Endless Splendid Scenery at "Kunlun": A Record of PetroChina Lubricant Company's Advance in High-Quality Development

Since the beginning of the year, prices of base oils, additives and packaging materials have risen across the board, bringing pressure and challenges to the production and operations of the lubricant industry. Amid such difficulties, PetroChina Lubricant Company broke through against the trend and submitted an excellent report card: in the first half of the year sales rose 15%, sales revenue rose 13% and sales of medium- and high-end products increased 32% year on year.
Not only in this half year - looking across the whole 13th Five-Year Plan, the Lubricant Company achieved abundant results, with cumulative profits of 1.86 billion yuan and profits for five consecutive years; it was rated grade A in the group company's performance assessment for four consecutive years. In 2021 the Kunlun Lubricant brand was valued at 23.952 billion yuan, an increase of 10.46 billion yuan over 2016; it was selected among SASAC's 100 typical cases of state-owned enterprise brand building for 2020 and became one of the group company's first batch of "PetroChina image calling cards".
Entering the opening year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, Kunlun Lubricant is marching triumphantly towards its established goals, and the vivid picture of endless splendid scenery at "Kunlun" is slowly unfolding.
Nothing is established without breaking
Reform and transformation release new momentum
Facing a fully market-oriented lubricant market, how to seize the initiative in the shortest possible time has been the direction of continuous effort for the Lubricant Company since its founding. But with the industry's "reshuffle" accelerating and a diversified competitive landscape taking shape, expanding lubricant market share is by no means easy.
The Lubricant Company was established by PetroChina in accordance with the business strategy of "five unifications and one centralisation". At its founding, it faced many challenges in production and operations for various reasons, including too many managers, too few sales staff and a limited production layout.
The only way to crack the problem was reform.
In 2016, through market analysis, the Party committee of the Lubricant Company made a new strategic deployment. Trading a "subtraction" in headquarters staff for an "addition" in the market, a comprehensive innovation and reform aimed at aligning with the market and seeking development from the market was launched.
Over the past five years the Lubricant Company has continuously advanced reform and innovation of its systems and mechanisms. Without increasing institutions, staffing or personnel, it substantially cut headquarters management bodies and staffing by more than 50% and reinforced frontline sales strength by 162%. It continued to integrate and optimise its business: production plants were reduced from 15 to 2 and sales companies increased from 6 to 16. It successively set up the Shanghai R&D platform, the Product Design Centre, the Testing and Evaluation Centre and a recycling technology company, gradually forming a green closed-loop industrial chain of R&D, production, sales and recycling.
Reform revitalised enterprise assets, activated the factors of production and renewed the vitality of the Lubricant Company. Since 2016 the company has remained profitable. Reform practice has also helped the broad ranks of cadres and employees understand that reform is not about layoffs or disbandment but about giving employees a greater sense of gain.
Entering 2021, the reform-hardened Lubricant Company welcomed a "breakthrough year" for high-quality development. As a representative state-owned enterprise with strong representativeness, considerable development potential and a strong willingness to reform, the Lubricant Company became the only PetroChina company to enter the state-owned enterprise reform "Double Hundred Action" list this year. General Manager Sun Shuhao said: "This is an affirmation of our past reform achievements and also an expectation for our next step in deepening reform."
To accelerate the realisation of the overall reform goal of "comprehensively advancing, leading the group, key breakthroughs, setting a model and seeing results", the Lubricant Company has begun to pilot a business division system. Assistant General Manager Zheng Pengyu said: "We are exploring and advancing tenure-based and contractual management for leading personnel and advancing the modernisation of our governance system and governance capacity in an orderly manner."
In recent years, the coal, cement, steel and construction machinery industries have seen a wave of mergers and reorganisations, with stronger external bargaining power and increasingly strict requirements for professional services. Against this backdrop, the coal and cement business division and the steel and construction machinery business division came into being.
The pilot reform of the coal and cement industry business division landed at the Jinan Branch. Sun Weidong, Party Secretary of the Jinan Branch and manager of the coal and cement business division, took the lead in setting up a special working group. Sun Weidong said: "We selected 19 elite staff from across the country with an average age of 35 and signed performance-based salary contracts with them. Management is systematic and the business has drive; their enthusiasm for developing and serving customers is unprecedented."
Pang Zhongmin, Party Secretary of the Nanjing Branch and manager of the steel and construction machinery business division, integrated practitioners in the steel and construction machinery industries and set up 10 independently accounted project teams. "Using performance indicators, we post the notice and take the lead; the company signs a three-year performance contract with me - doubling the total volume in three years; I then sign three-year performance contracts with the 10 project team managers, and so do the business staff - all contractual. This solves the 'three abilities' issue that is the top priority of reform," Pang Zhongmin said.
From January to July this year, compared with the same period in 2020, oil sales in the coal and cement industries grew cumulatively by 59%, and oil sales in the steel and construction machinery industries grew cumulatively by 25%. Such a pace of development is unmatched in the industry.
While the business division reform is advancing vigorously, the Lubricant Company is carrying out profit calculations along the whole industrial chain, breaking down the barriers between production units and sales companies and putting all the original fixed profits of production units into the market to take part in market competition and align more closely with market behaviour. At the same time, it is committed to creating new business models and advancing full-chain services based on digitalisation and intelligence.
Innovation-driven
Revitalising the enterprise through science and technology activates a new engine
Li Jianming, director of the Lanzhou R&D grease institute, had been doing very well in the additives institute, but in response to the company's call to strengthen research on high-end grease products he switched mid-career to greases. Grease is "something that cannot be clearly explained or defined": each batch produced has different performance, it is hard to sort out a clear development approach, and there is no fully convincing lubrication theory internationally.
But Li Jianming locked horns with himself. He said: "We started R&D on greases too late and there is a big gap with our competitors. Winning market position through breakthroughs in high-end products was the correct decision of the company Party committee, and now is precisely the time to occupy the market high ground, so I have no choice but to work hard."
Today Li Jianming is already a leading figure in grease R&D and has been appointed chief technical expert of the grease development enterprise.
Based on the three positioning pillars of "strengthening technology, improving services and expanding the brand", the Lubricant Company has gradually established a professional technical sequence, expanding the number of chief technical expert positions from 1 to 3. At the same time, it selected 45 people for first-level engineer and above professional technical positions. Turning its emphasis on scientific research talent into institutional guarantees for the company has strengthened the confidence of more researchers in following the path of scientific research.
"These are high-end talent who can stand on their own, leading talent who can drive a wider group, and the core competitiveness of our enterprise," said Tang Zhongping, Chief Engineer of the company.
Zhang Dahua, chief technical expert of the enterprise for testing, evaluation and standardisation research, said: "At the Lubricant Company, as long as researchers want to do something, they can get it done, and the company gives strong support in terms of resources and platforms."
To further mobilise the enthusiasm of scientific and technical personnel, the Lubricant Company launched measures for rewarding scientific and technological achievements and also issued management measures for the production and operation of new and special products, mobilising R&D personnel's enthusiasm for researching new and special products in line with the market, promoting the transformation of results and providing a platform for technical R&D personnel to fully demonstrate their abilities.
In recent years the Lubricant Company has achieved remarkable scientific and technological innovation results. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period it transformed 45 new products with an output value of 467 million yuan. It applied for 70 patents and was granted 68; it formulated or revised 27 national and industry standards and 89 enterprise standards; and it won 14 provincial and ministerial-level or above science and technology awards. It has formed a number of technological achievements in many fields, including rail transit, robotics, wind power and lubricant additive synthesis technology.
At the beginning of 2021, Fu Xisheng, chief scientist of the Lubricant Company, became the sole winner of the group company's annual Outstanding Achievement Award in Science and Technology, with Chairman Dai Houliang personally presenting the award, fully reflecting the affirmation and recognition by the group company's Party Leadership Group of the Lubricant Company's scientific and technological innovation and strengthening the confidence and resolve of all company staff in scientific and technological self-reliance.
Leapfrog development
Party building leadership carries on the new journey
As the "national team" in the lubrication field, Kunlun Lubricant has possessed a patriotic gene and a gene for making the country strong since its birth - an innate red gene.
Xiao Hongwei, Executive Director and Party Secretary of the company, said: "Upholding Party leadership and strengthening Party building is the glorious tradition of China's state-owned enterprises, the 'root' and 'soul' of state-owned enterprises and the political guarantee for the Lubricant Company's achievements. After 70 years of braving wind and rain, and alongside the great process of building socialism with Chinese characteristics, Kunlun Lubricant has continued to break through key technologies and paved a proud road of independent innovation."
The Lubricant Company has deeply studied and grasped the essence of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, upheld the "two unswerving consistencies", continuously enhanced its ability to lead through Party building and strengthened the internal driving force of the red gene; its Party building work has also repeatedly won honours at national and group levels.
This year, the Lubricant Company passed the SASAC's grassroots verification assessment of the Party building responsibility system and helped the group company be rated grade A in SASAC's Party building assessment for four consecutive years; Fu Xisheng was named a national outstanding Communist Party member; the second-level unit Lanzhou Lubricant Research and Development Centre was commended as an "Advanced Grassroots Party Organisation of Central Enterprises"; it successively took first place in the group company's "Study Party History, Follow the Party" knowledge competition and in the "Beijing-based units' singing competition celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Communist Party of China"; Li Qi was named a model worker of the group company; and the Party branch of the oilfield professional service centre of the Daqing Branch won the group company's grassroots Party building "Hundred Red Banners" honour.
To achieve the strategic goal of building a "world-class digital and intelligent high-tech enterprise with the best returns and the best brand, becoming an industry leader", the Party committee of the Lubricant Company further clarified its key work deployment of "taking Party building work to a new level, achieving new breakthroughs in reform and innovation and aiming to be first in the industry". This year it clearly proposed taking the "520" as the main line and implementing the "568" as the lever, continuously building and improving the company's "big Party building" work pattern, integrating Party building work with the "upgraded version" of quality and efficiency improvement, advancing the company's Party building in depth at the grassroots level and further promoting the company's high-quality development.
Under the strong leadership of the group company's Party Leadership Group, today's Kunlun Lubricant presents a situation of "flowers blooming at many points": the enterprise scale keeps expanding, market share keeps growing, technological R&D keeps innovating, service outlets keep expanding and brand reputation keeps rising... It has already become a pace-setter in the domestic lubrication industry.
Riding the wind and waves, the future is promising
With quality above standard, trustworthy guarantees and service attentive to detail, the Lubricant Company is creating value for customers and safeguarding social welfare. This is the mission the times have given this generation of Kunlun people and also the commitment they have made to the future.
Source | China Petroleum Daily
Authors | Special correspondent Li Qiong, reporter Gao Shen
(Editor: Sun Mengxi)