The nuclear power market is booming, with Minhang Old Golden Dragon expanding and upgrading production to serve the next generation of autonomous nuclear power equipment.

On March 31, along Minhang Jiangchuan Road, the Shanghai Electric subsidiary Shanghaitech Casting and Forging (Shanghaitech Casting and Forging) officially kicked off the Phase 1 project of its large-scale casting and forging capacity enhancement initiative.

The project covers a relatively small area of about 50,000 square meters, but total investment reaches nearly twice the company’s annual revenue. It will be rolled out in multiple phases. Most of the money is spent on building equipment—global largest vacuum consumable furnaces, a 10,000-ton fast forging line, a larger-capacity 10,000-ton hydraulic press… all of which represent process limits not yet reached by the industry today.

As one of Minhang’s “Four Great Giants” of industry in years past, why does Shanghaitech Casting and Forging dare to bet so heavily? “We are not only expanding capacity—we are also planning with the next generation of nuclear power equipment in mind,” said Zhang Zhifeng, Chief Engineer of Shanghaitech Casting and Forging.

Site of the Shanghaitech Casting and Forging groundbreaking ceremony. Photo provided by Shanghaitech Casting and Forging

Nuclear power equipment forgings orders hit new highs

The most direct reason for a company to take on a new project is an increase in market demand. Shanghaitech Casting and Forging is no exception.

In an interview, Zhang Zhifeng said that currently, orders for Shanghaitech Casting and Forging’s large cast and forged components are growing, and compared with five years ago, the order volume has doubled. However, because this old plant’s production lines were designed earlier, the share of nuclear power forgings in total capacity is becoming increasingly higher, leaving some capacity for non-nuclear forging products under pressure. “Our production line utilization rate is already very high. When we expand capacity now, it is to further enhance our overall ability to supply high-end large forgings.”

The growth in demand for large cast and forged components is rooted in the warming nuclear power market. Nuclear power is an important part of clean energy. In recent years, demand for large cast and forged components has continued to rise. From 2019 to 2025, the number of nuclear power units approved in China was 6, 4, 5, 10, 10, 11, and 10, respectively. This shows that in recent years, the number of approved nuclear power units has stabilized at more than 10 per year. The China Nuclear Energy Industry Association estimates that by 2035, China’s nuclear power will account for around 10% of total electricity generation.

Large cast and forged components are what manufactures key parts for nuclear power equipment. They can be simply understood as the “big parts” needed for a country’s “heavy engineering” achievements. They are a foundation for upgrading the high-end manufacturing of equipment—core components for power generation equipment and crankshafts for giant marine engines all depend on them.

In the industry, they often say: “There are many companies that do cast and forging, but very few that can produce large cast and forged components.” This is because for forging components weighing hundreds of tons, it is difficult to simulate the melting and forging processes, and the enormous size brings unpredictable process defects. One forging component is worth several million yuan, and the production cycle can last months—so there is almost no “trial-and-error” opportunity.

In the field of large cast and forged components, Shanghaitech Casting and Forging is in China’s first tier. In recent years, revenue has grown steadily, with an average annual growth rate between 15% and 20%. Zhang Zhifeng said the company’s goal for 2026 is to grow another 20%, so the capacity expansion project is imperative.

Next-generation nuclear power demand emerges

But expanding capacity alone is not enough to justify such a large-scale investment from Shanghaitech Casting and Forging.

“Even though mature products get a decent response in the current market, in ten years, with industry development, they will also be replaced by the market,” said Zhang Zhifeng. Shanghaitech Casting and Forging’s capacity expansion plan is also because it has seen demand for next-generation nuclear power equipment. “What materials and what shapes will next-generation nuclear power need will be completely different from what we have now. If we don’t lay out plans now, we will have no place in the future.”

The next-generation nuclear power equipment Zhang Zhifeng mentioned includes not only Generation IV fission reactors, such as fast reactors and thorium-based molten-salt reactors, but also controlled nuclear fusion devices regarded as the “ultimate energy.” Among them, controlled nuclear fusion power plants have extremely harsh operating conditions, which impose unprecedentedly high requirements on materials.

Melting process for large cast and forged components. Photo provided by Shanghaitech Casting and Forging

“Fusion reactor first-wall materials directly contact plasma at over a hundred million degrees. The materials must maintain strength under such extreme high temperatures, which means adding refractory alloying elements such as tungsten. This process is very difficult,” said Gu Jianfeng, a professor at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. At the same time, because the reactor type changes, the thickness and weight of large cast and forged components may also increase, yet performance requirements cannot be reduced at all—this is a huge test for manufacturing technology.

“Unlike R&D for ordinary materials, nuclear power equipment materials require absolute safety,” said Gu Jianfeng. “Due to constraints from stringent irradiation verification, full-cycle operating condition assessments, and multi-level engineering certifications, traditional nuclear power standardized new materials—from basic research to application in landed engineering—have cycles that are typically several decades long. Even with new technology used to speed things up, it still takes 20 to 30 years of systematic research, development, and assessment.”

Currently, Shanghaitech Casting and Forging is carrying out in-depth industry-university-research cooperation with the team from Shanghai Jiao Tong University’s materials school. Not long ago, the two sides jointly applied for the “Shanghai Key Laboratory of Large Cast and Forged Component Materials and Extreme Manufacturing,” and it was officially approved. The lab was unveiled on March 24. This cooperation between university and enterprise will also empower Shanghaitech Casting and Forging’s capacity enhancement plan.

“Front-loaded investment” to capture a decade of the market

Precisely because it is targeting changes in market demand, Shanghaitech Casting and Forging has decided to upgrade its production lines. Specifically, the Phase 1 project includes three parts: bottleneck renovation for the steelmaking production line, the world’s largest vacuum consumable furnace, and a 10,000-ton-level fast forging line. The latter two are used to increase the output of large cast and forged components and also help with innovative R&D of large cast and forged components. For example, the vacuum consumable furnace is used to melt special materials, while the fast forging line improves the flexibility of forging processes.

Zhang Zhifeng offered an analogy: “Molten steel is our ‘flour,’ and forgings are our ‘bread.’ Previously, we could only make regular ‘flour.’ Now, through new equipment like the vacuum consumable furnace, we need to produce high-strength ‘special flour,’ and then use the fast forging line to turn it into ‘special bread.’”

This kind of “front-loaded investment” is the experience the old plant has accumulated after multiple rounds of transformation.

The history of Shanghaitech Casting and Forging traces back to 1958, Shanghai Heavy Machinery Factory. China’s first 10,000-ton hydraulic press was born here. In 1973, Shanghai Heavy Machinery Factory undertook the task of manufacturing large forgings for the first phase of the Qinshan Nuclear Power Plant’s “728 Project.” It successively provided high-quality large cast and forged components such as nuclear power pressure vessels, evaporators, pressurizers, and in-core components for projects including Qinshan Phase I, Qinshan Phase II, and the Qinshan expansion. But entering the 1990s, the company once again faced a dilemma as its market competitiveness weakened.

A turning point arrived in 2006. Shanghaitech Casting and Forging saw that the state planned to build large nuclear power stations at the million-kilowatt level and also clean coal-fired power stations, and it planned to build a new generation of 10,000-ton presses and transform its main products into large cast and forged components for high-end energy equipment. This left a deep impression on Zhang Zhifeng. That year, he had just graduated and entered Shanghai Heavy Machinery Factory to work.

Gu Jianfeng is a 20-year industry veteran who has witnessed the entire process of China’s nuclear power large cast and forged components moving from dependence on imports to full domestic production. He recalled, “Around 2010, the country was preparing for large-scale nuclear power deployment, and a large number of projects were launched. Back then, the major heavy machinery plants across the country were all competing, and the defect rate was very high. If even one piece was scrapped, it meant a loss of several million yuan.”

Over successive decades, Shanghaitech Casting and Forging has been tackling large cast and forged components—this “hard nut”—one by one. Starting in 2006, Shanghai Heavy Machinery Factory invested nearly a decade in research and development for the localization of nuclear power forging components. Through that effort, it mastered batch manufacturing capabilities for reactor types such as second-generation improved 1000MW nuclear power, third-generation AP1000 nuclear power, and 200MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactors. After 2015, it also initiated research and development for new reactor models’ major nuclear power equipment, including Hualong One, 600MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, and Guohe One. Today, Hualong One has achieved 100% domestic localization of large forgings for main island equipment, and the localization of large forgings for the 600MW high-temperature gas-cooled reactor and Guohe One has also entered a comprehensive push.

This may be the most plain truth of China’s manufacturing upgrade—behind the visible country’s heavy engineering achievements are countless invisible industrial foundation capabilities that are holding them up. And for foundation capability improvement, there is no shortcut. Enterprises must withstand short-term profit-and-loss pressure and make steadfast strategic investment over a long cycle.

Ten years later, the seeds planted today will surely grow into the backbone that supports the country’s heavy engineering achievements.

Site of large cast and forged component production. Photo provided by Shanghaitech Casting and Forging