Jingye Group

Jingye Group started in 1985 when Li Ganpo, a former teacher, opened a canning factory and brewery in Pingshan County, Hebei. He founded the Jingye chemical factory in 1988, and the name Jingye, meaning dedication, set the tone for what would become a steel powerhouse. Steel operations kicked off in the 1990s, and by the 2000s the company had grown into a major long steel products manufacturer. Today, it's a Fortune Global 500 company headquartered in Beijing, with its main production base in Pingshan, Shijiazhuang.

Jingye makes rebar, round bars, medium steel plates, hot rolled coil, cold rolled sheet, galvanized sheet, color coated sheet, wire rod, section steel, special-shaped steel, and rail. It also runs chemical and pharmaceutical manufacturing, international trade, finance, logistics, tourism, hotels, real estate, and 3D printing with metal powder. The group operates multiple steel subsidiaries across China, including Yunnan Jingye Iron and Steel, Guangdong Jingye Steel, and Wulanhot Steel, plus British Steel in the UK, acquired in March 2020.

The British Steel acquisition saved thousands of UK jobs and gave Jingye a major European manufacturing foothold. Since then, the company has invested in modernizing the Scunthorpe plant, whose blast furnaces date back to 1864. Jingye was named a national demonstration enterprise and earned a spot on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's first batch of Green Factories in 2017. With ¥238 billion in revenue and 31,000 employees, it competes with global giants like ArcelorMittal and Nippon Steel. [edit]