Forging the Future: How Liuzhou Iron & Steel is Reinventing Heavy Industry with AI

Summary: Liuzhou Iron & Steel leverages the Xuantie model and Huawei’s cloud platform to accelerate intelligent, green, and high-efficiency manufacturing.

Liuzhou Iron & Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (short for Liuzhou Iron & Steel) stands as a monumental pillar of China's heavy industry, carrying the weight of decades of industrial heritage while driving the economic heartbeat of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and southern China.

For generations, the roaring blast furnaces and glowing rivers of molten steel have symbolized the brute strength and unyielding momentum of traditional manufacturing. Yet, as the global industrial landscape stands on the precipice of a profound paradigm shift driven by artificial intelligence and digital connectivity, heavy manufacturing is being redefined. Rather than relying solely on scale, asset density, and sheer volume, industry leaders are racing to master the art of digital intelligence. To lead this historic transition, Liuzhou Iron & Steel has embarked on an ambitious journey to accelerate the intelligent, networked, and high-end transformation of traditional steelmaking. In strategic partnership with Huawei, the company is diving deep into core steelmaking scenarios, dismantling long-standing industry bottlenecks, and forging comprehensive, intelligent solutions that marry metallurgical craftsmanship with advanced AI.

The path toward industrial intelligence in the steel sector is fraught with complex structural challenges. Steelmaking is an inherently intricate discipline involving extreme temperatures, intense pressures, and continuous multi-stage operations that create harsh and demanding production environments. Traditionally, core metallurgical processes have functioned as functional "black boxes", where internal physical and chemical reactions are notoriously difficult to observe, measure, or control in real time. Furthermore, legacy manufacturing operations have long suffered from severe data silos, fragmented information systems, inconsistent data quality, and highly customized point solutions that incur exorbitant maintenance and integration costs. Because system stability, operational safety, and absolute precision are non-negotiable prerequisites for heavy industrial manufacturing, steel enterprises have historically been extremely cautious when evaluating and adopting emerging technologies. Overcoming these industry-wide bottlenecks required a paradigm shift: moving beyond isolated digital tools to establish a unified, secure, and technologically advanced computational foundation capable of supporting mission-critical operations.

To break through these long-standing operational barriers, Liuzhou Iron & Steel joined forces with Huawei and ecosystem partners to launch and commercially deploy Guangxi’s very first foundation model dedicated to the steel industry—the Xuantie Steel Model. Built upon Huawei Cloud Stack and ModelArts model training and inference platform, and Huawei's advanced Pangu foundation model architecture, the Xuantie Model serves as the intelligent brain for the enterprise's digital evolution. Leveraging advanced transfer learning and domain-specific pre-training, the model is structured around three core conceptual pillars: AI + human interaction, AI + data processing, and AI + manufacturing optimization. Grounded in this tripartite structure, Liuzhou Iron & Steel established a comprehensive "20+N" scenario-specific model framework. This modular architecture successfully spans six critical stages of the entire manufacturing lifecycle: pre-smelting, ironmaking, steelmaking, rolling, logistics, environmental protection, and safety, effectively bridging isolated operational islands into a cohesive digital ecosystem.

Through this deep technical collaboration, Liuzhou Iron & Steel has commercialized dozens of high-value, scenario-specific models powered by Huawei's hybrid cloud foundation, yielding profound technical and commercial value. Among these, the intelligent molten iron transportation system integrates 5G connectivity, industrial internet protocols, and artificial intelligence to transform logistics from manual oversight to autonomous control. Operating across a two-kilometer rail network connecting blast furnaces to steelmaking plants, driverless locomotives equipped with advanced sensors, cameras, and radars autonomously navigate routes, plan tasks, and execute acceleration, deceleration, and braking. This automated logistics network has successfully reduced molten iron temperature drops by 35℃, saving approximately 60,000 tons of standard coal and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 262,000 tons annually.

In the realm of core manufacturing and quality control, the deployment of specialized AI models has unlocked substantial economic dividends. The intelligent LF furnace refining model combines mechanistic physical simulations with advanced machine learning algorithms to achieve precise temperature prediction, automated alloy addition, and optimized argon blowing, successfully cutting refining time by 2 minutes, and lowering crude steel production costs per metric ton by CNY 5 (approximately USD 0.73). Similarly, the smart plate and slab grouping model for heavy plate production replaces tedious, manual engineering calculations with rapid algorithmic optimization. Capable of generating optimal nesting and grouping plans for over 1,000 complex orders within minutes, the model increases plate yield by 1% to 2% and elevates the yield of residual slabs to over 91%. Furthermore, intelligent scheduling algorithms driven by reinforcement learning have enhanced cross-process coordination, lifting overall production efficiency by 8.5%.

In a bigger picture, this digital transformation reflects a successful model of regional industrial upgrading, aligning research and development strengths from China's primary tech hubs with localized industrial execution in Guangxi and expanding economic corridors toward ASEAN markets.

Looking forward, Liuzhou Iron & Steel plans to achieve over 80% intelligent coverage across its entire manufacturing process within three years, supported by the ongoing expansion of the Liuzhou Steel AI Research and Innovation Center. By fostering an internal culture where employees actively build customized applications and digital assistants, Liuzhou Iron & Steel and Huawei are proving that foundation models can successfully penetrate the most complex heavy industries, setting a robust, high-performance benchmark for the intelligent transformation of the global steel manufacturing sector.