China's first batch of steel wires for making 2.3-mm ballpoint pen tips recently rolled off the production line of Taiyuan Iron And Steel (Group) Co., Ltd. (TISCO), marking a breakthrough in the domestic production of stainless steel balls for ballpoint pens.
近日，中国首批用于制作2.3毫米圆珠笔头的钢线从太原钢铁公司的生产线下线，这标志着国内圆珠笔不锈钢珠生产的突破。
China, a country that produces 40 million pens each year and has more than 3,000 pen manufacturers, has long relied on imported core technologies — both for the stainless steel ball and its casing — from Japan, Germany and Switzerland.
中国拥有3000多家造笔厂、每年生产4000万支笔，但是却长期依赖从日本、德国和瑞士进口的核心科技--不锈钢珠和钢珠外的钢壳。
In the past, China has spent 120 million RMB ($17.3 million) annually on such materials.
过去，中国每年要花费1.2亿人民币（约合1730万美元）在这些材料上。

Both the machines and raw materials needed to produce ballpoint pens require precise technology, which has challenged the industry for years.
无论是制造圆珠笔需要的机器还是原材料，都要求精确的技术，多年来这一直是摆在这一行业面前的难题。
According to Wang Jinhui, a senior engineer at TISCO, such manufacturing techniques were a core secret in the success of foreign manufacturing enterprises. As a result, China had to develop its own original technology without any guide.
据太原钢铁公司一名名叫王金辉的高级工程师表示，这类制造技术是外国制造企业成功的核心秘密。因此，中国不得不在没有指导的情况下发展自己的原创技术。
Fortunately, after five years of trial and error, the development program, which started in 2011, finally achieved success.
幸运的是，经过五年的实验和多次失败之后，这一始于2011年的开发项目最终取得了成功。
The new product is currently being tested at the laborotary of BEIFA, a large stationary production group in China.
这项新产品目前正在中国一家大型固定生产组BEIFA的实验室里进行测试。
A number of enterprises have already adopted the new technology from TISCO, and it is expected to replace imported ballpoint pen tips in the next two years.
一大批企业已经从太原钢铁公司那里采用了这项新技术，有望在未来两年内代替进口圆珠笔头。