Shen Wenrong, a 78-year-old Shagang leader, passed away: only one thing in his life to build the largest private steel enterprise in China

CBN

2024-07-01 02:12CBN official account

On the evening of June 30, the official website of the private steel giant Shagang Group turned black and white, and an obituary was released: Shen Wenrong, chairman of the board of directors of Shagang Group, died at 2:10 on June 30, 2024, at the age of 78.

Born in 1946 in a village in Zhangjiagang City, Jiangsu Province, Shen Wenrong has been involved in the steel industry for the past 40 years. He led Shagang from an annual output of 500 tons at the beginning of the establishment of the plant to become a private steel enterprise with the largest crude steel output in China.

More than 50 years ago, Shen Wenrong, who graduated from technical secondary school, was recruited into the ginning factory as a fitter. 10 years later, the factory collectively raised 450,000 yuan to set up a small rolling mill, and after another 10 years, 38-year-old Shen Wenrong took over the handsome flag from the hands of the old factory director. Since that year, Shen Wenrong has never changed his career.

As soon as the news of Shen Wenrong's death came out, many people in the steel industry expressed their regret to reporters, and a leader in the steel industry commented that Shen Wenrong was "a figure in the reform and opening up", and contributed his life's energy to the development of the steel industry.

In fact, Shagang led by Shen Wenrong is also a microcosm of China's steel industry, especially private steel enterprises, from growth to maturity.

Resolute

Many people in the steel industry who have come into contact with Shen Wenrong have used "vigorous and resolute" to describe this old man of steel.

In the 80s of the last century, Shen Wenrong, who had just become the factory director, found a market space - the production of window frame steel. "At that time, small factories couldn't produce this kind of product, and large factories were unwilling to produce it, so we made up our minds to tackle key problems." In an interview with the first financial reporter many years ago, Shen Wenrong recalled that at that time, there were customers from Xinjiang who drove to Shagang to buy window frame steel, and the price of the product once increased by 200 yuan or was still in short supply.

At that time, some workers felt that if they continued to do and sell like this, they would not have to worry about their lives for the next ten years. But Shen Wenrong didn't think so, and he decided to buy a 75-ton ultra-high power electric furnace steelmaking, continuous casting, and continuous rolling short-process production line from the British Bizton Steel Mill to produce rebar. This decision once made many people not understand, and even the local government came to do Shen Wenrong's work.

But Shen Wenrong waved his hand: "Even if the equipment can't be bought and run, it will be put there to make an exhibition hall, and I will sell tickets at the door for 5 cents a piece, so that my peers can learn from my Shen Wenrong's lesson." "

The reason why such a decision was made is because Shen Wenrong is very clear that the demand for window frame steel in the 90s of the last century has been gradually replaced by stainless steel.

In 2002, 56-year-old Shen Wenrong bought the entire steel mill of his subsidiary Hosch from ThyssenKrupp, Europe's largest steel company, for about 220 million yuan. He took more than 1,400 workers to Germany to dismantle the equipment, and then transported all the steel and iron back to Zhangjiagang.

"If you use Europeans to dismantle it, the cost will be four or five times higher. We spent a total of 15 billion yuan from purchase to installation and renovation, and if we build a new project of the same level directly in China, we need at least 30 to 40 billion yuan. "

"Knock on the door" boss

Such a "slamming the door" behavior is also completely in line with Shen Wenrong's personality. In the eyes of Shagang employees, their boss is a thrifty boss who can no longer be thrifty, such as going abroad to study and take a plane, Shen Wenrong never buys a business class ticket, and if it is a domestic business trip, as long as it is in Shanghai, Nanjing and other surrounding areas, no matter how late it is, he must rush back to Shagang and then go home.

I remember that when I came to Shanghai to record the program ten years ago, Shen Wenrong took a Maybach, but he told reporters, "This car was bought by the company, and I don't usually sit on it, mainly for picking up guests." I've never researched how much money I have. "

Shen Wenrong really didn't care much about how much wealth he had, and when he was first included in Forbes magazine's list of China's richest people in 2002, he was even a little angry, saying that he was on the "blacklist of capitalists".

"I'm more interested in the steel industry, and I'm more concerned about Shagang's position in China's and even the world's steel industry, whether it's the size of the company, the quality of its assets, or its profitability." Shen Wenrong once told reporters.

Today, Shagang Group has been among the world's top 500 companies for 15 consecutive years, ranking 348th on the Fortune Global 500 list announced in 2023, with an operating income of US$42.784 billion and a profit of US$558 million.

In terms of staffing and department settings, Shen Wenrong also "picked" to the extreme. A detail is that there was no cleaner in the whole Shagang plant, and the environmental sanitation work was divided by various departments, branches, workshops, and teams according to the region, and the "three guarantees" were implemented.

Such a management style has also made shagang has always been known for its cost control ability in the steel industry, and the company's per capita steel production, comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel, profit per ton of steel, net asset profit margin and other indicators are in the forefront of the industry.

"Those who are greedy for pleasure are not worthy of being shagang people, and I definitely don't want people who take as much money as they do." Shen Wenrong often puts these words on his lips, in his eyes, talented people can have a lower IQ, but they must be serious and meticulous.

The son took over

For the steel industry for many years of overcapacity, Shen Wenrong has said that China's iron and steel enterprises can only expand through mergers and acquisitions, rather than the establishment of new factories, which is also since 2006, shagang has acquired Huaigang Special Steel, Yongxing Special Steel, Northeast Special Steel one of the reasons.

Today, shagang is already the largest private iron and steel enterprises in China, if calculated according to crude steel output, shagang's crude steel output can also enter the top three in the country, the first is China Baowu, the second is Anshan Iron and Steel Group.

After the age of 65, Shen Wenrong began to gradually decentralize his power in Shagang. First, the position of president of the group was handed over to Gong Sheng, the former vice president of Shagang Group, and his son Shen Bin also entered the board of directors of the group.

In 2019, Shen Bin began to serve as the chairman of Shagang Group, while Shen Wenrong retreated behind the scenes and only served as the chairman of the board of directors of Shagang Group, but he still got up early and stayed late every day to investigate and do research, and was often busy for 10 hours.

"I've been involved in steel all my life, and I hope to make this industry the strongest in the world." Shen Wenrong once said.

Born in 1979, Shen Bin began to work in Shagang after returning from studying abroad, and served as the chief accountant of Shagang Co., Ltd., the main headquarters of Shagang Group. Shagang people commented on Shen Bin, he "looks relatively calm, works very decisively, writes well, and pays attention to on-site investigation and research."

Shen Wenrong once said in an interview with the media that shagang is not a family business, and no matter what kind of ownership enterprise it is, it must hire the best people. It is necessary to choose outstanding talents to be the general manager and chairman, and it depends on whether his training in shagang in the next five or ten years can be recognized by everyone.

As of the end of March 2023, Shagang Group was held by Shen Wenrong with about 29.32% of the equity, Zhangjiagang Free Trade Zone Xinghengde Trading Co., Ltd. held about 29.10% of the equity, and 32 other shareholders held about 41.58% of the equity.

In recent years, with the rise of structural surplus in the steel industry, the profits of many domestic steel mills have been under pressure and losses have intensified, and the net profit of Shagang Co., Ltd., a listed company of Shagang Group, has also declined continuously in 2023 and the first quarter of this year.

However, Shagang Group has been extending to areas other than the main steel industry, and its current business also includes resources and energy, metal products, financial futures, trade logistics, venture capital, big data and other diversified industries, supporting warehousing and distribution, extended processing, e-commerce, bonded logistics, financing guarantee and other functional platforms.

(This article is from Yicai)

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