Production continues apace on the factory floor of Wuhan Fanzhou Chuetsu Metal Co. [Photo/WeChat account: whkfq0518]
Manufacturer Wuhan Fanzhou Chuetsu Metal Co in Wuhan Economic & Technological Development Zone specializes in the production and development of high-strength, wear-resistant copper alloy materials and products.
Stepping onto the factory floor, visitors are confronted by the sight of flames in the furnaces and towering casting pipes. Then there are the new alloy materials undergoing a raft of processes – such as smelting, casting, extrusion, flaw detection, cold deformation and machining – before being shipped worldwide.
Witnessing this frenetic scene, company chairman Bo Xin said he often felt a deep sense of pride and recalled that just a decade ago, its main revenue stemmed just from materials for automotive synchronizer rings, with comparatively modest annual profits reaching tens of millions of yuan.
Subsequently the company strategically diversified into niche segments within the copper alloy materials market – expanding into sectors such as automotive engines, transmissions, construction machinery, hydraulics, valves and wind power generation.
Yu Qiang, head of Fanzhou Chuetsu's technical department, explained that their alloy products played a crucial role in reducing wear between steel parts in automotive transmissions, engines and hydraulic pumps for construction machinery.
World-renowned automotive parts companies such as Bosch, Mahle, Eaton and Federal-Mogul – along with leading domestic groups like Great Wall Motors, Geely Auto, BYD, Sany Heavy Industry and Zoomlion – have become their clients.
All in all, the company's customers have expanded from over 10 to more than 30 – extending to countries such as France, Italy, Germany and the United States.
What's more, Fanzhou Chuetsu has successfully achieved the domestic substitution of high-strength, wear-resistant copper alloy materials and products – breaking a decades-long monopoly of foreign material giants in the field.
The company's leading products now hold the top market share in China, marking the group's transformation from a pure materials supplier to an integrated developer and manufacturer of copper alloy products.
"We now develop an average of one new material product per year," said Bo Xin.
"Currently, we are developing new copper alloy materials for the wind power sector. Our next step is to seize new opportunities in copper alloy materials for ship parts and the semiconductors field," he said.
"We must continue to tackle key core technologies and elevate Chinese technology to the world stage," Bo added.
