and control of management details. What did Xinbo do right?

Tang Kaijian: We believe that it is crucial to judge the industry and grasp the market opportunities. When the company was making architectural profiles, the real estate market was still good, but we resolutely decided to give up and transform into industrial profiles. We have a judgment that the higher the technical requirements, the deeper the development of the industry, and this is in line with the law of the industry. For example, there are three standards for aluminum profiles: ordinary precision (architectural profiles, industrial profiles), high precision (industrial profiles, photovoltaics), and ultra-high precision (photovoltaic frames, new energy vehicles, future industries). In the process of advancement, products, customers, and technologies are constantly upgraded to achieve higher quality results.

In order to further enhance the company's international competitiveness in the new energy photovoltaic market, we take advantage of the country's "One Belt, One Road" policy to actively explore overseas markets and meet the company's international development strategy needs. We have established subsidiaries in Vietnam and Malaysia, and exported to Vietnam, India and other countries.

In addition, I believe that there are three elements to run a business: a large market scale, technological leadership, and superior production capacity. Among them, the formation of superior production capacity includes management, cost, quality, talent, worker treatment, etc., and the working atmosphere of the company should be good. All employees in our company have free accommodation and free meals a day. This alone costs 13,000 yuan per empoyee per year, but we think it is worth. In addition, the talent promotion channel is unobstructed, and the company's staff turnover is very small.