The Working Paper series provides a means for circulating preliminary research results by members of, or visitors associated with, the Chinese Economies Research Centre. To facilitate prompt distribution, papers are screened but not formally refereed. ABSTRACT This paper outlines and applies a methodology for testing the hypothesis, put forward by Chinese metallurgical industry officials, that ...

Gh. H. Popescu, E. Nicolăescu, Dimitrie Cantemir Christian University, Bucharest; E. Nica, Bucharest University of Economic Studies; G. Lăzăroiu, Spiru Haret University, Bucharest, Romania The theory that we shall seek to elaborate here puts considerable emphasis on technological features of China’s steel production, its emergence as the world’s most significant steel producer and main manufact...

The present work proposes new heuristics and algorithms for the 3D Cutting and Packing class of problems. Specifically the cutting stock problem and a real-world application from the retail steel distribution industry are addressed. The problem being addressed for the retail steel distribution industry is the retail steel cutting problem, which is how to cut steel in order to satisfy the custom...

1 Mustafa Yavaş, 2 Taner Ersöz, 3 Mehmet Kabak and 4 Filiz Ersöz 1 Karabuk University, Department of Industrial Engineering, Iron and Steel Campus, Karabuk, Turkey 2 Karabuk University, Department of Actuarial and Risk Management, Iron and Steel Campus, Karabuk 3 Mehmet Kabak, Turkish Military Academy, Department of Industry and System Engineering, Ankara 4 Karabuk University, Department of Ind...

Rapid development of automotive industry brings also increased requirements for sheets properties, involving relatively high strength and good formability together with excellent corrosion resistance. Increasing requests for corrosion resistance lead to the production of coated car parts, protected mainly by zinc coatings. Whereas, majority of European producers of passenger cars use preferenti...

The industrial plants, beyond subsisting, pursue to be leaders in increasingly competitive and dynamic markets. In this environment, quality management and technological innovation is less a choice than a must. Quality principles, such as those comprised in ISO 9000 standards, recommend companies to make their decisions with a based on facts approach; a policy much easily followed thanks to the...

A new solution for large-scale scheduling in the steelmaking industry, called Finishing Line Scheduling (FLS), is described. FLS in a major steel mill is a task to create production campaigns (specific production runs) for steel coils on four continuous processes for a one-month horizon. Two process flows are involved in FLS, and the balancing of the two process flows requires resolving conflic...

Located in Guangxi Province, China, the Liuzhou Iron and Steel Company is one of China’s leading suppliers of plate steel to its shipbuilding industry. Also exporting to countries such as Japan, Germany, Singapore and Thailand, the company is now capable of producing one million tons of steel per year, owing to a series of recent technical innovation projects. Foremost among these is an ongoing...