Cement Character Series: From Both Sides of the River to the Yangtze River, Half a Lifetime of Military Construction — — Zhang Caixiong

Cement is a great cause, carrying the people's yearning for a better life, and laying a solid foundation for economic and social development. Over the past decades, China's cement industry has been developing continuously and making great progress, realizing the technological leap from shaft kiln to new dry process, completing the transformation from following to leading in the world, and becoming a basic industry with great international competitiveness in China. In the course of the vigorous development of the cement industry, a large number of dedicated outstanding figures have emerged, who have profoundly reshaped the development pattern of China's cement industry and injected strong impetus into the iterative upgrading of the industry. In the near future, China Cement Network will review the industry figures who have made outstanding contributions to China's cement industry from a third-party perspective.

Today, we bring Zhang Caixiong, former chairman of Asia Cement Holdings.

Zhang Caixiong is the "evergreen tree of the industry" in the eyes of the public. From Taiwan to the mainland, he has devoted his whole life to his beloved cement industry. As a veteran of the industry, Zhang Caixiong, who is nearly 100 years old, has left a brilliant mark on the development of China's cement industry.

the 1990s, the domestic economy developed rapidly." The huge cement market demand made Asian Cement see the historical opportunity to invest in the mainland market, and Zhang Caixiong led the team to start the attempt to enter the mainland cement market. In 1994, Zhang Caixiong visited Jiangxi, and in 2000, Yadong's first cement clinker production line in Jiangxi was put into production. After

learning about the process of Zhang Caixiong's choice of Jiangxi, he always felt that the fate between him and Jiangxi was almost unlucky.

In the early days of deciding to come to the mainland of China to develop the cement industry, Zhang Caixiong and his colleagues did not plan to invest in a cement plant in Ruichang, Jiangxi, but planned to land in Liaoning.

In 1993, Zhang Caixiong led the group's inspection team to drive to Jinxi City, where he planned to build the company's first mainland cement plant. A delegation of Taiwanese businessmen from Jinxi visited a limestone mine. The group was very excited and confident at the beginning, and felt that the mineral reserves in Jinxi were very good. However, careful Zhang Caixiong found the defect. It turned out that the quality of the mine was not good. He asked the investigation team to drill and explore the mineral deposits. They drilled four holes in a row, more and more, deeper and deeper. They found that the content of magnesium oxide in the mine was too high. Therefore, Zhang Caixiong had to say to the leaders of Jinxi City: "We should give up investing in cement plants because the quality of Jinxi mineral resources is not good." Zhang Caixiong said that the construction of cement plants must be very serious, must take into account the 50-year development plan, to do the best cement. When

God closes a door for you, he opens another window for you. After the inspection, Zhang Caixiong met Liu Zhentao, then director of the Economic Bureau of the Taiwan Affairs Office of the State Council, in Beijing, and this time Zhang Caixiong finally found the opportunity to do a good job of cement in the mainland. Liu Zhentao told Zhang Caixiong, "Jiangxi is rich in mineral resources and has good quality, so you can try it."

Zhang Caixiong once said: "The central region along the Yangtze River is the best place for enterprises to develop, and the traffic conditions are unique.". The layout

of Yadong Cement is built along the river. Jiangxi Yadong, Hubei Yadong, Wuhan Yadong, Huanggang Yadong and Yangzhou Yadong are all built near the Yangtze River and radiate outward along the Yangtze River. Sichuan Yadong and Sichuan Lanfeng, located in Chengdu, Sichuan, have the advantage of metropolitan location and cooperate with the government's policy of developing the central and western regions, making Yadong Cement a major large-scale cement enterprise group in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the southwest (Chengdu) region.

Since the first cement clinker production line of Jiangxi Yadong Cement Company was successfully ignited and put into operation in July 2000, up to now, Yadong Cement has completed and put into operation nine self-built production lines of the same type in Jiujiang, Sichuan, Wuhan, Hubei and Huanggang. Two new dry cement production lines with a daily output of 6000 tons of clinker in Yadong, Jiangxi Province, have also joined the operation. In addition, Wuhan Yaxin Cement Company acquired in 2010 and Sichuan pushes the industry into the era

of garden-style cement plants. It is said that cement is one of the industries with the most serious environmental pollution." But anyone who has visited Yadong Cement will be attracted by the garden-like factory with green grass and shady trees. In the 1960s

, Taiwan's economy entered a period of rapid development, and the demand for cement was particularly urgent, but in this context, the pollution problem has become a headache for the development of the industry. "At that time, Taiwan's cement industry was concentrated in the western region, resulting in extremely serious environmental pollution due to the backward cement production technology.". At that time, the factory was surrounded by mud and ash, the interior of the factory was polluted, and even the landscape and natural ecology were seriously damaged. The common people responded that the roof was covered with a layer of dust. We also cleaned up for them. In an interview, Zhang Caixiong described the bad factory environment at that time. For a long time after

entering the cement industry, environmental protection has been a knot in Zhang Caixiong's heart until 1975, when the Yani Hualien Plant was officially completed and put into operation. At that time, the establishment of Hualien Factory was an unprecedented revolution for Taiwan's cement industry. It truly achieved the goal of "high environmental protection, high quality, high efficiency, low cost, three high and one low" in Zhang Caixiong's mind. For Zhang Caixiong, his dream was finally realized.

Yadong Line 1 was completed in, At that time, the mainland cement plant, whether vertical kiln or rotary kiln, had a lot of dust, and the national standards were very loose. Environmental protection became a big problem faced by many cement enterprises. However, the effect of Yadong in environmental protection made many people realize that the original cement plant could also be green mountains and rivers, which played a very good leading role in the development of the industry and contributed to the country.

Looking back on the past, although the success of Yadong Cement can not be separated from the great development of domestic economy, it is beyond doubt that under the leadership of Zhang Caixiong, it has laid the foundation for the rapid development of Yadong Cement so far and even in the future, and he is also known as the "evergreen tree of the industry". It was not until 2023 that he stepped down as executive director of listed companies that he gradually faded out of daily management.