On August 28, the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce released the 2025 list of China's Top 500 Private Enterprises. Zhenshi Holding Group Co., Ltd. once again made a strong appearance on the "Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises" and the "Top 100 Chinese Private Service Enterprises," showcasing the continuous prosperity and vitality of Jiaxing's private economy.

Since first entering the Top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises in 2013, ranking 408th, Zhenshi has been listed for thirteen consecutive years, climbing to 191st place; since first entering the Top 100 Chinese Private Service Enterprises in 2021, ranking 92nd, it has been listed for five consecutive years, rising to 42nd place. What kind of development resilience does this private enterprise reflect behind its continuous dominance and rising rankings? Let's start with the recently popular animated film "Langlang Mountain Little Monster."

This film follows a group of grassroots characters traveling westward as the main storyline, carving out their own path in the strictly hierarchical "Langlang Mountain," conveying the spirit of resilient growth and overcoming difficulties. Taking Zhenshi Holding's core industry—the steel industry—as an example, this seems like a "Langlang Mountain" standing across China's manufacturing sector, once daunting due to its high energy consumption, high emissions, and homogenized competition.

"Different industries are like different mountains, but we can climb over them." As Zhang Yuqiang, Party Secretary and Chairman of Zhenshi Holding Group, said, from crossing over from fiberglass new materials to the stainless steel field, Zhenshi's special steel segment also has its own "Langlang Mountain."

Climbing over the survival "Langlang Mountain"

Let's go back to 2007. At that time, Jiaxing Steel Plant was a microcosm of the traditional steel industry's difficulties: product homogenization, lack of competitiveness, and on the verge of collapse under the huge waves of the national steel market. Zhenshi Holding Group was entrusted with a critical mission, jointly acquiring the old Jiaxing Steel and renaming it Dongfang Special Steel. In 2008, the global financial crisis broke out, and stainless steel prices plummeted sharply from nearly 40,000 yuan per ton to less than 10,000 yuan. This "Langlang Mountain" was far steeper and colder than imagined.

Facing difficulties, Dongfang Special Steel did not follow the old path into the red ocean of scale. Zhang Yuqiang decisively pointed out the direction: "What others don't have, we have; what others have, we excel; what others excel at, we specialize. Follow the path of 'high, refined, special, and rare!'" This became the core strategy to climb over the homogenized "Langlang Mountain."

First was product restructuring. Dongfang Special Steel abandoned ordinary carbon steel, targeting the special stainless steel market that is heat-resistant/low-temperature resistant, corrosion-resistant, and high-strength, forming customized, serialized, and distinctive stainless steel products. Technical breakthroughs followed, with the company introducing advanced equipment, overcoming key technologies such as Consteel electric furnace short-process smelting, ultra-thick slab continuous casting, and online solution treatment, developing high-end grades like super duplex steel and nickel-based alloys. To date, it owns more than 60 core technologies and over 100 authorized patents. In the market segment, Dongfang Special Steel deeply cultivates high-end niche fields such as nuclear power, seawater desalination, solar thermal power, and high-end ships (LNG ships), increasing product added value.

The results were immediate. In 2012, amid an industry-wide loss winter, Dongfang Special Steel's profit exceeded 100 million yuan for the first time, successfully turning losses into profits. With differentiated "high, refined, special, and rare" products, it carved out a path on the "Langlang Mountain," becoming a domestic leader in niche markets such as heat-resistant stainless steel and low-temperature ship plate steel.

"Compared with ordinary carbon steel, stainless steel has lower life-cycle costs, wider applications, adapts to special environments, and is environmentally friendly and low-carbon." Whenever talking about the painstakingly refined "stainless steel," Liu Xiaoya, Vice President of the Group and Chairman of Dongfang Special Steel, always speaks with pride.

Bravely climbing the "green peak"

As a traditional industry, how to achieve the transformation of new and old kinetic energy is a challenge facing all companies in the steel industry. Facing the national "dual carbon" goals and the trend of industry capacity reduction and green transformation, Dongfang Special Steel climbed over the survival "Langlang Mountain" and proactively turned its gaze to the more challenging but brighter "green peak."

Entering the intelligent energy control center, a huge electronic screen displays data from over 2,000 sensors across the plant: current load, water quality indicators, equipment energy consumption... Real-time curves fluctuate like a pulse. This self-developed intelligent system enables over a hundred key environmental protection devices to achieve "breath control," and the dynamic consumption of water, electricity, and gas can be accurately predicted. "A circular economy ecosystem has grown inside the steel plant." What makes employees proud is that the solid waste resource utilization rate has reached 98%, even steel slag has been transformed into roadbed material.

Supported by the world's first Consteel electric furnace smelting stainless steel mother liquid technology, abandoning traditional high energy consumption and high pollution production methods, coal-to-gas conversion, waste heat power generation, and photovoltaic power generation reduce carbon emissions by about 160,000 tons annually. The "full oxygen + natural gas" combustion technology was selected as a "Typical Case of Green and Low-Carbon Manufacturing in Zhejiang Province." The "Comprehensive Utilization of Solid Waste Resources in Stainless Steel Short-Process Steelmaking" project was successfully included in the "National Industrial Resource Comprehensive Utilization Advanced Applicable Process Technology Equipment Catalog," with the entire process's "green content" increasingly high.

At the end of 2024, Dongfang Special Steel was rated as a "National Green Factory," taking a key step on the "mid-mountain" of green development.

Infinite splendor ultimately lies atop the perilous peak

However, infinite splendor ultimately lies atop the perilous peak. In 2024, China's stainless steel output reached 39.44 million tons, accounting for 63% of the global total, with industry concentration continuously increasing. This year's sixth meeting of the Central Financial and Economic Affairs Commission clearly identified governing low-price disorderly competition as the primary task in building a unified national market, requiring quality improvement, elimination of backward capacity, and promoting the industry's transformation toward large-scale, green, and coastal development.

Facing the cyclical adjustment of the stainless steel industry, moving forward amid challenges and starting one step ahead of peers has become the winning strategy in the competition.

Currently, the Zhenshi Green High-end Nickel-Chromium New Material Intelligent Manufacturing Project site in Xinfeng Town, Nanhu District, is bustling with heat. Hundred-meter tower cranes swing their arms, sparks fly among the steel jungle, and builders are working hard to advance the project progress. Amid the roar of machines, a "new steel city" oriented toward the future is rapidly growing.

The project's hot-rolled production line can produce ultra-thin strip steel with a thickness of up to 1.85 millimeters, becoming the world's thinnest hot-rolled material strip, achieving efficient production of ultra-thin stainless steel strip steel. "The project is designed with the concepts of 'intelligent equipment, green processes, and high-end products,' aiming to build a fully digital and intelligent factory covering the entire process and production line. From hot rolling to cold rolling, the industrial chain is extended, products are richer, and closer to the end market," said Shen Jiankang, Vice Chairman and General Manager of Dongfang Special Steel.

"If you don't sow during the 'worst times,' you won't reap during the 'best times.'" In Zhang Yuqiang's view, Zhenshi and Hanggang's strong alliance and resource complementarity, creating a green high-end nickel-chromium new material intelligent manufacturing project under the "national progress together" model, aims to navigate the new cycle with certainty.

Facing multiple challenges such as resources, technology, and market, under the dual tracks of "deepening state-owned enterprise reform" and "promoting private economic development," Zhenshi Holdings continuously pushes the company to new heights through mixed-ownership reform cooperation, integrating resources and complementing advantages.

Zhenshi's "Langlang Mountain" journey is not only an epic struggle of a company but also a microcosm of Jiaxing's manufacturing industry's implementation of national strategies during transformation and upgrading. With the spirit of "climbing mountains," Zhenshi Holdings will continue to overcome new "Langlang Mountains" on the path of high-quality development of the private economy with tenacity, meticulous effort, and green innovation, continuously enhancing the prestigious brand of China's Top 500 private enterprises and injecting stronger momentum into the prosperity of the private economy in Jiaxing and nationwide.

Editor: Xu Yujie

Chief Editor: Chen Xi

Reviewer: Jiang Pengfei