On June 22, the eight-stand tandem finishing mill officially started rolling and set the company's record for the thinnest steel strip at 1.9 mm. On this basis, Chengde continued to challenge even thinner targets. On the afternoon of June 23, new records were set one after another, from 2.4 mm to 2.2 mm, 2.0 mm, 1.9 mm, and 1.8 mm, with everything progressing smoothly. At 18:39 on June 24, the exciting moment finally arrived! Group President He Chao gave the order: “Trial roll 1.6 (mm)!” The air in the control room almost froze.

The operators calmly pressed the buttons, and the steel strip passed through the first, second, third…… and eighth finishing stands. Almost perfectly straight lines traced across the monitoring screens.

The plate shape was straight! The surface was smooth and fine, with no broken edges! No perforations! Almost perfect! How inspiring! Chengde has successfully broken the world record for the thinness of wide stainless steel plate! Instantly the control room erupted in cheers!

The hot-rolled steel plate, only 1.6 mm thick, is as thin as paper. According to reports, this hot-rolled thin plate is the most important steel product among plates, widely used in industrial manufacturing such as containers, automobiles, railway locomotive carriages, pipelines, and steel cylinders, and is also the base material for cold-rolled plates and their deep-processed products. Previously, the thinnest domestic record was 1.75 mm, held by Guangzhou Lianzhong Stainless Steel Plant. In the hot-rolling process, the thinner the plate, the more prone it is to deformation, perforation, and other phenomena during rolling, so the higher the requirements for equipment, technology, and operator capability. At the same time, the thinner the hot-rolled plate, the thinner the products enterprises can roll in the next cold-rolling stage, while also reducing intermediate annealing, making the cost advantage more obvious. More importantly, thinner hot-rolled products can partially replace cold-rolled products, because hot-rolled products of the same specifications are almost two-thirds cheaper than cold-rolled products, thus having broad market prospects. The 2.17 mm thinness created by Beihai Chengde in seven-stand rolling production last November had already approached the limit, and the 1.6 mm nickel-chromium alloy coil rolled on the eight-stand tandem production line this time has reached a new thinness in the field of hot-rolled wide stainless steel plate.

Amid the downturn in the national steel market over the past two years, Chengde's rapid development against the trend is by no means accidental. Chengde's ability to achieve such impressive results stems from sound production management, world-advanced production equipment, exquisite production processes, and a strong talent reserve.

At 9:00 on November 11, 2012, Guangxi's first hot-rolled wide coil was born on the Beihai Chengde production line, filling a gap in Guangxi. At present, the total production capacity of the Chengde new materials project has reached 1.6 million tons and is being expanded and upgraded to 3 million tons; this year's output value will reach 20 billion yuan. With the smooth progress of Beihai Chengde's hot-rolling Phase II project, the second solid-solution line project, the second steelmaking project, and the rotary kiln project, Beihai's goal of a 100-billion-yuan new materials industrial park is just around the corner.