The 2026 China International Fair for Trade in Services opened its doors on September 9, with major energy and steel industry players gathering to showcase their latest technological achievements. The environmental and energy services exhibition area at Shougang Park's Hall 5 drew significant attention, featuring prominent displays from PetroChina Company Limited, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation, CNOOC Limited, Beijing Energy International Holding Co., Ltd., and Shougang Group Co., Ltd..

Traditional business operations are sprouting new green shoots across the industry. At the Sinopec exhibition booth, visitors crowded around an integrated exploration and development model that condensed the entire shale gas value chain onto a single display table. From seismic exploration to horizontal drilling, from fracturing operations to pipeline transportation, the complete production process was on show. A staff member explained that shale gas extraction presents greater technical challenges due to deeper burial depths, which prompted the company to develop proprietary shale gas systems. The Fuling shale gas field has now surpassed one trillion cubic meters in proven reserves, securing its position as China's first commercially viable shale gas operation. The company's full-chain carbon capture, utilization, and storage system also attracted considerable professional interest, with staff describing the journey of carbon dioxide in personified terms: captured by special absorbents, compressed and cooled into liquid form, then injected through pipelines into geological formations where it interacts with crude oil to enhance recovery rates. This technology has already been deployed across multiple refining and oil production sites, representing a textbook case of traditional businesses integrating green innovations.

At the Shougang Group pavilion, technical staff delivered detailed presentations on hydropower steel applications. Engineers pointed to display panels illustrating how steel used for pump storage power station spiral casings must withstand water pressure from hundreds of meters of head and centrifugal forces reaching tens of thousands of tons. The journey from strength enhancement to low-temperature toughness assurance to welding process optimization spans five to ten years of material iteration cycles. These high-strength steel products provide essential support for domestic pump storage facility construction, which serves as the indispensable large-scale battery for new energy grid integration.

The intersection of energy and computing power emerged as a defining theme at this year's fair. Computing infrastructure has become a catalyst for unprecedented electricity demand, and gas turbines are finding renewed relevance as a result. A domestic 300-megawatt class heavy-duty gas turbine model displayed at the Shougang Group exhibition caught considerable attention. The rapid expansion of computing capacity has triggered explosive growth in power demand, and gas turbines, with their quick response times and relatively shorter construction periods, are opening up brand new application scenarios.

Beijing Energy showcased its comprehensive transformation from a traditional energy enterprise into a diversified energy service provider. The company's business portfolio has expanded to encompass green electricity trading and comprehensive zero-carbon park energy services. Exhibition staff confirmed that green electricity now accounts for more than half of the company's energy mix, with wind and solar projects distributed throughout the country. More notably, its zero-carbon park business model delivers energy management through integrated investment, design, and operation services, sharing profits with clients to create mutually beneficial outcomes. Staff candidly noted that the company's investments are long-term heavy assets spanning ten to twenty years, and its state-owned enterprise background provides clients with greater confidence. The company's computing infrastructure investments are equally striking, with its subsidiaries deploying more than 40,000P of computing capacity across Beijing and Inner Mongolia, specializing in computing equipment manufacturing and software model development. This energy-plus-computing convergence directly addresses the combined requirements for both electricity and computing power in the artificial intelligence era.

However, the realities of green transformation costs weighed heavily on the conversations happening across exhibition floors. A technology research manager at Shougang Group spoke frankly about decarbonization challenges: current carbon emissions per ton of steel production have fallen below 1.4 tons compared to 2.2 to 2.3 tons in traditional processes. Reaching below 0.8 tons, however, would require transitioning to electric arc furnaces at fundamentally different cost structures. While clients express expectations for supply chain decarbonization, none have yet demonstrated willingness to pay premium prices for it. As one manager put it, profit margins of just a few jiao per unit cannot absorb additional costs running into dozens of yuan. This dilemma extends beyond the steel industry. Beijing Energy faces similar obstacles in retrofitting existing buildings: new construction projects can mandate one hundred percent green electricity standards, but renovation of older residential communities struggles against constraints involving space, property rights, and investment return timelines. The carbon market offers a potential pathway forward. Beijing Energy has established a dedicated carbon asset management company, pursuing both internal management improvements and external trading opportunities. The national carbon market, however, is still developing from initial coverage of key industries, with accounting methodologies and emission factors continuing to evolve, meaning current carbon management operations focus primarily on standardizing internal carbon management systems.

The opening day voices from exhibition floors painted a realistic portrait of China's energy and steel industry green transformation: technological breakthroughs generate genuine excitement, business models are actively being reinvented, yet cost allocation and mechanism design remain critical questions demanding answers. As Shougang Park welcomed global visitors, the ongoing exploration of energy futures and green value creation continued to intensify both inside and outside the exhibition halls.