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Recently, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three departments jointly issued the “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Iron and Steel Industry”. The “Opinions” put forward that by 2025, the iron and steel industry will basically form a high-quality development pattern featuring reasonable layout structure, stable resource supply, advanced technology and equipment, outstanding quality brand, high level of intelligence, strong global competitiveness, green, low-carbon and sustainable development. .

The “14th Five-Year Plan” is a critical period for the high-quality development of the raw material industry. In 2021, the overall operation of the steel industry will be good, and the benefits will reach the best level in history, laying a good foundation for the high-quality development of the industry. In 2022, in the face of difficulties and challenges, the steel industry must insist on making progress while maintaining stability, and accelerate the pace of high-quality development in accordance with the guidelines of the “Opinions”.

Accelerate quality and efficiency upgrades

In 2021, thanks to the strong market demand, the iron and steel industry is quite prosperous. The accumulated operating income of key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises in 2021 is 6.93 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.7%; the total accumulated profit is 352.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.7%; sales profit The rate reached 5.08%, an increase of 0.85 percentage points from 2020.

Regarding the trend of steel demand in 2022, the China Iron and Steel Association predicts that the total steel demand is expected to be basically the same as that in 2021. The forecast results of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute show that my country’s steel demand will decline slightly in 2022. In terms of industries, the demand for steel in industries such as machinery, automobiles, shipbuilding, home appliances, railways, bicycles, and motorcycles maintained a growth trend, but the demand for steel in industries such as construction, energy, containers, and hardware products declined.

Although the above predictions are different, it is certain that, in the face of the new situation in the new stage of high-quality development, the demand for major bulk raw material products such as steel, electrolytic aluminum, and cement in my country will gradually reach or approach the peak platform period, and the demand for large-scale and quantitative Expansion momentum tends to weaken. Under the circumstance that the pressure of overcapacity is still high, the iron and steel industry must further promote the supply-side structural reform, consolidate and improve the results of overcapacity reduction, strive to maintain a balance between market supply and demand, and speed up the upgrading of quality and efficiency.

The “Opinions” clearly stated that total quantity control should be adhered to. Optimize production capacity control policies, deepen the reform of factor allocation, strictly implement production capacity replacement, strictly prohibit new steel production capacity, support the superior and eliminate the inferior, encourage cross-regional and cross-ownership mergers and reorganizations, and increase industrial concentration.

According to the deployment of China Iron and Steel Association, this year, the iron and steel industry should take effective measures to promote the stable operation of the whole industry in accordance with the requirements of “stabilizing production, ensuring supply, controlling costs, preventing risks, improving quality, and stabilizing benefits”.

Seek progress with stability, and be stable with progress. Li Xinchuang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chief Engineer of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, analyzed that to promote the high-quality development of the steel industry, improving innovation capabilities is the primary task, and industrial structure optimization is the main task.

The focus of my country’s steel demand has gradually shifted from “is there” to “is it good or not”. At the same time, there are still about 70 2 million tons of “short board” steel materials that need to be imported, which requires the steel industry to focus on innovative supply and continuously improve the quality of supply. The “Opinions” regard “significant enhancement of innovation capability” as the first goal of high-quality development, and require the industry’s R&D investment intensity to strive to reach 1.5%. At the same time, it is necessary to improve the level of intelligence and achieve the three goals of “the numerical control rate of key processes reaches about 80%, the digitization rate of production equipment reaches 55%, and the establishment of more than 30 smart factories”.

In order to promote the optimization and adjustment of the steel industry structure, the “Opinions” put forward development goals and tasks from four aspects: industrial concentration, process structure, industrial layout, and supply pattern, requiring the realization of agglomeration development, and the proportion of electric furnace steel output in the total crude steel output should be increased to More than 15%, the industrial layout is more reasonable, and the market supply and demand maintain a high-quality dynamic balance.

Orderly guide the development of electric furnace steelmaking

The steel industry is the industry with the largest carbon emission among the 31 categories of manufacturing. Faced with the strong constraints of resources, energy and ecological environment, and the hard task of carbon peaking and carbon neutrality, the steel industry must rise to the challenge and accelerate green and low-carbon development.

Judging from the goals set forth in the “Opinions”, it is necessary to build a resource recycling system for coupled development between industries, to complete ultra-low emission transformation of more than 80% of steel production capacity, to reduce comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel by more than 2%, and to reduce water resource consumption intensity by more than 10%. , to ensure carbon peaks by 2030.

“Green and low carbon forces iron and steel enterprises to transform and upgrade to enhance their core competitiveness.” Lv Guixin, a first-level inspector of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, pointed out that low-carbon and green development is the key to the transformation, upgrading and high-quality development of the iron and steel industry. “Control” will shift to “dual control” of total carbon emissions and intensity. Whoever can take the lead in green and low-carbon will seize the commanding heights of development.

After my country established the “dual carbon” strategic goal, the Iron and Steel Industry Low-Carbon Work Promotion Committee came into being. Leading enterprises in the industry took the lead in proposing the timetable and roadmap for carbon peaking and carbon neutrality. A group of iron and steel enterprises are exploring low-carbon metallurgy. Breakthroughs in new technology.

The development of electric furnace short-process steelmaking using scrap steel as raw material is an effective way to promote the green and low-carbon development of the iron and steel industry. Compared with the blast furnace-converter long process process, the pure scrap electric furnace short process process can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 70%, and the pollutant emissions are greatly reduced. Affected by factors such as insufficient scrap steel resources, my country’s iron and steel industry is dominated by long processes (about 90%), supplemented by short processes (about 10%), which is significantly lower than the world average of short processes.

During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, my country will promote the high-quality and efficient utilization of scrap steel resources, and guide the development of electric furnace steelmaking in an orderly manner. The “Opinions” proposed that the proportion of EAF steel output in the total crude steel output should be increased to more than 15%. Encourage qualified blast furnace-converter long-process enterprises to transform and develop electric furnace short-process steelmaking in situ.

In-depth promotion of ultra-low emission transformation is also a tough battle that the steel industry must fight. A few days ago, Wu Xianfeng, the first-level inspector and deputy director of the Atmospheric Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that according to the transformation plan submitted by the Ministry of Ecology and Environment in key regions and provinces, a total of 560 million tons of crude steel production capacity and ultra-low emission transformation will be completed by the end of 2022. At present, only 140 million tons of steel production capacity has completed the ultra-low emission transformation of the whole process, and the task is relatively arduous.

Wu Xianfeng emphasized that it is necessary to highlight key points, seek progress while maintaining stability, and promote ultra-low emission transformation with high standards. Iron and steel enterprises must adhere to the principle that time is subject to quality, and choose mature, stable and reliable technologies. It is necessary to highlight key areas and key links, areas with great pressure to improve the atmospheric environment should speed up the progress, long-term enterprises should speed up the progress, and large state-owned enterprises should take the lead. Enterprises should run ultra-low emissions through the whole process, the whole process, and the whole life cycle, and form a corporate philosophy and production habits.