On the afternoon of 8 July, a delegation led by Li Zhaomin, CPC Deputy Secretary and President of Shihezi University, visited Ban Chao Group for an on-site investigation and held a symposium. The two sides engaged in in-depth exchanges on the Group’s development status, industrial potential and university-industry-research collaboration. Liu Gufeng, Vice President of Ban Chao Group, chaired the meeting and presented a comprehensive briefing.

Vice President Liu Gufeng provided an overview of the Group’s growth trajectory, emphasizing the vast potential of the non-ferrous-metals sector amid the current economic climate. He highlighted magnesium—a lightweight, high-performance metal—as particularly promising for new-energy and aerospace applications. While acknowledging that Ban Chao has already established stable industry-university-research partnerships with several universities and research institutes, and has overcome technical bottlenecks through collaborative innovation, Liu frankly noted that the company still faces a shortage of engineers who are conversant with both technology and production, as well as high-end R&D talent capable of leading frontier research. He expressed hope that cooperation with Shihezi University will help solve this talent-gap challenge.

President Li Zhaomin commended Ban Chao Group’s dedication to magnesium smelting and its technological achievements. He stated that Shihezi University possesses strong disciplinary foundations in relevant fields, and that the visit was precisely aimed at aligning university capabilities with corporate needs. Going forward, the two sides can deepen collaboration in joint technology development, targeted talent cultivation and the establishment of internship and training bases, so as to accelerate the translation of research results into industrial applications and achieve seamless integration between scientific achievements and market demand.

The two parties also held preliminary discussions on specific cooperation directions, sharing the view that synergistic industry-university-research collaboration is the key to unlocking industrial potential and overcoming development challenges. The symposium built an efficient communication bridge between the university and the enterprise. Next steps will focus on refining cooperation schemes in areas such as technology R&D and talent supply, ensuring precise pairing of the university’s research strengths with the Group’s industrial advantages, and injecting new momentum into the high-quality development of the non-ferrous-metals industry.