Xiang Guangda

Xiang Guangda (; born 1958) is a Chinese industrialist. He is the founder of the Tsingshan Holding Group, a metallurgical company primarily engaged in the manufacturing of stainless steel.

Early life and career Xiang was born on 1962 to a working class family in Wenzhou, Zhejiang. He got his first job in 1980 as a mechanic in a state-run fishery company under Deng Xiaoping's iron rice bowl employment program, and was eventually promoted to director of the company's workshop. In 1986, he and his relatives established a workshop manufacturing car windows and doors.

Tsingshan Group He left his job at the state-owned firm in 1988 to become a full-time entrepreneur, raising the equivalent of around USD 100,000 from friends and relatives to fund their business. According to Xiang in an interview, he pivoted to manufacturing stainless steel after a 1992 trip to Germany which convinced him that his car parts manufacturing would not be sustainable in the long term.

Under Xiang, Tsingshan began to invest in nickel mines in Indonesia during the 2000s, when reserves were still unproven. Tsingshan established nickel and stainless steel production complexes in Sulawesi (the Morowali Industrial Park), which further lowered the production cost for stainless steel. However, the Hong Kong-owned LME resorted to retroactively reverse tradings that had already happened, and after prices stabilized and trading was resumed, Xiang's losses were marked as significantly lower, sparking claims of trading manipulation by the exchange in order to favor Xiang Guangda, which the LME denied. Nickel prices later did fall, and Tsingshan's losses ended up at around USD 1 billion as Xiang closed his positions.

Family Xiang's wife along with their daughter Xiang Yangyang hold Singaporean citizenships.