Blast furnace a testimony to Baosteel's smart AI use

Powering production

Hu Wangming, chairman of China Baowu Steel Group Corp, said that as the world's largest steel enterprise, China Baowu has elevated redefining steelmaking with artificial intelligence to become a corporate strategy.

Baosteel's "smart blast furnace", a global first, is the result of collaboration between Baosteel, Shanghai Baosight Software and partners including Huawei Technologies Co, he said, and represents a major breakthrough in addressing longstanding industry challenges.

It serves as a model for integrating AI with ironmaking operations, offering a valuable reference for the global steel industry's transformation, Hu added.

Baosteel operates multiple production bases with a combined annual steelmaking capacity of 80 million metric tons. By the end of 2025, the company had deployed a total of 994 industrial robots across its operations, equivalent to a robot density of 216 robots per 10,000 employees.

Robot density — a key measure of the adoption of automation in manufacturing — is the number of robots per 10,000 people in the industry.

China has a robot density of 166 per 10,000 workers, ranking sixth in Asia and 22nd globally, according to the latest report from the International Federation of Robotics.

In terms of the total number of industrial robots, China leads the world. China accounted for about 2 million units, nearly 4.5-fold more than Japan in second place, the report said. The country's annual installation numbers were also impressive as 54 percent, or 295,000 units, of all robots installed worldwide in 2024 were deployed in China.

"By 2030, we plan to build the 'Baosteel Brain' to enable centralized decision-making across all production processes and maximize operational value," Wu, director of Baosteel's data and AI department, said.

Since implementing its AI strategy, Baosteel has undergone a profound shift from experience-driven operations to a data-driven mode, and from "passive response" to "proactive prediction".

Looking ahead, Baosteel said it will continue to advance China's strategy for high-end, intelligent and green manufacturing, while deepening the implementation of an AI+ initiative as a central State-owned enterprise, and under China Baowu's "AI 2.0 strategy".

With AI as its core engine, Baosteel aims to build a future steelmaking model that is greener, smarter and more efficient, contributing a new solution to the digital and intelligent transformation of China's steel industry.