In 1967, China no.1 Heavy Machinery Plant built Asia's largest 30,000-ton die forging hydraulic press, equipped with Chongqing Southwest Aluminum Processing Plant (112 Factory of ministry of Metallurgy). The machine was put into production in September 1973 and has been in service till now. It has made important contributions to improving the processing capacity of special high-strength alloy forgings in China and is honored as one of the "four national treasures" in Chinese industry.
After 40 years of stagnation, a new round of rapid development has arrived.
In 2003, Shi Changxu, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, organized five academicians and 17 experts from 31 enterprises and public institutions, including aviation, machinery, metallurgy, education and other departments. The advisory group of "Research on The Development of China's Large-scale Forging equipment -- Construction of 80,000-ton Die Forging Hydraulic Press and Its Supporting Equipment" has been formed to propose to the country again: During the "eleventh five-year Plan" to build an 80,000-ton die forging hydraulic press, and a 15,000-ton hard-to-deform alloy extruding machine, in order to make our country as soon as possible to obtain titanium alloy, high temperature alloy, ultra-high strength alloy steel large integral precision die forging manufacturing capacity.
On November 15, 2007, the National Development and Reform Commission finally approved the design and manufacture of 80,000-ton die forging press by China Erzhong Group, together with Central South University, Yanshan University, Xi 'an Heavy Machinery Research Institute and other units. The total investment of the project is 1.517 billion yuan, of which 303 million yuan is raised by the enterprise and 400 million yuan is allocated by the state. Apply for a bank loan of 800 million yuan. It is planned to produce 15,000 die forgings of titanium and aluminum alloy for aviation, electric power and petrochemical industry, weighing about 13,400 tons.