De "monopolio de una sola mina" a "integración global", observando las decisiones estratégicas detrás del salto de las empresas a una escala de cientos de miles de millones

Radio Central Network Jining, April 2nd (Reporter Cheng Lilong, Correspondent Ma Hui, Tian Chunyu)
The canal surges, and the tide of the era rises.
In January 2026, Jining Energy Development Group was officially reorganized and renamed Shandong Ronghui Group.
This state-owned enterprise with revenue surpassing 100 billion yuan, using a nearly tenfold growth curve over five years, has completed a profound strategic transformation.
While outsiders marvel at this leap, a more worth questioning is: why did Shandong Ronghui choose a seemingly “counterintuitive” development path?

Shandong Ronghui Group (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

Jining Energy Group, why not focus on expanding coal mines?

With a coal capacity of tens of millions of tons and annual profits and taxes exceeding 6 billion yuan, Ronghui’s coal sector remains the undisputed “ballast stone.”
But when asked why not continue to bet on coal mine expansion, the group’s Party Secretary and Chairman Zhang Guangyu said: “It’s not that coal mines don’t make money, but under current circumstances, for local state-owned enterprises, there is very little room for error.”

Behind this is a clear survival account.
Building a modern mine with an annual capacity of 5 million tons costs tens of billions or even over a hundred billion yuan, with a construction cycle of 5 to 8 years and a payback period of more than 10 years.
If geological faults, plummeting coal prices, or policy shifts occur, it could result in huge sunk costs.
Moreover, Jining’s local resources are limited, and cross-regional mergers and acquisitions may face various historical burdens, while overseas mining purchases must also contend with policy and geopolitical risks.

“We ‘can’t afford’ the huge sunk costs of a single project,” Zhang Guangyu admitted.
Rather than putting all eggs in one basket, it’s better to maintain the “bottom plate” of coal and use port logistics as the “steering wheel.”
The latter’s assets are divisible, risks controllable, and results can be seen in three years. If successful, continue to invest in phase two; if not, cut losses in time.
This “small steps, quick pace, distributed betting” approach has enabled Ronghui to forge a steady transformation path.

Yangcheng Coal Power (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

Today’s coal sector is positioned as the starting point of circular economy.
At Yangcheng Coal Power under Ronghui Group, an HTDS intelligent waste rock sorting and cemented backfill system is operating efficiently, achieving “no waste rock in the shaft, full resource recovery, zero ground subsidence.”
In Wenshang’s “coal-electric-chemical” industrial park, the entire chain from clean coal power generation to high-end chemicals is already connected.
Coal is no longer the end product but the starting point of the industrial chain.

Not just port logistics and trade, but also from platform to industrial cluster.

By 2025, Jining Port’s cargo throughput will exceed 116 million tons, maintaining the top position among inland ports in Shandong Province, successfully entering the “billion-ton port” city ranks.
But Ronghui’s vision goes far beyond being a “port operator.”

“Ports determine how much cargo you can handle; trade determines how much cargo you can organize.”
In the view of Wang Chongjing, Deputy Party Secretary and General Manager of the group, without physical trade, ports can only passively wait for limited hinterland cargo; with physical trade, ports can proactively source cargo from across the country and even globally.

Liangshan Port (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

The rise of Liangshan Port confirms this logic.
Relying on the “golden cross” of Wari Railway and the Beijing-Hangzhou Grand Canal, Shanxi coal is transported by rail to this port for transshipment southward, reducing the cost of coal transportation by 60 yuan per ton.
In November 2025, Liangshan Port’s phase two project was launched, and after completion, its throughput capacity will reach 80 million tons, transforming from a blueprint into a reality of a “Yangbei billion-ton inland river port.”

But flow volume is just the starting point; turning flow into industry is the key.
At Longgong Port, the first fully automated inland river container port in the country operates efficiently, completing a container’s loading and unloading in just 2 minutes, with a 2025 throughput exceeding 380,000 TEUs, a 69% increase year-on-year.
More notably, the port has attracted industries such as warehousing, processing, and trade, with an ecological pattern of “front port—middle industry—back city” quietly taking shape.

Xinneng Shipbuilding (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

On the banks of Baima River in Zoucheng, Shandong’s first inland renewable energy shipbuilding base is also bustling.
Partnering with CATL, CIMC, and Wuhan University of Technology, they are “building ships as if making new energy vehicles.”
By the end of 2025, Xinneng Shipbuilding had secured over 200 intent orders, with nearly 100 ships delivered and put into operation, serving domestic waterways and successfully exporting to giants like CMA CGM in France.

“Ports provide low-cost logistics for manufacturing, manufacturing provides stable cargo sources for ports; shipbuilding reduces shipping costs, and shipping markets support shipbuilding.”
Zhang Guangyu said this “port-trade-shipbuilding” full industry chain synergy has transformed Ronghui from a single logistics node into an organizer of the industrial ecosystem.

Longgong Port (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

Currently, Ronghui has planned and built eight billion-yuan parks, including Liangshan Port’s integrated logistics and industrial development zone, Longgong Port’s modern port-industry new city, and the new energy ship manufacturing industrial park.
The steel “precast food” processing mode launched by Smart New Steel, and the “Yanghe First Granary” built by Jizhou Grain Industry Park, are turning port transportation advantages into manufacturing logistics cost advantages and industrial chain clustering benefits.

Taking advantage of the renaming, promoting organizational and mechanism reforms.

Strategic transformation’s greatest challenge is not direction but mechanism.
In January 2026, Jining Energy Development Group was officially reorganized and renamed Shandong Ronghui Group, which is not just a name change but a deep organizational restructuring.

“The core barrier for coal companies is resource monopoly; for trade and logistics companies, it’s service efficiency—two completely different logics.”
The former requires hierarchical control and safety first; the latter must authorize frontline staff and make quick decisions.
If coal mine managers accustomed to “sitting and collecting money” are tasked with “risky ventures,” the results are predictable.

Taking the opportunity of the renaming, a comprehensive mechanism reform was launched.
Organizational structure shifted from “control-oriented” to “empowerment-oriented,” with front-line trading teams given great autonomy, making decisions with a “firepower” perspective; risk control and finance in the middle and back office shifted from “approvers” to “service and regulators.”
Incentive mechanisms broke the “big pot rice” model, implementing a professional manager system, with “base salary + commission + uncapped bonuses” aligning core team interests with the company.
Risk control systems upgraded from “safety production” to “financial/credit risk control,” introducing professionals with financial and legal expertise to prevent overdue accounts, fake warehouse receipts, and price arbitrage.

More importantly, internal collaboration mechanisms were reformed.
Ronghui established scientific internal assessment systems to ensure mutual benefit across the industrial chain.
Smart New Steel actively offers concessions to attract enterprises, with their products prioritized for export through the group’s port logistics system, forming a healthy internal industry cycle.
The self-developed “Ronghui Shuyi” platform connects ports, ships, warehouses, and trade into a network, allowing customers to place orders with one click, and automatically generating the most efficient, shortest-route, lowest-cost integrated transport plans.

Jizhou Port Grain Industry Park (Photo provided by Shandong Ronghui Group, released by China National Radio)

The mechanism reform ultimately activates human potential.
Mining worker Song Wenqing, transferred from Anju Coal Mine, grew into a remote control expert at Longgong Port, setting an industry record of “completing a set of ship loading operations in two minutes.”
Former coal mine section chief Liu Jianguo, after “abandoning coal for grain,” took on major responsibilities at Jizhou Port Grain Industry Park.
At Longgong Port, over 40% of employees have successfully transitioned from traditional industries.
Meanwhile, the group has flexibly introduced more than ten high-level talents with doctorates or above, nearly a hundred key business personnel, and accumulated over 800 patents.

“Transformation begins with changing mindsets,” said Zhang Guangyu.
“We must completely jump out of the ‘resource dependence’ comfort zone and establish the belief of ‘moving forward with newness and rising with intelligence’ across the entire group.”

From “single coal dominance” to “Ronghui connecting the world,” Ronghui’s billion-yuan leap is a deep practice of strategic vision, survival rationality, and organizational change.
Standing at a new starting point, this formerly traditional coal enterprise is moving forward with the spirit of “Ronghui connecting the world, capable of benefiting all under heaven,” toward becoming a first-class integrated energy group and a major commodity supply chain service provider in China.
The surging canal flows endlessly—an exemplary resource-based state-owned enterprise’s transformation, shining brightly in the new era’s tide.