Introduction
Grain-oriented electrical steel (CRGO, commonly shortened as grain oriented silicon steel) is widely hailed as the “crown jewel of metallurgy”. As the irreplaceable core material of power transformers, its magnetic performance directly determines national power grid energy consumption efficiency, and it serves as a universal benchmark measuring a country’s comprehensive metallurgical industrial strength.
Manufacturing CRGO steel demands extreme precision: steel grains must align uniformly along the {110}<001> Goss texture, with angular deviation tightly controlled within several degrees. This relies on an ultra-complex system of inhibitors, secondary recrystallization, and precise thermal treatment control. Tiny deviations in process parameters trigger massive degradation of magnetic properties, earning the material a reputation as both cutting-edge science and delicate industrial craftsmanship.
China’s pursuit of mastering this single steel sheet stretches nearly 70 years, marked by three complete industry restarts, two crippling foreign & equipment bottlenecks, and a 17-year-long period of stagnant lab research without industrialized output. This article systematically reviews the full timeline of China’s grain oriented silicon steel development, from total industrial blankness to current global leadership in high-grade ultra-thin Hi-B CRGO steel, integrating historic milestones, technical roadblocks, import breakthroughs, independent R&D breakthroughs, and latest global market data. Every type of power transformer relies on qualified grain oriented silicon steel as its core iron core material; if you want to learn more about our full range of finished transformer products built with high-performance domestic silicon steel, please check our full line of power transformers.
1. Zero Starting Point: 1952 Hot-Rolled Silicon Steel & The First Failed Cold-Rolled CRGO Attempt
China’s electrical steel industry officially launched in 1952, when Taiyuan Iron and Steel (TISCO) successfully trial-produced the nation’s first hot-rolled silicon steel sheet in laboratory facilities.
Mass production launched at TISCO in 1954, after which 14 domestic manufacturers replicated TISCO’s hot-rolled process over two decades, reaching annual capacity exceeding 1 million metric tons. Hot-rolled silicon steel supplied most domestic small-to-medium motors and transformers, yet locked China into a technical route diverging from the global mainstream cold-rolled grain oriented silicon steel standard.
Formal CRGO research kicked off in 1957 at the Beijing Central Iron & Steel Research Institute (CISRI). Researchers mapped the full production workflow for 3% silicon cold rolled grain oriented steel and successfully fabricated lab samples with qualified Goss texture. In 1959, TISCO and Anshan Iron & Steel (Ansteel) scaled up trials, with Ansteel constructing a dedicated 10,000-ton CRGO rolling line.
This first large-scale cold rolled CRGO trial ended in total failure. Domestic engineers lacked full comprehension of inhibitor metallurgy and pre-process control, only replicating the outdated Soviet Э310 grade. Extremely low finished product yield and unstable magnetic performance forced the new line to shut down shortly after commissioning. This early setback delivered a critical lesson: CRGO production cannot rely on capital and equipment investment alone; mastery of proprietary metallurgical process know-how remains non-negotiable.
2. 17 Years of Technical Idling: Mastering Lab Technology, Blocked by Missing Core Equipment
After the 1959 production shutdown, domestic CRGO research never halted, yet entered a painful era where scientists grasped core theoretical principles but could not scale lab results into industrial products. This stagnation period spanned from 1957 to 1974, nearly 17 years of research without viable commercial CRGO output.
In 1964, Professor He Zhongzhi’s CISRI research team pioneered manganese sulfide (MnS) inhibitor research for standard grain oriented silicon steel, conducting deep experiments on continuous decarburization annealing, MgO separating agents, high-temperature batch annealing, and insulating coating formulations, delivering measurable magnetic performance improvements on lab samples.
In 1973, CISRI further optimized manganese, sulfur, carbon and residual aluminum content ratios, alongside precise slab reheating temperature and hot rolling schedule parameters critical to Goss texture formation.
Between 1973 and 1975, TISCO leveraged these research results to conduct 115 separate converter heats of CRGO trial slabs. When processed with laboratory high-temperature heating furnaces, 90% of trial samples matched Japan’s mainstream Z10 and Z11 CRGO grades of that era—proving domestic metallurgical scientists had solved CRGO’s core material science challenges without foreign technical support.
The fatal barrier: neither TISCO nor Ansteel owned high-temperature slab reheating furnaces, an irreplaceable core piece of CRGO production equipment. Cutting-edge lab formulas and qualified trial slabs could never move to mass industrial manufacturing, trapped by incomplete domestic heavy equipment supply chains. This bottleneck represents China’s first severe equipment-driven technological blockade: domestic talent and theoretical knowledge were ready, yet missing single critical machinery halted industrial progress for nearly two decades.
3. Historic Turning Point: WISCO’s 1.7-Meter Rolling Mill Import (1972–1978)
China’s decisive CRGO industrial breakthrough arrived in the early 1970s. In August 1972, national leaders formally approved the import of Wuhan Iron & Steel’s landmark 1.7-meter wide rolling mill complex—the largest complete metallurgical equipment import project of early New China. Under coordination from the Ministry of Metallurgy and Hubei provincial authorities, WISCO initiated full technical negotiation with Japan’s Nippon Steel.
In 1974, WISCO signed a formal contract importing Nippon Steel’s world-leading cold rolled electrical steel technology, covering both standard grain oriented silicon steel and high-permeability Hi-B CRGO steel. The plant’s designed annual capacity reached 70,000 tons, split into 42,000 tons non-oriented electrical steel and 28,000 tons grain oriented silicon steel including premium Hi-B grades. Construction launched September 5, 1974, with full trial commissioning in late 1978. From TISCO’s 1952 hot silicon steel trial to China’s first fully functional CRGO industrial line, 26 years of struggle elapsed.
Imported equipment alone did not equal independent industrial capacity. From 1978 to late 1981, WISCO produced 132,991 tons of total electrical steel, yet only 21,846 tons qualified as usable grain oriented silicon steel and 33,377 tons as non-oriented steel. Production yield and product qualification rates remained low, with multi-year ramp-up required to hit full design capacity. As late as 1982, core raw materials, surface coating agents, and precision rolling rolls all relied fully on overseas imports, exposing gaps across auxiliary material, inspection, and factory management ecosystems.
4. Decades of Absorption & Localization: 1980s–1990s Technology Digestion
Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, China adopted a development strategy of “trading market share for technology, trading time for industrial capability” to localize imported CRGO production systems step-by-step.
Key localization milestones:
1981: WISCO introduced Japan’s Total Quality Control (TQC) management system for silicon steel production lines.
1982: WISCO established a complete closed-loop CRGO manufacturing workflow following Nippon Steel’s patent standards, laying China’s foundational domestic electrical steel industrial base.
1986: WISCO Silicon Steel Mill became China’s first state-owned enterprise awarded the National Quality Management Prize, marking mastery of standardized CRGO quality control systems.
Concurrent R&D breakthroughs: Domestic manufacturers independently developed CRGO-grade magnesium oxide, localized silicon steel surface coatings, domestic precision rolling rolls, China’s first tunnel-type high-temperature annealing furnace for CRGO, and the world’s first double-layer continuous decarburization annealing line for grain oriented electrical steel. A total of 23 domestic silicon steel rolling lines entered operation across this period.
1992: WISCO imported premium high-grade CRGO patents (NQ08, NHiB), expanding total silicon steel capacity to 400,000 tons annually (100,000 tons grain oriented silicon steel).
1996: Second large-scale Nippon Steel technology import at WISCO, introducing low-loss standard CRGO (Z8) and advanced Hi-B grades (Z6H), plus China’s first high-speed non-oriented electrical steel finished annealing line.
Despite sustained localization progress, industry papers published in 2001 by WISCO senior engineer Fang Zemin confirmed China’s CRGO industry lagged Japan by five complete product grades. Thin-gauge, laser-domain refined low iron-loss varieties such as ZDKH remained exclusive to foreign manufacturers. At that time, resin-cast dry-type transformers, which require high-purity low-loss CRGO to meet strict fireproof standards, could only source key silicon steel materials from overseas suppliers back then. If you want to know about mature domestic dry-type transformer products adopting self-produced SCB series silicon steel now, please visit our dry type transformer page.
By the late 1990s, TISCO (1998) and Baosteel (2000, importing Kawasaki non-oriented steel technology) launched cold rolled electrical steel production, forming China’s three major silicon steel manufacturing hubs. However, high-value grain oriented silicon steel capacity remained overwhelmingly concentrated at WISCO, domestic output insufficient to fully phase out outdated hot-rolled silicon steel, creating persistent shortages of high-grade CRGO for power infrastructure projects.
5. Dual Technical Routes & Trade Competition: 2000–2014 Industrial Catch-Up
Entering the 21st century, China’s grain oriented silicon steel industry accelerated technical gap reduction while navigating cross-border trade friction with overseas steel manufacturers.
Key policy & technical milestones:
2003: National “Replace Hot-Rolled with Cold-Rolled Silicon Steel” policy rolled out, launching a nationwide phase-out of inefficient hot silicon steel products.
1996 & 2009: China initiated two successful anti-dumping investigations targeting Russian and U.S. imported grain oriented silicon steel, defending domestic emerging CRGO manufacturing capacity amid unfair foreign price competition.
2006: WISCO No.2 Silicon Steel Plant commissioned with low-temperature slab reheating CRGO technology, eliminating capacity constraints from limited high-temperature furnace equipment and drastically expanding domestic CRGO output potential.
2007: WISCO’s proprietary grain oriented silicon steel manufacturing technology won the National First-Class Science and Technology Progress Award; domestic high-temperature ring annealing furnaces (ROF) for CRGO achieved full localization, earning the Metallurgical Science Progress First Prize.
May 2008: Baosteel successfully mass-produced grain oriented silicon steel via low-temperature slab reheating routes, establishing China’s dual parallel CRGO technical system: high-temperature slab heating (WISCO traditional route) and low-temperature slab heating (Baosteel independent route), ending WISCO’s monopoly over domestic CRGO production.
2009: WISCO No.3 Hi-B Specialized Plant put into operation with 150,000-ton annual capacity; domestic silicon steel passed expert review for Three Gorges giant hydropower generators, marking entry into top national power supply chains. Large-scale hydropower and grid substations all rely on S22 series oil immersed transformers equipped with low-loss CRGO cores, you can view full parameter introduction at our oil immersed transformer product page.
2014: China completely eliminated hot-rolled silicon steel from domestic commercial use, formally completing the 62-year transition from hot-rolled to full cold-rolled electrical steel production, around 40 years later than leading global industrial nations.
China only began exporting grain oriented silicon steel in 2001. It was not until 2017 that China transformed from a long-term net importer to a permanent net exporter of electrical steel, ending decades of dependence on foreign silicon steel supplies. Over these years, a great number of domestic and overseas power projects have adopted China-made CRGO matched transformer and substation equipment, and you can browse all real engineering cases at our project case archive page.
6. Three Core Barriers Behind China’s 70-Year Struggle with CRGO
Retrospecting seven decades of development, three fundamental obstacles prolonged China’s grain oriented silicon steel industrial hardship:
6.1 Inherently Extreme Technical Difficulty of CRGO Manufacturing
CRGO integrates interconnected breakthroughs across material theory, process innovation, grade iteration, and consistent quality control. Secondary recrystallization mechanics, inhibitor chemical design, and precise Goss texture alignment count as unresolved global metallurgical challenges. Japanese industry benchmarks confirm developing a single new CRGO grade requires roughly 10 years of iterative testing, with premium ultra-thin Hi-B grades demanding even longer R&D cycles. CRGO advancement cannot be accelerated purely via capital or equipment investment.
6.2 Long-Term Incomplete Domestic Heavy Industrial Ecosystem
The 1970s TISCO trial serves as the most representative example: lab samples matching global top-tier standards existed, yet missing single core high-temperature slab reheating furnaces blocked industrial scaling for over a decade. China’s early bottleneck extended far beyond proprietary chemical formulas, encompassing missing full sets of specialized metallurgical processing machinery and auxiliary production supply chains.
6.3 Over-Reliance on Foreign Imported Technology, Delayed Independent Innovation
2001 industry research reports identified insufficient original independent innovation as China’s largest CRGO competitiveness gap. WISCO, Baosteel and TISCO relied on three large-scale overseas technology import rounds (1974, 1992, 1996) to establish domestic CRGO capacity, with most technical progress limited to digesting and replicating foreign patents, creating a persistent 10-year performance gap versus global front-runners.
7. Full Industrial Overtaking & Global Leadership: Post-2020 New Era Breakthroughs
Radical transformation arrived after 2020: within five years, China closed technical gaps accumulated over prior 60+ years, achieving parallel and leading performance across high-grade grain oriented silicon steel categories. Official statistics from the China Metal Society Electrical Steel Branch outline landmark industry achievements:
Production Scale Growth
2024 total domestic electrical steel output surpassed 16 million metric tons, a 44.6% increase from 2020; grain oriented silicon steel output surged 87.3% year-over-year across the fourteenth five-year plan period.
Cumulative national electrical steel output (2021–2025) hit 62.176 million tons (40.25% growth vs. the 13th five-year cycle), with cumulative high-permeability Hi-B CRGO production reaching 8.8036 million tons (99% volume expansion).
Hi-B CRGO output rose from 405,000 tons (2012) to 1.1892 million tons (2021), expanding 193.63% within a decade; 2025 Hi-B CRGO output hit 2.602 million tons, accounting for a record 77.1% of total domestic grain oriented silicon steel volume.
Ultra-thin CRGO grades below 0.2mm gauge exceeded 400,000 tons annual output—8x the volume recorded five years prior. 0.10mm and 0.08mm extra-thin CRGO products achieved stable mass production, while domestic self-developed laser thermal domain scribing technology reached world-leading performance benchmarks.
Core Independent Technology Breakthroughs
Multiple long-standing foreign technical blockades were fully resolved post-2020:
Baosteel’s proprietary laser thermal scribing CRGO manufacturing technology won the Metallurgical Science and Technology Special Grand Prize, China’s highest metallurgical industry honor.
Shougang commissioned the world’s first specialized production line with full 100% ultra-thin Hi-B grain oriented silicon steel manufacturing capacity.
Full localization of core intelligent control equipment: Baoxin Software Tianxing PLC control systems, Guangzhou Xiangsheng high-speed fiber laser scribing hardware, and Changsha Tianheng online magnetic performance testing systems match or exceed international mainstream imported equipment performance.
End-User Application & Global Trade Dominance
Domestic ultra-thin high-performance CRGO has been widely deployed in national UHV transmission mega-projects, forming the core raw material support for China’s strategic power grid network. Meanwhile, prefabricated modular substations equipped with domestically-produced transformers and CRGO iron cores have become mainstream solutions for energy storage, LNG and port projects, check our energy storage substation solutions to see complete matching power distribution equipment.
Export performance reversal: Fourteen five-year plan cumulative CRGO net exports reached 2.069 million tons, a 185.4% jump over the 13th five-year cycle’s 725,000 tons net export volume. 2024 CRGO export volume hit 666,000 tons; H1 2025 exports neared 400,000 tons. 2025 full-year total electrical steel exports set a historic record at 1.514 million tons. China retains its position as the world’s permanent net electrical steel exporter for consecutive years.
Global market share: China manufactures over 70% of worldwide grain oriented silicon steel and 75% of non-oriented electrical steel, ranking the world’s largest producer and consumer for 19 straight years. Many overseas Belt & Road projects such as Kazakhstan Aktau Port adopt China-made transformers supported by domestic CRGO materials, you can view this overseas landmark project case via the Aktau prefabricated substation project page.
Conclusion
China’s 70-year journey mastering grain oriented silicon steel embodies a rare industrial legend built through three generations of metallurgical researchers, factory engineers, and production workers. Starting from complete industrial blankness in 1952, the sector navigated crippling equipment blockades, decades of lab research deadlock, reliance on imported foreign technology, and brutal international trade competition before achieving full independent industrial mastery post-2020.
Today, China’s electrical steel industrial ecosystem spans proprietary metallurgical formulas, localized full-set manufacturing equipment, end-to-end production workflows, full-grade product coverage, and complete auxiliary material supply chains, evolving from technology importer and follower to global parallel runner and technical leader in ultra-thin low-loss Hi-B grain oriented silicon steel.
There exists no shortcut on this arduous path: over seven decades, Chinese metallurgical practitioners advanced furnace by furnace, mill by mill, sheet by sheet, turning a once foreign-exclusive high-tech steel material into domestically mass-produced world-class product. For transformer manufacturers, power grid contractors and global electrical equipment OEMs, Chinese grain oriented silicon steel now delivers stable, cost-effective high-performance iron core alternatives to traditional Japanese imports, facilitating low-carbon power infrastructure construction worldwide. If you need complete sets of power transformation equipment assembled with domestic CRGO steel, feel free to contact our engineering team for detailed technical datasheets and tailored processing plans.
This article refers to industry documents and research reports including Present Situation and Development Goals of China’s Electrical Steel Production Technology, 2026 China Grain-Oriented Silicon Steel Industry Market Prospect Research Report, Core Tasks of Electrical Steel Industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan: Marching toward High-Quality Development, Six Major Achievements of China’s Electrical Steel Industry in the Past Decade, Electrical Steel Embarks on a New Track of High-End Development, Qualitative Leap of China’s Electrical Steel Product Mix during the 14th Five-Year Plan, Review and Outlook of China’s Electrical Steel Market in 2011, Targeting High-End, Intelligent and Green Development to Boost Global Competitiveness, Academician Zhang Shourong Elaborates on the Past, Present and Future of China’s Electrical Steel Industry, 58 Years of Development and Prospect of China’s Electrical Steel, and Brief Report on China’s Electrical Steel Import and Export in the First Half of 2025.
