With the intensive implementation of intelligent construction policies and the acceleration of major project construction, China's steel bar processing equipment industry is undergoing a comprehensive upgrade. From fully automated production lines at high-speed railway construction sites to small intelligent equipment for rural infrastructure, technological innovation is reshaping the industry pattern. At the recently concluded industry summit, data showed that the market scale of domestic intelligent steel bar processing equipment reached 8.6 billion yuan in the first half of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 41%. Among them, enterprises in Shandong, Jiangsu and other regions contributed more than 60% of technical patents, becoming the main force of industry innovation.
![steel bar machine]( "steel bar machine")
The full-process automation of large-scale engineering equipment is the core direction of the upgrade. At the Nanyanzhuang Beam Fabrication Yard of the Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-Speed Railway, the intelligent steel bar processing center has realized unmanned operation from steel bar feeding to finished product output. "In the past, a team of 30 people could only process the steel bars of 1 box girder a day. Now 8 operators control the equipment and can complete 3 girders a day with errors controlled at the millimeter level," introduced the project manager of China Railway Sixth Group. This automated production line integrating sawing, threading and welding was jointly developed by enterprises such as Shandong Zhongji Luyuan and has been promoted and applied in multiple high-speed railway projects.
The equipment upgrade for small and medium-sized construction scenarios is equally impressive. The small CNC steel bar bending machine developed by Shandong Zhongji Luyuan Machinery Technology Co., Ltd. has recently been widely favored in the renovation projects of old communities in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. This equipment adopts an aviation aluminum alloy body design, weighing only 80-120kg, and can be carried to the corridor for operation by two people. Its embedded CNC system supports precise bending from 0° to 180° with an error of ≤±0.5°. New operators can take up their posts after half an hour of training, solving the pain points of "difficult movement and poor precision" of traditional equipment.
![rebar machine]( "rebar machine")
Technological breakthroughs have brought significant economic and social benefits. At the quality improvement and reconstruction site of rural roads in Hebei, the construction team used Zhongji Luyuan's small bending machine to process curb steel bars. Two people completed 800 meters of work in a single day, which is 5 times more efficient than manual equipment and reduces labor costs by 60%. On the large-scale engineering side, the fully automated production line has reduced the steel bar loss rate from 8% of the traditional process to 1.2%. Taking the Xiong'an-Xinzhou High-Speed Railway as an example, a single project saves nearly 1,000 tons of steel annually. The environmental benefits are also prominent. The waste recycling system of integrated equipment reduces steel waste by an average of 15%, helping the infrastructure industry achieve the "dual carbon" goals.
The continuous increase in R&D investment by enterprises has promoted the progress of the industry. Leading enterprises such as Zhongji Luyuan have maintained R&D expenditure accounting for more than 12% of revenue all year round. The number of patent applications has increased by an average of 25% annually in recent years, covering core technologies such as integrated cold heading and threading, and 5G remote operation and maintenance. At the BICES 2025 exhibition, industry enterprises collectively displayed a new generation of equipment equipped with AI quality inspection and digital twin systems, marking that China's steel bar processing equipment has ranked among the international advanced ranks.
Policy support has injected impetus into the development of the industry. Industrial parks such as Jining High-Tech Zone have launched policies such as R&D subsidies and talent introduction and cultivation to help enterprises such as Zhongji Luyuan overcome technical difficulties. Industry experts pointed out that with the advancement of strategies such as rural revitalization and urban renewal, coupled with the release of infrastructure demand along the "Belt and Road", the steel bar processing equipment industry will usher in a larger market space. In the future, the in-depth integration of 5G+AI technology will promote equipment to move towards the intelligent direction of "process self-optimization and fault self-diagnosis".
From the "national heavy equipment" for high-speed railway construction to the "small and exquisite tool" for rural construction, the comprehensive upgrade of steel bar processing equipment is providing solid support for the high-quality development of infrastructure. With technological innovation and policy support, industry forces represented by Shandong enterprises are accelerating the transformation of China from a major country in steel bar processing equipment to a powerful country.
