Linyi High-tech Zone completes copper rod project in 35 days

A copper rod production project with annual capacity of 20,000 tons went from contract signing on Aug 26 to trial production on Sept 30 in Linyi High-tech Zone, East China's Shandong province, taking just 35 days and setting a record for comparable projects in the region.

The project is jointly built by Linyi High-tech Industrial Development Group, under Linyi High-tech Holding Group, and Shandong Hanguang Cable Co Ltd, with total investment of 60 million yuan and annual tax revenue of about 200 million yuan ($28.2 million), strengthening the zone's nonferrous metals recycling industry.

The zone has positioned itself within the city's "recycled copper smelting plus urban mining" copper industry cluster and aligned with provincial plans to stabilize growth in the nonferrous metals sector and with carbon peak and neutrality goals.

The speed reflects the zone's approach of moving first and taking initiative. In early August, after identifying a cooperation intention, the zone Party working committee dispatched a task force to conduct research in several locations on production processes, energy consumption standards, market layout and industrial benefits to assess the project's value.

During implementation, the zone worked to a chart, set deadlines and advanced in overlapping phases. The Party working committee held progress and special study meetings on Aug 15 and 21, detailing task, timeline and responsibility lists, and identifying four key stages: procedures, equipment procurement, site construction and equipment commissioning, with a firm target of trial production before Oct 1.

To address lengthy approvals, the zone's departments broke down barriers and coordinated to introduce parallel approval, full-process agency services and allowance for missing materials with faster processing. On the day of the special study meeting, the business license was completed; project filing was completed on Aug 25; and an environmental impact assessment approval was obtained on Sept 23, with public security filing for the scrap metal business, renewable resource recycling filing and energy conservation commitments all completed in parallel.

Core production equipment including the upward casting furnace group and continuous casting machine arrived from Sept 1, along with supporting facilities. To address the industry difficulty that oxygen-free copper rods are highly prone to oxidation and require high precision, the technical team added argon protection covers, laid graphite scales and optimized the sealed production environment to keep oxygen content stable at the 5ppm level. On Sept 29, full commissioning of the production line was completed.

Editor：韩蒙蒙