A thick ship whistle pierced the river. Recently, at the main domestic trade transfer terminal of Chongqing Iron and Steel - "Taixing China Railway Construction" terminal, two special African "customers" were welcomed: 20000 tons of top-quality Simandou iron ore from Guinea, West Africa. This batch of ore crossed a distant distance of 11000 nautical miles and after 46 days of drifting at sea, finally successfully docked.

This is not an ordinary arrival of raw materials. It marks a crucial step forward for Chongqing Iron and Steel's raw material supply chain, actively expanding from traditional sources such as Australia and Brazil to the emerging resource map of the southern hemisphere. It is also a vivid footnote to the improvement of China Baowu and even the raw material guarantee capability of the Chinese steel industry. The Simandou project is the first overseas mineral project led by China, covering the entire chain from resource exploration and infrastructure investment to transportation and sales, with an unprecedented scale. Since the substantial construction of the northern block began in June 2024, China Baowu has worked together with all parties to overcome numerous difficulties and achieve full line completion and production ahead of schedule in November 2025.

A precise relay spanning thousands of miles

From mines in Guinea, West Africa to steel mills in Chongqing on the banks of the Yangtze River, this supply chain can be regarded as a relay race that spans three major links: ocean transportation, domestic transit ports, and Yangtze River inland shipping. Last December, this batch of ore set sail from Africa and arrived at Majishan Port in Zhoushan, Zhejiang at the end of January this year for transit. It was then picked up by a river ship and finally transported to Chongqing. The entire process was a successful integration and stress test between Chongqing Iron and Steel's global procurement system and domestic precision logistics network.

Winning the logistics' tough battle 'before the Spring Festival

When the transportation task was launched, there were many challenges: the transportation capacity of the Yangtze River was already tight before the Spring Festival, and the waterway was at a historical low water level. The multimodal transportation was interlocked, and the fault tolerance rate was extremely low. How to ensure that ore is transferred immediately upon arrival and not detained? The Chongqing Iron and Steel Logistics and Transportation Department has made precise arrangements in advance, coordinating parameters such as ship draft and cabin capacity to minimize waiting time. From sea vessels to river vessels, and then to the factory area, each transfer point is equipped with measurement monitoring and digital scheduling systems for real-time tracking, synchronizing information flow with logistics and turning the uncertainty of ocean transportation into a predictable and controllable smooth process.

Practical testing of the concept of "accounting management"

This successful delivery is also a vivid practice of Chongqing Iron and Steel to reduce costs and increase efficiency. High grade Simandou ore directly helps to reduce the production cost of pre iron processes; The efficient operation of the complex logistics chain and the "zero waiting" turnover are themselves manifestations of the ability to control transportation costs. More importantly, the cross departmental collaboration mechanism, emergency plan, and supplier collaboration model established this time have laid a solid foundation for the subsequent normalization of imported Simandou mine. As this batch of ore is about to be put into production, the blueprint for optimizing the raw material structure of Chongqing Iron and Steel is becoming a reality.

The successful arrival of the first ship of iron ore marks the comprehensive integration of the entire supply chain of the Simandou iron ore project, from mining, railway, overseas ports, through ocean transportation, domestic port transfer, to sea to river transportation, and finally to the Yangtze River terminal. The smoothness of this channel will greatly enhance the supply capacity of iron ore and have profound significance for the resource security of China's steel industry.Editor/Yang Meiling