From "Passive Breakthrough" to "Proactive Transformation"—The Practice Path of Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Group in Turning Losses into Profit and Overcoming Difficulties

（Source: China Nonferrous Metals Industry Network）

“When you are poor, change; by changing, you reach通; and once you reach通, it lasts.” This ancient wisdom from the Book of Changes, in the “14th Five-Year Plan” closing-year report delivered by the Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Group, is given a vivid interpretation. Faced with the dual pressures of market competition and upgrading through transformation, and the severe challenges of operational bottlenecks and overlapping risks, the Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Group did not fall into the morass of passive responses and negative observation. Instead, with a pragmatic spirit of “put action first, and do well to achieve results,” it has accomplished a profound shift from “sluggish operations, bearing pressure passively” to “proactively improving quality and rallying strength to forge ahead.” This leap is certainly not merely a turnaround on the books through changes in operating figures; it is, more deeply, a fundamental transformation in the company’s development philosophy and a reconstruction of its management logic, providing a practical set of sample references for state-owned enterprises to turn around losses, get out of difficulties, and achieve high-quality development.

The foundation for state-owned enterprises to turn around losses and get out of difficulties lies in the front line of production and operations. When the external environment tightens and market fluctuations intensify, some enterprises easily fall into the conventional thinking pattern of “waiting, relying, and asking for help,” making it hard to break out of the vicious circle of passive coping. However, companies under the Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Group—including Hanzhong Zinc Industry, Meixin Company, and Shaanxi Zinc Industry—have chosen, almost simultaneously, to tap potential internally and generate efficiency through management. Their “three grabs” (grabbing production to improve efficiency, grabbing cost control, and grabbing asset revitalization) has been pushed deep into every aspect of production and operations and every process step. Whether it is Hanzhong Zinc Industry activating the potential of aging production lines through fine-grained scheduling, or Meixin Company building a full-chain cost control mechanism, or Shaanxi Zinc Industry “deleveraging” historical burdens through asset restructuring—the core logic in each case is the same: shift attention from relying on external windfalls to tapping internal potential, thereby achieving the key leap from “passively accepting the market’s tests” to “actively strengthening one’s own muscles and bones.”

The core of state-owned enterprises turning around losses and getting out of difficulties lies in the comprehensive activation and systematic reshaping of the “driving forces” for development. Turning around losses is never a one-off achievement. If it only stays at the production end with meticulous calculations and ignores the cultivation of organizational vitality and talent-driven momentum, the results will inevitably be hard to sustain. The key to turning around losses always lies in people. The group’s three companies follow a “three promotes” path—promoting innovation-driven development, promoting talent cultivation, and promoting mechanism reform—to fully unleash the spirit of all employees to tackle hard problems and pursue entrepreneurship. At the root, they address the core questions of “who will drive the change and how to sustain the change.” From establishing R&D departments and deepening university-industry collaboration to drive innovation, to systematically building a talent team and broadening career development pathways, and then to implementing tenure-contract management for management teams and pushing corporate management models to transition from the traditional “experience-driven” approach to the modern “process and data-driven” approach—this set of measures directly targets key difficulties in SOE reform. It truly turns talent, the “first resource,” into the “first driving force” for development, injecting an inexhaustible source of momentum into the company’s sustained transformation.

The key to state-owned enterprises turning around losses and getting out of difficulties lies in redefining the “path” for development and making long-term plans. Real “active change” is never limited to solving immediate operational difficulties or achieving a short-term turnaround to profitability. More importantly, it is about planning long term, laying out the future, and building core competitiveness for sustainable development. Through a “three integrations” strategy of “integrating into the future, integrating into the market, and integrating into risk control,” the group’s three companies have successfully opened up a whole new space for high-quality development, achieving a thorough transition from “bleeding-control-style passive defense” to “blood-generating-style proactive offense.” Hanzhong Zinc Industry actively expands markets for high-end new products and cultivates diversified profit growth points; Shaanxi Zinc Industry sets out a “five-year campaign” blueprint, clarifying mid- to long-term development goals and industry upgrading paths; and Meixin Company deepens integrated collaboration in “production-education-research-materials,” promoting deep synergy between innovation in the industrial chain, the innovation chain, and the talent chain—these forward-looking layouts allow the enterprises to completely escape the vicious competitive predicament of “stock-based rivalry,” stride boldly toward the development blue ocean of “creating increments,” and fully transition from “extensive growth” to “lean operations,” laying a solid foundation for long-term development.

From “passive breakthroughs” to “active transformation,” the successful practices of the Shaanxi Nonferrous Metals Group reveal, in depth, the underlying logic of how state-owned enterprises turn around losses and get out of difficulties: real development breakthroughs must not rely on short-term market tailwinds or external “blood transfusion” support. They must achieve a fundamental shift in development philosophy, management model, and operating system by deeply tapping internal potential, reshaping organizational driving forces, and laying out a long-term future. The “three grabs, three promotes, three integrations” campaign system formed through its exploration essentially builds a virtuous cycle of “strengthening the foundation—activating development driving forces—opening up innovation.” By pursuing meticulous cultivation at the production end to stabilize the company’s operating basic盤; by using talent and mechanism reform to stimulate endogenous momentum; and by leveraging forward-looking strategic planning to open up new space for development—these three aspects complement one another and work in concert with coordinated efforts, ultimately achieving an all-round improvement in the quality and efficiency of enterprise development.

“Those who pursue not the easy do achieve; those who avoid not difficulties move forward.” Turning around losses and getting out of difficulties is never the end point of enterprise development; rather, it is a brand-new starting point for high-quality development. At present, state-owned enterprises are in the critical campaign period for deepening reform, upgrading and transforming, and improving quality and efficiency. Only by “adopting system-wide measures and applying precise efforts,” turning the external pressure of “passive breakthroughs” into the endogenous momentum of “active transformation and resolute advance,” can they go steadily and far in a complex and ever-changing market environment. And in the grand journey of serving national strategies, promoting technological progress in the industry, and helping the real economy thrive, they can contribute with more substance and more weight the responsibility of SOEs—this is not only the self-expectation of people at Shaanxi Nonferrous to strive and forge ahead; it should also become the shared stance and direction for action of all state-owned enterprises tasked with reform missions.

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