Nanjing Iron & Steel Co. , Ltd. (NISCO) has worked with Huawei and ecosystem partners to commercially deploy the world’s first steel model powered by swarm intelligence – the YuanYe Steel Large Model (YuanYe) – across multiple scenarios at scale. This helps NISCO transition its core operations from relying on experience to being powered by data and intelligence collaboration. As a traditional manufacturer navigating the challenges of transformation and cost efficiency, NISCO has built a robust digital and intelligent foundation by adopting industry-leading products including Ascend, Kunpeng, Huawei Cloud Stack, and Pangu models. By embedding AI into every core stage of production – ironmaking, steelmaking, rolling, and quality inspection – NISCO is forging green and high-end AI-powered super steel plants. Unlike general-purpose monolithic models, YuanYe innovatively fuses multiple AI models with the steel industry’s metallurgical mechanism models to create a dual-drive, multi-model cluster architecture. This architecture features a "right brain" for probabilistic computing and a "left brain" for precise and scientific decision-making. Powered by massive amounts of sensing data aggregated from millions of operational technology (OT) data points across 26 business domains, NISCO has achieved real-time digital twin mapping within its intelligent operations center, laying solid data and scenario foundations for YuanYe. This enables the entire steelmaking process to become not only visible, but also capable of precise control and intelligent assessment. Now 100 percent of NISCO’s key equipment is connected and digitally controlled and its new product R&D cycles have been shortened by 50 percent, reducing annual costs by over CNY100m (approx. US$15m). As the model continues to iterate, NISCO had launched 25 business agents by October 2026. These agents cover a wide range of scenarios, from visual quality inspection and process optimization to production scheduling and operations management, setting a new benchmark for digital and intelligent steel transformation. Breakthroughs in four core scenarios: YuanYe redefines traditional operations for significant safety, efficiency, and quality gains
In the ironmaking stage, AI makes traditionally invisible blast furnaces transparent. YuanYe leverages blast furnaces’ internal sensor data and metallurgical mechanism analysis to perform real-time dynamic simulations of the ironmaking process. Assisted by furnace temperature prediction and health diagnosis models, furnace operators can predict temperatures and identify issues two hours in advance, with over 90 percent accuracy. This shifts furnace operations from reactive post-event remediation to proactive pre-control, increasing prime-grade molten iron yield by over 10 percent while significantly cutting unit energy consumption. In the rolling stage, AI drives precise predictions and codifies expert experience to enhance the operational stability of steel rolling and secure leadership in product quality. To tackle the highly dynamic and complex operating conditions during the rolling process, YuanYe’s rolling-force prediction model achieves millisecond-level response, narrowing the thickness tolerance to ±0. 2 mm and reducing the steel thickness deviation to 1. 9 percent to reach a world-leading standard. The rolling-force hit rate has jumped from 88 percent to 98 percent, supporting a steady annual output of over 2. 5 million tons of steel plates and increasing the overall yield rate by 0…