Zhaogang Group released the "2024 ESG Report", promoting win - win carbon reduction in the steel industry with an "altruistic" mindset.
The report of the World Meteorological Organization shows that in 2023, the global average temperature was about 1.4°C higher than that before industrialization, and the global climate crisis is intensifying. Against this backdrop, achieving carbon neutrality, as a global consensus, has received more responses. As of May 2024, 151 countries around the world have put forward the goal of "carbon neutrality". As a responsible major country, China clearly put forward the goals of "carbon peak" by 2030 and "carbon neutrality" by 2060 in September 2020, and is accelerating the promotion of energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Enterprises, as the micro - entities of economic activities, are the real implementers of "carbon neutrality". Their "carbon neutrality" process is not only a response to the national strategy but also related to their survival and transcendence in the wave of the green economy. Nowadays, more and more enterprises are incorporating carbon - neutral ESG into their strategic planning. The ESG (Environment, Social and Governance) concept is highly consistent with the goal of carbon neutrality and sustainable development, and has also become the core dimension for evaluating the long - term value of enterprises.
On April 29th, Steelcn Group, which listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in March this year, released its "2024 Environmental, Social and Governance Report". This is Steelcn Group's first ESG report, comprehensively presenting the group's multi - dimensional actions, achievements and future prospects in practicing the ESG concept in the past year.
As a leading industrial Internet platform, Steelcn Group has been continuously practicing the ESG concept. By providing one - stop B2B comprehensive services covering the entire value chain of steel trading for the steel industry, Steelcn Group helps the steel industry improve the operational efficiency of each link and promotes the achievement of carbon peak and carbon neutrality:
1. In the steel circulation link, Steelcn Group has reduced the average number of steel logistics circulations from 5 times to nearly 2 times, resulting in a significant reduction of over 50% in carbon emissions.
2. In the transportation link, Fat Cat Logistics, the logistics platform under Steelcn Group, has shortened the average waiting time for goods from 24 hours to 15 hours, increased vehicle utilization by 12%, and reduced carbon emissions by nearly 8%.
Illustration: Fat Cat Logistics
3. Steelcn Group actively recommends recyclable construction scrap steel to customers. Through large - scale recycling and utilization, this measure can replace the primary raw materials in steel production each year, indirectly reducing about 6 million tons of carbon emissions.
4. Steelcn Group has established a dynamic risk control system. The risk management framework covers three dimensions: pre - event access control, in - event compliance operation, and post - event accounts receivable and dispute handling to ensure that control measures are timely and effective. Steelcn Group attaches particular importance to the user experience. After - sales problems will be responded to within 24 hours, with a resolution rate of 100%.
5. Considering that the electric arc furnace method produces less carbon emissions than the iron ore and blast furnace method, Steelcn Group tends to recommend buyers to choose steel products produced by the electric arc furnace method using recyclable scrap steel.
As the steel industry is officially included in the national carbon market management, high - energy - consuming industries such as the steel industry are becoming the main battlefield of "carbon neutrality". The traditional environmental protection model focuses on pollutant emission control, while carbon neutrality requires enterprises to establish a full - chain carbon management system covering raw material procurement, production and manufacturing, product use, and recycling.
How to promote in - depth decarbonization in the steel field through digital innovation means will be an important issue in the steel field, and this is exactly the area where Steelcn Group excels. From this report, we can also extract some experiences worthy of reference for the industry.
01
Connect All Aspects of Steel Trading and Reduce Carbon Emissions at Every Link
The importance of the steel industry is self - evident. As an important basic industry of the national economy, it is connected upstream with industries such as mining, smelting, and transportation, and downstream supports the development of industries such as construction, automobiles, machinery manufacturing, military industry, and shipbuilding as raw materials.
At the same time, steel is also a major "carbon emitter". Data shows that the annual carbon emissions of the steel industry account for about 15% of the country's total carbon emissions, ranking first among the 31 categories of the manufacturing industry. According to the latest data released by the World Steel Association, in 2023, China's crude steel production accounted for more than half of the world's total throughout the year, and the carbon emissions of the steel industry accounted for more than 60% of the world's total steel industry carbon emissions, making it the largest carbon emission source in the global steel industry.
How to relieve the "carbon burden" of this "carbon emitter" has always been an important issue that the whole society pays attention to. Promoting energy conservation and carbon reduction in the steel industry is also regarded by all sectors as an important way to actively and steadily promote carbon peak and carbon neutrality.
As an industrial Internet platform, Steelcn Group is leveraging its unique market position to assist the steel industry in energy conservation and carbon reduction.
The traditional steel circulation mainly adopts the distribution model of "hierarchical" dealer agents. It is difficult to integrate the information flow, logistics, and capital flow, and there are three core pain points:
First, the information transmission is inefficient. Under the hierarchical agency system, transaction information needs to be transmitted layer by layer from steel mills → first - level agents → second - level agents → end - users. The communication efficiency is extremely low. Steel mills can hardly understand customer demand information in a timely and comprehensive manner, which affects the quality of decision - making and transaction efficiency, leading to supply - demand asymmetry and unnecessary losses.
Second, the transaction cost is high. For downstream steel - using enterprises, multi - level distribution means that steel products need to be stored and transported multiple times, which also increases the transaction cost. For upstream steel mills, it is difficult to match supply and demand information, and it is hard to improve product inventory turnover, which also increases the warehousing and inventory costs.
Third, the logistics efficiency is low. The logistics carriers in the steel industry are highly dispersed, and the regional restrictions are significant. Due to poor information, carriers do not know where the orders are, and enterprises do not know where the most efficient logistics is.
The existence of these pain points makes the overall efficiency of steel trading low. The direct or indirect waste of production capacity, empty running of logistics, and high inventory will all cause more carbon emissions, which is naturally not environmentally friendly.
It is understood that currently, the manufacturing - to - circulation ratio of steel in China is 5 - 7 times of circulation. Each additional link and circulation means loading, unloading, logistics and other activities, which correspondingly leads to a continuous increase in carbon emissions.
Steelcn Group aims to use the digital platform to connect the main participants in the steel trading industry, integrate the information flow, logistics, and capital flow, reduce the circulation links, improve the trading efficiency of the steel industry, enable all parties in the market to benefit from it, and also contribute to the overall social energy conservation and carbon reduction.
Steelcn Group first built a digital trading platform that covers the complete trading process of pre - sales, in - sales, and after - sales. It simplifies the originally complex purchasing process into full - process services such as submitting requirements, making payments, and picking up goods. Both buyers and sellers can track the complete transaction on this platform. The steel trading process has been significantly shortened from the original average of five to seven days to two to three days, greatly improving the trading efficiency and effectively reducing the manpower input.
On top of the trading platform, Steelcn Group provides a rich set of standardized digital tools for all parties in the steel market.
Steelcn's digital platform has achieved digital management of the entire steel circulation process from pre - sales, in - sales to after - sales. Before sales, it uses Internet technologies such as AI to establish an intelligent inquiry and quotation system to provide users with efficient services, and effectively manages and rates suppliers and sellers through a strict entry process. During and after sales, it realizes efficient digital management of the procurement cycle, orders, invoicing, settlement, etc., and provides buyers with high - standard quality objection handling compensation and value - added services such as logistics and processing.
Steelcn Group has launched the Steelcn Index APP, which can provide industry users with information such as domestic market prices and market trends, helping steel mills to scientifically store, produce, sell, and accurately deliver goods, and reducing logistics and inventory costs.
On the logistics side, Steelcn Group uses a light - asset model to connect carriers, individual drivers, and buyers, and has developed a proprietary digital logistics platform - Fat Cat Logistics. Under this model, Steelcn does not own or lease carriers or fleets, but integrates transportation resources and order information, and pushes orders to third - party logistics carriers in a timely and accurate manner through cloud push services to achieve order distribution. Carriers can accept orders according to the order details, which is more efficient than the traditional manual telephone inquiry model.
At the same time, in this system, Steelcn Group has also established a comprehensive carrier rating mechanism. Order allocation will give priority to carriers with higher ratings. Steelcn Group will also choose logistics partners who firmly commit to carbon emission reduction to jointly achieve sustainable social value and indirectly reduce carbon emissions.
Fat Cat Logistics also plays an active role in carbon reduction. Through a survey of carriers, Fat Cat Logistics has found that the average waiting time for vehicles has been shortened from 24 hours to 15 hours, vehicle utilization has increased by 12%, and carbon emissions have been reduced by nearly 8%.
It is worth mentioning that Steelcn Group is also committed to promoting sustainable development projects and plans to launch Fat Cat Recycling Resources, focusing on industrial waste recycling.
02
People - Oriented, Focus on Employee Growth, and Improve Employee Satisfaction and Happiness
The development of any enterprise cannot be separated from the support of employees. Beyond the main business, an enterprise's attention to employee growth and care for employee happiness not only reflects the level of corporate governance and management but also embodies the enterprise's sense of social responsibility, which is also an important part of the ESG concept.
Wang Dong, the founder of Steelcn Group, once said that the essence of B2B is a human resources company. Cultivating employees and giving them enough care can be said to be the foundation of Steelcn Group.
Wang Dong also emphasized that Steelcn Group attaches great importance to the process from a new employee's entry to becoming an experienced one, and explores how to achieve the benefit of "1 + 1 > 2". "This is my advantage as a teacher. Just like a school, I focus on recruitment, probation management, and design a promotion path for each employee, similar to the process from the first grade to the third grade in primary school."
The actions of Steelcn Group have indeed verified the founder's concept. Steelcn Group has a diversified employee structure, a complete employee welfare and training system:
1. Legally and compliantly pay the five social insurances and one housing fund, provide free three - meals a day, holiday gifts, etc.
2. Pay attention to employee health and safety protection, and purchase shuttle bus accident insurance for employees.
3. Establish a "mentor - apprentice teaching" mechanism, carry out various types of training, and set up an online learning system called "Fat Cat Magic Academy" to provide employees with promotion channels and training programs.
Illustration: New employee training at Steelcn Group
4. There is a sound promotion channel within the company. For potential management talents, the company cooperates with external first - tier training institutions and invites senior gold - medal lecturers for on - site teaching.
5. Care for employees: Organize special events such as Women's Day and Christmas, carry out exclusive activities such as the Summer Sports Week and Programmers' Day, and hold birthday parties for employees every month.
More importantly, Steelcn Group also fully respects the individuality of employees. Wang Dong once mentioned that one of the corporate values of Steelcn Group is "self - driven and proactive growth". Whether enterprise cadres like their positions is very important.
03
Adhere to "Altruism" and Continuously Explore the Path of Green Development for Diverse Industries
After more than a decade of being rooted in the steel industry, Steelcn Group is now the largest third - party digital platform for steel trading in China. In 2024, the trading volume on the Steelcn Group platform exceeded 51.418 million tons, and the total commodity transaction volume on the platform reached 188 billion yuan.
Illustration: Trading hall of Steelcn Group
Regarding the reason for achieving such results, Wang Dong has his own summary. At the listing celebration of Steelcn Group, he frankly said, "Our model and foundation are 'altruistic'. We survive and develop by 'helping customers'. The development of Steelcn to today is actually the result of the votes of our user friends and partners with real orders and real money!"
Customers get practical benefits, and Steelcn Group gets profits and development. Steelcn Group has achieved a win - win situation from "altruism". Practicing ESG also means helping customer enterprises achieve a full win - win situation among corporate interests, the environment, and society for Steelcn Group.
To achieve this win - win situation, Steelcn Group still needs to further strengthen the services of its products, help steel enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency in various links such as production, logistics, and retail, so as to achieve carbon emission reduction.
Against the backdrop of the steel trading market moving towards a new era characterized by digitalization, Steelcn Group is further exploring the application of new technologies such as AI and cloud computing in the digitalization of the steel industry.
Steelcn Group's 2024 financial report shows that the group has combined with large AI models to create 12 AI Agents and fully connected to DeepSeek. Its self - developed SaleMatch trading engine can process more than 10 million messages per day. The AI procurement assistant can automatically process procurement and quotation information with an accuracy rate of 95%, completing billions of levels of intelligent trading matching. The AI trading assistant has improved the trading efficiency by more than 10 times through accurate demand analysis, intelligent inventory retrieval, and automatic quotation. The Fat Cat Cloud AI Shopkeeper has also been launched, adding to the efficiency improvement of Steelcn Group.
Not only in the steel industry, but Steelcn Group also intends to bring "altruism" to other product categories.
Currently, Steelcn Group has jointly incubated a B2B trading SaaS product in the field of electronic components with Tencent; it has also launched "Steelcn Industrial Products", a trading assistant focusing on electrical and electrical business. In 2024, the GMV of non - steel trading business reached 410 million yuan, a year - on - year increase of 193% compared with 2023.
In the future, the business of Steelcn Industrial Products will also expand to fields such as electronic components, hardware and mechanical and electrical products, and non - ferrous metals.
As the business map of Steelcn Group continues to expand, the trading efficiency of more industries will be further improved, and the goal of energy conservation and carbon reduction will be closer.