Cement Character Series: Cross-border New Responsibility, Steering Conch to Win the Top 500 — — Gao Dengbang

Cement is a great cause, carrying the people's yearning for a better life, and laying a solid foundation for economic and social development. Over the past decades, China's cement industry has been developing continuously and making great progress, realizing the technological leap from shaft kiln to new dry process, completing the transformation from following to leading in the world, and becoming a basic industry with great international competitiveness in China. In the course of the vigorous development of the cement industry, a large number of dedicated outstanding figures have emerged, who have profoundly reshaped the development pattern of China's cement industry and injected strong impetus into the iterative upgrading of the industry. In the near future, China Cement Network will review the industry figures who have made outstanding contributions to China's cement industry from a third-party perspective.

Today, we bring Gao Dengbang, the former party secretary and chairman of Conch Group and the former president of China Cement Association.

in the Huaibei Mining Bureau, Gao Dengbang experienced a change from a technical post to a management post: from the deputy secretary of the factory Youth League Committee to the cadre section of the Organization Department of the Party Committee of the Mining Bureau, and then to the deputy secretary and secretary of the Youth League Committee of the Mining Bureau. In 1995, at the age of 34, Gao Dengbang left the coal mine system and was transferred to the deputy secretary of the Anhui Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. Three years later, he was promoted to the secretary of the Provincial Committee of the Communist Youth League. This experience has accumulated rich organizational management experience and macro vision for him. Since

2002, Gao Dengbang has been transferred to local government work. He has successively served as Deputy Secretary of the Xuancheng Municipal Committee, Vice Mayor, Mayor, Secretary of the Municipal Committee and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress, and has been in charge of Xuancheng for nearly nine years. In December 2011, he was transferred to the Secretary of the Wuhu Municipal Party Committee, the director of the Standing Committee of the Municipal People's Congress and the first Secretary of the Party and Labor Committee of the Jiangbei Industrial Concentration Zone, and took charge of the industrial town along the Yangtze River for nearly four years.

From technicians to the Secretary of the League Provincial Committee, from the mayor to the Secretary of the Municipal Committee, more than 30 years of political experience has endowed Gao Dengbang with a unique compound ability, which not only has a personal understanding of the industrial front line, but also has the political wisdom to control the complex situation, and has the overall thinking of coordinating regional economic development. All these played a decisive role when he took charge of Conch Group in the future. In November

2015, Gao Dengbang, 54, was appointed from the post of Secretary of the Wuhu Municipal Party Committee to the post of Secretary and Chairman of the Anhui Conch Group. When

the news came out, there was no lack of doubts. At that time, although Conch Group was still the leader of the cement industry, it was experiencing a period of performance downturn. In 2015,

Gao Dengbang became the owner of Conch. The Anhui Provincial Party Committee and the provincial government have established the goal of "one strong and three champions" for Conch Group: ranking among the top 500 in the world; the output value of a single brand of cement is the first in the world; the output value of new green building materials is the first in the world; and the output value of energy-saving, environmental protection and service industry related to cement is the first in the country. That is a hugely ambitious timetable – widely believed to take five years or more.

"Brave reform and bold innovation are the traditional genes of conch." Gao Dengbang said. He continued and carried forward this gene, and quickly clarified the development ideas: adhere to "green industry, intelligent factory, management informatization, internationalization of operation", on the one hand, expand the production capacity of the main cement industry through new construction, mergers and acquisitions, technological transformation, on the other hand, extend to the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain of aggregate, commercial concrete, prefabricated buildings, etc., to create a competitive highland for the industry.

The result was unexpected. In less than five years, Conch Group has achieved all the goals of "one strong and three crowns" ahead of schedule.

scale. From 2016 to 2019, the operating income of conch cement increased from 55 billion 932 million yuan to 157 billion 30 million yuan; Net profit soared from 8.530 billion yuan to 335. In the capital market, Conch Cement's share price rose by 500% in five years, and its total market value rose from 91.096 billion yuan in early 2016 to 2714.2019

in March 2021. Conch Group was listed in the Fortune Global 500 for the first time with a revenue of $28.499 billion, ranking 441st; in 2020, it rose to 367th with a revenue of $33.916 billion, jumping 74 places within a year; in 2021, it ranked 379.Green

Road. "Accelerating the green transformation of traditional industries is an important part of the sustainable development of enterprises and the promotion of brand value, as well as the social responsibility that large enterprises must fulfill." Gao Dengbang runs the green concept through the whole production process. During the 13th Five-Year Plan period, Conch has invested more than 4 billion yuan in special funds for environmental protection to comprehensively reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides, sulfur dioxide and particulate matter. The factory along the river takes "no sewage into the river, no dust in the port area, full recycling of garbage, and new green along the coast" as its standard, and builds the traditional cement production line into an ecological factory. What is more striking is that Conch has built the world's first carbon dioxide capture and purification system for cement kiln flue gas, setting a benchmark for the cement industry to achieve the goal of "double carbon". At the same time, the technology of co-disposal of domestic waste, solid waste and hazardous waste in cement kilns has been promoted in 20 provinces and cities in China and overseas. It is planned that the annual disposal of domestic waste will reach 10.62 million tons and solid hazardous waste 4.43 million tons after completion, so that cement plants will be transformed from "big emitters" to "purifiers" of urban environment.

Overseas extension. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, Conch Group has actively implemented the "the Belt and Road" initiative, exporting advanced technology and equipment and green production and management concepts to foreign countries. During Gao Dengbang's tenure, Conch has invested 11.2 billion yuan overseas, with 42 enterprises in Southeast Asia, Europe, North America and Africa, with more than 3700 overseas employees and a localization rate of more than 70%. Laos Luang Prabang project production line equipment overall localization rate of 90%, Indonesia Nanga Conch has been rated as a local "big taxpayer" for many years, Myanmar Conch and Confucius Classroom Joint Staff University, Cambodia Madwang Conch and University Joint Training of Local Talents-in the process of "going out", Gao Dengbang always emphasizes "long-term effect" and "localization". It is not a simple transfer of production capacity, but the overall output of industrial chain, talent chain and cultural chain.

Fourth, the industry flag bearer, the way

of competition and cooperation, if the head of Conch shows the ability of enterprise management, then in July 2019, he took over as the president of China Cement Association, which will expand his industry influence to the whole cement industry. On July 24,

2019, the eighth member Congress of China Cement Association was held in Wuhu. Gao Dengbang, chairman of Conch Group, delivered a speech at the meeting and was elected as the new president. In his speech, he said something that was later widely quoted: "Cement is a great invention in the process of human progress, which has a history of more than 100 years in China.". As a basic raw material, it plays an important role in China's economic construction, and it can be predicted that it will continue to play an indispensable and irreplaceable role in the progress and development of human society for a long time to come. For this reason, we should be proud of being cement people and firmly believe that cement is a great cause.

These remarks not only boosted the sense of professional honor of the whole industry, but also determined the basic position of Gao Dengbang as the president of the association: the cement industry can not belittle itself, nor can it be disorderly internal friction, only competition and cooperation symbiosis, can it be stable and far-reaching.

With the joint efforts of Gao Dengbang and others, the concept of "industry interests are higher than enterprise interests, and enterprise interests reside in industry interests" has gradually penetrated into the hearts of the people. The relationship between Conch Group and China's building materials industry giants has moved from fierce competition in the past to benign competition and cooperation. To build a platform for trade in the sea and adopt the flexible strategy of "one district, one factory, one policy, and different measures", Gao Dengbang was appraised as a person who "maintains the competitive and cooperative ecology of the cement industry better". After

stepping down as chairman of Conch Group, Gao Dengbang continued to work for the development of the industry as chairman of China Cement Association.In April

2021, the 60-year-old Gao Dengbang stepped down as the party secretary and chairman of Conch Group. In five years, he pushed a cement giant at a low ebb onto the stage of the world's top 500, more than tripling its revenue, nearly quadrupling its profits and nearly tripling its market value. In May 2025, he resigned from the post of president of China Cement Association, thus completing his fate with the cement industry for nearly ten years.

Looking back at Gao Dengbang's career, a distinctive feature is "cross-border"-from coal mine technicians to Communist Youth League cadres, from local officials to heads of state-owned enterprises, from entrepreneurs to leaders of industry organizations. Every time he changed his role, he did better than outside world expected. The reason may be that he has always maintained the same working method in different positions: facing real problems, coming up with real plans and pursuing real results.

In an industry with serious overcapacity and structural decline in demand, Gao Dengbang has proved with his practice that traditional industries are not without a way out, and the way out lies in technological innovation, green transformation and orderly competition and cooperation. His three development paths of "greening, intellectualization and internationalization" are still the basic framework for the transformation and development of Conch Group and even the whole cement industry.

"We should be proud to be cement people." This sentence should not only belong to the cement industry-everyone in the traditional industry should have this confidence. Because a truly great cause is never defined by the "new" or "old" of the industry, but by the willingness of practitioners to devote their wisdom and courage to it.