Storyline China to promote artificial intelligence in steel industry [Voice_over] China has released plans to incorporated AI into its steel industry, officials from the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced recently, with an aim of growing the steel industry's value-added output by four percent between now and next year. To do this, officials say, they plan to balance supply and demand, improve economic performances, and optimize the sector's industrial structure. One company that's already making strides is CITIC Group, which has successfully reduced the average R&D cycle of novel high-end steel products by 56 percent with the help of AI. On the production line, AI-powered visual inspection systems can scan steel surfaces at the millimeter level reducing verification time from 72 hours to just eight. Engineers say use cases like these are just the beginning for AI incorporation into the steel industry. [Sound_bite] Wang Guodong, Academician, Chinese Academy of Engineering: "When the blast furnaces become truly smart ones that can think, feel and make decisions on their own, the coal and raw materials used can be reduced. We can save 40 kilograms of standard coal in producing one ton of steel, and carbon emissions can be significantly reduced." [Voice_over] Recent information from China's national bureau of statistics shows that the country produced more than 671 million tons of crude steel in the first eight months of the year. [Restrictions : No access Chinese mainland]