Figure of Huishang | Ji Chengzhi: The "China Temperature" of a "Little Giant"

If the technological breakthrough in the electric heat-tracing industry is a relay race, then the baton taken over by Ji Chengzhi, Chairman of Anhui Huanrui Heating Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Huanrui"), marks an inspiring journey of achieving domestic substitution for electric heat-tracing solutions in the industrial sector.

The electric heat-tracing system converts electric energy into thermal energy. It delivers continuous, uniform heat for pipelines in petroleum, chemical, power, steel, shipbuilding and other industries, bringing equipment and pipelines up to preset temperatures. It prevents temperature loss, freezing and blockages under low-temperature conditions and sustains required operating temperatures over long durations, serving as a true-to-form "invisible backbone" for the industry.

From difficult early-market beginnings to self-regulating heating cables and services available in more than 50 countries and regions worldwide, Huanrui has delivered technical breakthroughs covering self-developed functional materials, production-process innovation and accreditation-level testing capabilities. Its 4-millimeter-thick strip-shaped heating cables operate as countless "temperature arteries": deployed across the intricate chemical process networks, strategic energy transmission arteries and the "steel giants" of high-speed railways, they deliver invisible yet indispensable thermal support for industrial applications. The enterprise has achieved a remarkable transformation: from chasing international peers, to running on equal footing, and to outperforming them in selected fields.

Nearly two decades of persistent dedication and unremitting efforts by Ji Chengzhi and his team have shaped the company’s growth trajectory. It stands as a vivid example of pursuing national-oriented industrial development, with patriotism as the sail and independent innovation as the oar, sailing forward against all odds to fulfill the aspiration of serving the country through manufacturing.

China’s industry is advancing from manufacturing to smart manufacturing, and more such "pathbreakers" and "guardians" are urgently needed.

Moment of Glory

In deep winter, a CR400BF-GS enhanced cold-resistant Fuxing EMU built by CRRC Changchun Railway Vehicles speeds across the snow-covered land of Northeast China at 350 km/h. Outside, temperatures plunge to minus 30 °C, cold enough to freeze everything. Yet train water-supply pipes, under-car drainage pipes, water tanks and drain valves operate reliably thanks to precise thermal protection from the on-board electric heat-tracing system.

At the heart of this train’s invisible anti-freeze infrastructure lies the self-regulating heating cable manufactured by Huanrui. Its energy-saving heating performance keeps the train’s water-system pipelines functioning reliably in frigid climates and prevents pipe freezing and brittle cracking.

Long before Huanrui won the CRRC bid for the CR400BF-GS cold-resistant EMU and 350 km/h Fuxing intelligent-configuration EMU project, foreign suppliers dominated the high-speed-rail electric heat-tracing market.

In 2024 China developed the new-generation CR450 Fuxing EMU with a design speed of 400 km/h. CRRC required self-regulating heating cables of a special voltage specification that foreign vendors could not supply. Huanrui took an active part in the national CR450 innovation program. By accurately capturing customer requirements, the team developed a new-specification self-regulating heating cable within a tight timeline that fully satisfied project requirements. The CR450 has completed its initial 300000-kilometer service assessment with excellent performance. As a landmark national equipment and future mainstream high-speed-rail model, the CR450 will elevate China’s high-speed-rail capabilities to new heights. Meanwhile, Huanrui has participated in R&D of self-regulating heating cables for CRRC’s Sichuan-Tibet railway EMUs and hydrogen-powered EMUs, accumulating practical experience for plateau-condition deployment and new-energy application platforms. This development puts an end to import dependence for high-speed-rail heat-tracing cable systems and fills the domestic-manufacturing gap for self-regulating heating cables.

In 2025, Wanhua Chemical held its first domestic tender for the Self-Regulating Heating Cable Framework Project. Following strict evaluation, Huanrui became the sole winning bidder on the strength of its high-performance self-regulating heating cables.

This heat-tracing system maintains stable process temperatures during chemical-material storage and transportation and prevents medium solidification or property degradation. It acts as a reliable guardian of smooth process workflows to guarantee efficient continuous operation. Its outstanding stability and safety have passed stringent technical qualification reviews within the chemical industry, making it a benchmark reference case for Huanrui’s expansion into fine-chemical-sector markets.

Huanrui’s self-regulating heating cables are widely deployed across multiple projects of China National Offshore Oil Corporation. They serve anti-condensation and thermal-insulation purposes for petroleum pipelines on rough-sea offshore drilling platforms and along thousands-kilometer national-energy long-distance transmission pipelines. They deliver freeze-protection and temperature-maintenance solutions across the full oil-and-gas value chain: extraction, transportation and processing. Whether countering extreme cold or ensuring smooth flow of high-viscosity fluids, Huanrui products exhibit outstanding adaptability and stability and support China’s energy-sector infrastructure construction.

From petrochemical complexes to rail transit, self-regulating heating cables continuously deliver thermal safeguards for China’s industrial operations. A string of landmark contracts constituted Huanrui’s highlight achievements in 2025.

The enterprise earned numerous honors that year:

- Standing out from more than 3800 candidate enterprises, it was selected for the "2024 Yangtze River Delta Commercial Innovation Samples", representing Anhui-based breakthrough enterprises within the Yangtze River Delta innovation ecosystem.
- Shortlisted in the second batch of the MIIT 2025 high-quality-development support program for specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative SMEs (key "Little Giant" enterprises).
- Awarded many qualifications and titles including National High-Tech Enterprise, Anhui Provincial Champion-Cultivation Manufacturer, Anhui Provincial Innovative (Pilot) Enterprise, Anhui Provincial Industrial Design Center, Anhui Provincial "Digital Workshop", Anhui Provincial "115" Industrial Innovation Team, Anhui Provincial Fine Industrial Product, and inclusion in the Anhui Provincial Recommended Catalogue of Energy-Saving Products.
- Its products are exported to over 50 countries and regions worldwide. The proportion of overseas revenue rose by nearly 30 % year-on-year. It was granted the title "Anhui Export Brand", marking greatly enhanced global brand influence.
- It acts as a major drafting participant for national and industry standards including GB/T 19835 Self-regulating heating cables and GB/T 20841-2025 Heating cables for heating and anti-icing of domestic facilities with rated voltage up to 300/500 V, contributing to the formulation of industry-wide technical specifications.

From Catching-up to Selective Overtaking

Huanrui’s groundbreaking progress did not happen by chance. Its competitiveness originates from Ji Chengzhi’s team’s relentless pursuit of core technologies, precise command of industrial-chain dynamics, deep-rooted customer-value awareness, and firm commitment to domestic substitution.

In 2023 Huanrui achieved mass production for its independently-developed 200 °C-rated self-regulating heating cable. Early in 2025, after overcoming multiple technical bottlenecks, the company achieved breakthroughs in high-performance 260 °C self-regulating heating cables and completed deep-level upgrades for intelligent thermal-control systems. This milestone marked Huanrui’s evolutionary path: from catching-up, to parallel development, to selective overtaking in chosen fields. The enterprise has also transformed from a pure product supplier into an EPC full-scope solution provider covering core-material R&D, product design & manufacturing, engineering installation and intelligent operation & maintenance.

Huanrui’s technical progress illustrates a core truth: only mastery of core technologies enables the upgrade from "Made in China" to "Smart-Manufactured in China". Through full-scale independent development of key technologies, Huanrui realizes end-to-end self-reliance covering core functional materials, insulating materials, manufacturing processes, product testing and certification.

Huanrui’s development logic demonstrates that R&D investment, capacity expansion and profit generation are not mutually exclusive. Guided by strategic prioritization, lean management and innovation-achievement commercialization, the company achieves short-term synergies and long-term virtuous cycles: R&D investment supplies high-value-added products for capacity expansion; expanded capacity generates economies-of-scale profit gains; and profits in turn fund further R&D.

"The top priority is setting clear strategic priorities. R&D investment must always rank high on the agenda so core technologies keep their competitive edge. This underpins high-end-market access and long-term profitability," Ji Chengzhi notes. New-product R&D is not blind expansion; market requirements set innovation directions. "Market demand acts as the compass for innovation, defining its orientation and value. Technological innovation serves as the engine that meets and shapes market demand. It lets us resolve existing-customer pain points while opening new market opportunities. Neither element can be omitted."

Every year Huanrui dispatches teams to global industry exhibitions and conducts market research in traditional heating markets across Europe and North America. These activities identify industry- and scenario-specific customer pain points and track global-technology trends to keep innovation well-targeted.

Huanrui runs dual-track innovation: applied innovation together with forward-looking innovation, balancing immediate-market requirements and long-term strategic layout. Applied innovation directly addresses mainstream current-market demands and delivers rapid commercial returns. Forward-looking innovation anticipates technical shifts 3-5 years ahead and sustains industry-leading positioning.

Currently the company carries out integrated R&D combining "new materials plus intelligent control systems". The objective is to upgrade heat-tracing systems from simple thermal output toward precise sensing, intelligent decision-making and remote operation-and-maintenance, capturing market opportunities for smart thermal-control solutions.

In addition, lean management optimizes capacity efficiency to prevent overcapacity risks. Digital workflows improve equipment utilization so capacity expansion drives cost reduction simultaneously.

Breaking Technological Blockades

Breaking foreign-technology monopolies and growing into a national-level Specialized, Refined, Distinctive and Innovative "Little Giant" enterprise represents a landmark zero-to-one leap for Huanrui.

Back in 2003, 27-year-old Ji Chengzhi worked in sales and first encountered self-regulating heating cables.

At that time US-based players monopolized core heat-tracing-system technologies and global markets.

During the 1980s, responding to national-industry demands, research teams led by the University of Science and Technology of China launched domestic R&D into electric heat-tracing technologies. Constrained by late-start conditions and limited equipment, early domestic products were confined to low-end scenarios, chiefly heat preservation for municipal water-supply and gas pipelines. Penetration into high-end segments such as offshore oil platforms and large-scale chemical complexes remained extremely difficult.

Driven by self-reliance and national sentiment, Ji Chengzhi resolved to devote his career to independent R&D for self-regulating heating cables, aiming for performance parameters matching world-renowned international brands.

In 2007, fueled by entrepreneurial drive, Ji Chengzhi assembled a team of eight-nine staff, rented a simple workshop within Feidong Economic Development Zone (Hefei) and founded Anhui Huanrui Heating Manufacturing Co., Ltd.

Early spring of that founding year brought bitter cold along the Bohai Bay. Wind-driven gravel pounded against heavy oil-plant steel gates and whipped Ji Chengzhi’s thin jacket. He tightly clutched Huanrui’s product brochures — his only asset as a new domestic contender knocking on the energy-industry’s door. Yet he was stopped at the gate by security: "No entry for unauthorized personnel."

He understood that physical barriers were not the greatest obstacle. Far harder to surmount was industry skepticism toward domestically-manufactured heating products. That unsuccessful site visit became a seed planted deep in his mind, growing into a firm conviction: "Someday China’s large-scale energy enterprises will deploy heating products independently developed by Chinese companies."

Meanwhile, Huanrui secured a full-container-size export order to Russia. However, quality defects caused complete sales stagnation and the goods piled up in warehouses.

The turning point arrived through a key strategic decision: pursue independent innovation via deep industry-academia-research collaboration and reject low-end homogeneous competition. The firm set up the Anhui Provincial "115" Industrial Innovation Team and built cooperative R&D partnerships with the University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei University of Technology, Anhui University and Hefei University. A post-doctoral workstation and in-house testing center were established. The testing center obtained CNAS (China National Accreditation Service for Conformity Assessment) accreditation, greatly boosting credibility in international markets, standardizing laboratory workflows and refining management systems to deliver reliable quality assurance for Huanrui’s R&D and manufacturing.

Every new-product development cycle brought fresh challenges: raw-material formulation, production equipment, manufacturing workflows and quality-control protocols each required dedicated technical breakthroughs.

After years of persistent research, Huanrui successfully rolled out self-regulating heating cable series rated at 90 °C, 125 °C, 160 °C, 200 °C and 260 °C. It also developed high-reliability insulating materials and matched heating accessories, accomplishing successive technical upgrades.

Huanrui has maintained cooperation with that original Russian customer for more than ten years, with zero quality-related incidents in subsequent deliveries. This partner has become one of Huanrui’s most stable overseas clients and witnessed the company’s transformation from a startup to an industry benchmark.

Huanrui’s products have been adopted by major domestic oilfields including Changqing, Shengli, Qinghai and Jilin. Internationally they are deployed in landmark projects such as the Nakhodka Mineral Fertilizer Plant Methanol Project (Russia) and Liquefied-Gas Separation Unit (Kazakhstan), exporting "China Temperature" across global markets.

The Confidence to Say "No"

From Ji Chengzhi’s perspective there exist no shortcuts for innovation; real progress comes from down-to-earth hard work.

Take the R&D of 200 °C-grade self-regulating heating cables as an example: Huanrui applied more stringent test benchmarks than leading international competitors. "We must prove our products remain safe and stable under harsher operating conditions before releasing them commercially." The engineering team refined material formulas and production-equipment details through five years of massive test campaigns until mass-production was achieved in 2023.

The arrival of this high-end domestic solution coincided with strong domestic-SOE demand for key-sector import substitution amid shifting global circumstances. Huanrui won the China National Offshore Oil Corporation heat-tracing-material framework tender and accelerated domestic-substitution progress for offshore-engineering heat-tracing systems. Between 2023 and 2025 Huanrui delivered comprehensive heat-tracing-system solutions for 42 new-build / expansion offshore-drilling platforms and 38 existing-platform-retrofit projects under CNOOC. Its technology and services covered numerous core production facilities; over 1.6 million meters of self-regulating heating cables were installed in total, safeguarding nearly 500000 meters of process pipelines and more than one thousand skid-mounted units. Huanrui self-regulating heating systems are widely used for crude-oil transportation, chemical injection, fire-protection sprinkler systems, oil-gas processing and general-utility workflows. They deliver dependable anti-condensation, thermal insulation and process-temperature maintenance for pipelines. Operational continuity and safety are significantly improved under harsh marine-environment conditions, mitigating risks caused by pipeline freezing or medium wax precipitation.

Ji Chengzhi states proudly today: "Our supply chain is fully secure, core technologies are completely domestically controlled and we are resilient against shifts in the international landscape. CNOOC later offered high recognition, commenting that Huanrui gave Chinese industry the confidence to say 'no' in this technical domain."

Meanwhile Huanrui aligns its product portfolio with global standards and has obtained UL, CSA, BV, CE, EAC and other international certifications. Its innovations can circulate freely across more than 50 countries and regions. The certifications satisfy high-end industrial heat-tracing requirements domestically while enabling exports and maximizing innovation-driven commercial value.

Nearly two decades of strenuous development have brought abundant achievements and driven Huanrui toward specialized, refined, distinctive and innovative growth.

China’s electric heat-tracing industry is undergoing rapid-scale expansion, accelerated technical innovation and continuous structural optimization. Overall capability has evolved from following foreign pioneers to running alongside them, with selected segments achieving leading-world-class performance.

Nevertheless, European-American brands retain advantages built on decades-long technical accumulation and market trust, and maintain dominant positions in high-end-application fields such as aerospace, high-end petrochemical engineering and nuclear-power-related systems.

Domestic-industry challenges persist: insufficient R&D investment among local manufacturers, widespread product homogenization, gaps in international-certification deployment and extreme-environment-product development compared with global incumbents, together with room for improvement in cross-border-market capabilities.

Ji Chengzhi holds a clear, objective view of market shifts and corporate-development realities. "Enterprises should capitalize on foreign-brand weaknesses: high pricing, inadequate local-service support, long lead times, inflexible responses to emerging-Chinese-market demands and limited customization capacity. Build competitive strengths accordingly. For example, to satisfy tight-deadline requirements from new-energy-sector clients, we can deliver solution design within 24 hours and finished products within 72 hours." Huanrui does not view competition as a zero-sum game. Instead it follows the strategy of "shoring-up weaknesses while strengthening strengths": absorbing foreign-brand technical experience, increasing investment in high-end-technology R&D, and leveraging local-enterprise agility to consolidate advantages via the "technology plus service" business model.

Delivering "China Solutions" to the World

Driven by dual-carbon-target initiatives and new-infrastructure construction, the electric heat-tracing industry faces new opportunities centered on green transition and high-end-market advancement. Growth drivers include freeze-protection & thermal insulation for new-energy assets (wind power, photovoltaics, energy-storage installations), industrial-sector energy-saving retrofits, residential clean heating, plus intelligent and digital transformation for heat-tracing systems.

Clean-energy replacement, energy-efficiency upgrades and high-end-scenario expansion have become urgent priorities. Ji Chengzhi sees a clear path forward for Huanrui: independent technology, industrial collaboration and global empowerment.

- R&D: Further exploration into extreme-environment applications and intelligent IoT-enabled solutions. Deep-integrate AI algorithms to build smart thermal-control platforms supporting "sensing-decision-making-operation-and-maintenance".
- Market expansion: Deepen presence in new-energy and high-end-industrial verticals while aggressively expanding global markets. Secure top-tier international certifications including UL, CSA and ATEX to bring Chinese-manufactured solutions worldwide.
- Ecosystem building: Enrich the "technology plus service" model and expand operation-and-maintenance trusteeship services. Offer full-lifecycle support such as long-distance monitoring, periodic inspection, fault early-warning and repair for large-industrial and new-energy-project customers, evolving from a simple-project supplier to a long-term strategic partner.
- Business-model innovation: Carry out cross-sector partnerships with industrial-chain stakeholders, prioritizing cooperation with IoT enterprises, energy-storage integrators and industrial-automation vendors. Establish joint laboratories with new-energy enterprises and research institutes to unlock technical and service advantages via resource integration.

Huanrui’s corporate mission is built on technological-innovation foundations, supported by industrial collaboration and guided by a global vision. It focuses on high-end segments including extreme-environment electric heat-tracing and intelligent thermal control, striving to make Chinese-developed heating technologies an important global-innovation force. The company supports national-level key-sector self-reliance and exports Chinese-originated green, efficient and smart thermal-control solutions to the world, contributing Chinese-wisdom to global-industrial upgrading.

"In my understanding, 'Smart-Manufactured in China' means possessing core-technology innovation capacity, standard-setting influence and collaborative-ecosystem radiation power within global industrial chains," Ji Chengzhi says firmly. "This demands technology-oriented entrepreneurs and manufacturing enterprises break free from bottleneck-technology restrictions in key domains. We must translate indigenous-R&D outputs into internationally-accepted industry standards and build innovation-vital, quality-guaranteed industrial clusters led by flagship enterprises."

Source: Huishang Magazine