Satoshi Murata: progressing with China’s steel industry

Regarding the biggest change brought by the reform and opening up, Murata blurted out, “advancement in technology”. From the perspective of the steel industry where he works, China can now produce most of the steel needed by a lot of industries, while only 10 years ago China had to import steel for some demanding fields.

Murata posits that in the early stage of reform and opening up, China introduced a lot more advanced devices and technologies from other countries. Now it is catching up and beginning to innovate on its own. It is these efforts that have enabled China to take off in many fields and avoid overdependence on imports.

(Chinese technicians being trained in NSSMC)

Another term that Murata mentioned is “balanced development.” “The overall growth over the years has been significant, reaching a peak in 2008 and transitioning to stable growth after 2015, which China calls the ’new norm’,” says Murata. Despite the rapid rate of growth, there are a few issues remaining such as inequality, financial problems, the price of real estate and environmental issues. China is actively tackling these issues and seeking a balance in crafting the best solution to all these problems.