Industrial Innovation In China With Special Reference To The Metallurgical Industry

This book explores the principles of supply-side structural reform and current practices in the Chinese steel industry. Focusing on the general requirements for high-quality development, it reviews the evolution of the global and Chinese steel industries with regard to reduction, innovation, and transformation. It also summarizes industrial development law from a transfer route perspective, analyzes major challenges and opportunities for the steel industry in the new era, and proposes strategic orientation and implementation measures for the future development of the steel industry. The book contends that high-quality development of the steel industry must be driven by innovation, and it is essential to promote integrated development based on several aspects – greenness, coordination, quality, standardization, differentiation, service, intelligence, diversification, and internationalization – in order to reshape the industrial value chain and continuously improve industrial competitiveness. This concept is essential to help Chinese steel companies prepare development plans for transformation and upgrading. Combining thorough analysis, unique insights, and many practical cases, the book offers a guide to and inspiration for future implementation approaches.

This book, based on extensive original research, examines the factors which lead to successful innovation in Chinese industry. Considering the large and important Chinese mining industry in detail, it argues that innovation is key for success in all industries, not just new "tech" industries. It reveals how the interaction of universities, governments and industries is highly significant, considers how some parts of the industry, such as the mining and mineral processing stages, are more innovative than other stages, such as prospecting and mining equipment manufacturing, and suggests that this is explained both by the distance between final products and the market and commercialisation, and by the intensity of the interaction between the industrial company and the university or research institute. Throughout, the book includes examples and case studies to highlight the points made.

Along with the political and economic reforms that have characterized the post-Mao era in China there has been a potentially revolutionary change in Chinese science and technology. Here sixteen scholars examine various facets of the current science and technology scene, comparing it with the past and speculating about future trends. Two chapters dealing with science under the Nationalists and under Mao are followed by a section of extensive analysis of reforms under Deng Xiaoping, focusing on the organizational system, the use of human resources, and the emerging response to market forces. Chapters dealing with changes in medical care, agriculture, and military research and development demonstrate how these reforms have affected specific areas during the Chinese shift away from Party orthodoxy and Maoist populism toward professional expertise as the guiding principle in science and technology. Three further chapters deal with China's interface with the world at large in the process of technology transfer. Both the introductory and concluding chapters describe the tension between the Chinese Communist Party structure, with its inclinations toward strict vertical control, and the scientific and technological community's need for a free flow of information across organizational, disciplinary, and national boundaries.

This paper has shown that in addition to strong support from the government, China's metallurgical industries have bene ted by absorbing foreign technologies and then using indigenous development capabilities to improve operating performance. China's dominance of most metallurgical sectors provides ample evidence of the success of this approach. However, if China is to sustain its technical leadership it will need to adjust this model to one that encourages breakthrough technologies as against the incremental improvements that characterize the current model. Making this change will not be easy because China's current business culture punishes failure more than it rewards success, which is an environment not conducive to the judicious risk- taking that is essential for developing disruptive technologies. Further, China's obsession with secrecy and its reputation for the widespread theft of intellectual property constrain transnational collaboration. These factors will make it di cult for China to adjust its innovation model to one that can provide the technical solutions essential for sustained improvement. But even if the model can be changed it is doubtful whether it will be any longer possible to "make the foreign serve China." Western industry and the policies of their governments need to adapt to this reality. Although trade remedies may be appropriate in some circumstances, more generally Western industry should focus on their evolving technological comparative advantages and cooperating with Chinese producers where appropriate.

This unique and informative book provides a central reference work on the Chinese steel industry and discusses China's increasing demand on metals from both macroeconomic and regional perspectives. It includes macroeconomic studies of developments in Chinese resource demand with particular reference to the ferrous metals and microeconomic studies that utilize comprehensive firm-level data to evince new knowledge of both firm and industry performance with respect to their productivity, the technical efficiency, and industrial linkages. The book also discusses trade in steel products and the impact of the restructuring of the industry on the environment. This detailed and analytical study will appeal to academics, students and researchers in Chinese studies, government agencies and private sectors - such as the mining industry, as well as financial agencies analysing the Chinese demand on global resources.