Part will replace imported component, saving $1.5 mln annually
Chinese citizens on Monday hailed the realization of domestically produced points for ballpoint pens, following media reports that a factory in Taiyuan, North China's Shanxi Province has acquired the technique of producing a kind of stainless steel that is critical to manufacture the part.
China has more than 3,000 pen manufacturers that make about 40 billion pens per year, domestic news portal guancha.com reported on Monday. But for decades, domestic companies had to import stainless steel used for making the pens' points from Japan and Switzerland due to the lack of a key precision machining technique that can produce steel plates of ultrathin and high hardness, and that has cost $1.5 million each year, said the report.
The indigenous production of the steel material by State-owned Taiyuan Iron and Steel Co (TISCO) has ended the situation.
TISCO, with the support of the Chinese government, began research into suitable steel products in 2011, and finally drafted the standardized manufacturing procedure last year, said the report, citing Wang Huimian, a senior engineer at the company. The documented procedure was reviewed and approved by the Technical Committee on Steel of Standardization Committee of China in January.
Some domestic ballpoint pen producers have already started purchasing the product, the report said. It is estimated that the homemade material will be able to completely replace the imported one within the next two years. Also, localized production will cut the production cost by at least 5 percent, the National Business Daily reported on Monday.
A report about the news on People's Daily's Weibo account has received 10,000 forwards and 30,000 likes as of 8 pm on Monday.
A Beijing-based resident surnamed Wang said she is thrilled to learn of the technological breakthrough. "I'm giving 'Made in China' the thumbs up," Wang told the Global Times on Monday. "It never rains but it pours."
A netizen named Balabila said the emergence of the steel product can be regarded as a completion of the domestic industry chain. Another netizen named Fanhuadezhi agreed."China is already a leading player in mass manufacturing, but in terms of precision machines and special materials, it still lags significantly behind its foreign counterparts,"he wrote in his Weibo account, describing the development as a "milestone" in China's precision machining.
In line with the central government's "Made in China 2025" goal, the country is making strides into high-tech and innovative sectors. Premier Li Keqiang said on Monday that innovation is always prioritized in China's overall development strategies and will contribute to the robust growth of the domestic economy in the long term, the Xinhua News Agency reported the same day.
