Steel Silk Road tells a BRI story

There's a grand steel mill towering in TelukKalong Industrial Area, Kemaman, Terengganu state on East Coast of West Peninsular Malaysia. If you walk into it, a vibrant and thriving view will burst into your sights, with various factory buildings and crisscrossed roads. The production images displayed on the huge screen of the production command center generated volumes of data, after which, relevant big data analysis system closely monitors them to provide efficient and accurate decision-making for the company's production and operation. This is Eastern Steel Sdn. Bhd. (ESSB), a modern steel enterprise with a production capacity of 2.7 million tons. It is hard to believe that back in 2017, this steel enterprise was in a mode of suspended production.

ESSB was founded in 2012, with a designed production capacity of 700,000 tons of steel billets and slabs per year. It was put into trial operation at the end of December 2014. However, only after 10 months since the trial operation, ESSB was suspended for nearly three years due to the downturn of international steel industry.

In 2017, Beijing Jianlong Heavy Industry Group Co., Ltd. (Jianlong Group) actively responded to the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) so as to expand the business overseas and take control of ESSB, making the first bold stride in its overseas development.

The challenge of starting a business overseas is daunting. Many tasks and works have to start from scratch. Moreover, the unfamiliar environment, language barriers, culture shock, and different equipment standard must be overcome one by one to reach the final goal. However, Jianlong People never flinch. On April 10, 2018, the first batch of personnel from Jianlong Group had moved in the factory floors, reviving the ESSB that had been silent for years. Right amidst the newly removed weeds, new constructed factory buildings strutted high, while pile of spare parts were delivered to the construction site and rusty equipment were rectified to work again. It took only 100 days for ESSB to resume the full production.

During this period of time, Jianlong People and Malaysia local employees worked together to repair obsolete equipment, rebuild electrical facilities and restore safety facilities. Jianlong People and their spirit finally won the warm recognition from Malaysia local employees. To help Chinese workers who suffered from prickly heat, furuncles, and eczema due to unaccustomed environment, Malaysian employees brought over special medicines and aid supplies... The friendship between Chinese and Malaysian employees therein blossomed.

After resumption of production, ESSB has developed rapidly based on the advanced management, industrial talents and technology benefited from Jianlong Group.

On November 8 2023, the ESSB Phase II Pre-Steel Project was fully put into production, marking the company's production capacity reaching 2.7 million tons.

ESSB has developed three major intelligent systems: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), MES (Manufacturing Execution System), and EMS (Environmental Management System), gradually realizing the construction of a modern steel enterprise system. By utilizing technologies such as intelligent equipment and robots, ESSB has taken the lead in achieving big data and artificial intelligence in the production process among the steel enterprises in Malaysia.

Jianlong Group focuses on local talent cultivation, strengthens industry-university cooperation with Malaysia, and accumulates talent strength for enterprise reform, innovation, and digital transformation. Led by ESSB and in collaboration with local universities in Malaysia and University of Science and Technology Beijing in China, the "Eastern Steel Sdn. Bhd. Talent Joint Training Program" has been jointly developed and formulated. ESSB provides service-oriented scholarships for aspiring youth who are willing to participate in this program, and offers employment opportunities within the company after graduation, attracting and retaining talents with extremely generous salary and good career development opportunities. At the same time, it provides skill enhancement and on-the-job education programs for local employees, promoting their continuous progress in professional and technical aspects.

Eastern Steel Sdn. Bhd. is not only a model for Jianlong Group to actively respond to and implement China’s BRI, but a perfect fit with the Malaysian government's plan to introduce foreign investments. Eastern Steel Sdn. Bhd. is expected to keep prospering with more vigorous vitality in the future, practicing the concept of friendly cooperation between Chinese and Malaysian enterprises, and witnessing the glorious development of Malaysian steel industry.