External headwinds fail to stymie tech progress

Innovation speeding up despite trade tensions 

The Yamal Peninsula in northwest Siberia is usually regarded as one of the most inhospitable places on earth. Even its name means "the end of the land" in the local language.

But a thick layer of ice and extreme cold have failed to stop the quest for what lies deep under the frozen soil.

On the snow-encrusted surface stands the Yamal LNG (liquefied natural gas) plant, a joint venture between China, France and Russia, with an annual output capacity of about 16.5 million metric tons.

The plant, made from high-performance stainless steel supplied by Taiyuan Iron & Steel Co, a State-owned enter-prise in Shanxi province, can cope with the extreme conditions, in which temperatures can drop to as low as -52 C.

In 2014, the company was chosen to supply steel for Yamal LNG. Knowing how hard this task could be, TISCO carried out numerous tests to improve the steel, and was finally able to develop stain-less steel pipes with excellent resistance to cold weather. It has since supplied more than 13,000 tons of special steel to Yamal.

Over the years, TISCO has demonstrated its ability to develop such products. It is the only steelmaker that can mass produce a special type of stainless steel foil just 0.02 millimeters thick, and can be stretched to great lengths. According to TISCO, the technology to produce high-end steel foil has long been dominated by a few countries, such as Germany and Japan.

But after years of independent research and development, TISCO has been able to break into the high-end market with its world-leading products.

TISCO is just one of many examples proving that China's technological development cannot be constrained by external pressures, be they Siberian blizzards, foreign technological dominance in some areas or rising global protectionism.