Jingye Group (Chinese: 敬业集团) is a Chinese steelmaker and long steel products company headquartered in Beijing. With a crude steel production of over 16 million tons, it was the twelfth largest steel producer in China in 2020.[citation needed] The group has also been active in Europe since 2020 through the acquisition of British Steel Limited.
Jingye is a major producer of concrete reinforcement, round bars, medium steel plates and galvanized and painted sheet steel. The Chinese construction sector is a major customer but the group also exports globally.
In addition to steel production, the group is also active in the chemical and pharmaceutical industry, international trade, finance, logistics, tourism, holiday resorts and hotels, real estate and 3D printing with metal powder.
| Company | Location | Acquisition | Products | Crude steel capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jingye Steel | Shijiazhuang | n.a. | bars, plates, sheet steel | 12 mt/year[1] |
| (Inner Mongolia) Ulanhot Steel | Ulanhot | 2014 | concrete reinforcement, round bars | 1.05 mt/year[2] |
| British Steel Limited | Scunthorpe (UK) | 2020 | plates, profiles, wire, rails | 3.59 mt/year[3] |
| Yunnan Jingye Steel (Yunnan Yongchang Steel) | Anning | 2020 | concrete reinforcement | 1.7 mt/year[4] |
| Guangdong Jingye Steel (Guangdong Taidu Steel) | Jieyang | 2020 | concrete reinforcement | 1.2 mt/year[5] |
In 1985, former teacher Li Ganpo founded a privately owned canning factory and a brewery in Pingshan, not far from Beijing. Three years later, he founded the Jingye chemical factory. The word "jingye" means "dedication".[6]
In 2002, the group also entered steel production and developed activities in other sectors such as transport and tourism. The production of steel and processed steel products grew to become the group's core business. The company also built roads, houses and schools, and provided health care and higher education for its employees and the community. From 2008, Li also served on the 11th National People's Congress.[6]
During the credit crunch, Jingye invested heavily in sales offices across China and the construction of a rolling mill capable of producing 1.6 million tonnes of bars annually.[7]
In 2014, Jingye acquired Ulanhot Steel in northern Inner Mongolia from Fangda Steel. This took the group to an annual production capacity of 2 million tonnes. That year, the group also acquired British Steel in the United Kingdom. These were the long steel activities that had been divested by Tata Steel Europe in 2016. They included a steelworks in Scunthorpe and rolling mills in Teesside and Skinningrove. Later in 2020, Yunnan Yongchang Steel and Guangdong Taidu Steel were acquired in southern China.[citation needed]
In 2025, the British government took control of a steel mill owned by Jingye citing national security reasons.[8][9]
