Green And Low-carbon Development Of The Steel Industry: The Core Is Still To Rely On Technological Revolution

During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, the ultra-low emission work of my country's steel industry is still the focus, and the direction remains unchanged and the intensity remains unchanged. On December 3, at the "2021 (Tenth) China Iron and Steel Technology and Economic High-end Forum", Tian Zhiling, executive vice chairman of the China Institute of Metals, believed that under the background of "dual carbon", my country's steel industry is advancing the process of green and low-carbon development. In China, the relationship between development and emission reduction, overall and partial, short-term and medium-to-long-term should be handled in a comprehensive and correct manner. The core is still to rely on technological revolution, and efforts should be made to promote new smelting and low-carbon metallurgical technology research and demonstration, and orderly develop electric furnace steel. Promote high-quality and efficient utilization of scrap steel resources.

Li Xinchuang, Secretary of the Party Committee and Chief Engineer of the Institute of Metallurgical Industry Planning, and a foreign academician of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, analyzed that under the guidance of the goal of "carbon peak and carbon neutral", my country's medium and long-term steel demand will show a slow decline. However, steel ultra-low emission work is still the focus of the "14th Five-Year Plan" period. The hard power and soft power of environmental protection are organically combined and increased simultaneously to build environmental protection brands for enterprises and improve the overall environmental performance level.

The steel industry still faces multiple challenges

The iron and steel industry is an important basic raw material industry in the country, an important ballast for my country's economic development and an important domestic industry with international competitiveness. Tian Zhiling believes that the current external environment facing my country is becoming more complex and severe. The domestic economic recovery and development is facing some phased, structural, and cyclical constraints. It will be more difficult to maintain stable economic operations. my country's steel industry will still face multiple challenges in the future. .

At present, my country's economy is gradually returning to normal, and steel demand is unlikely to increase significantly; global economic growth is slowing down, and the international trade environment will remain complicated; raw fuel material prices are at a high level, electricity cost pressure continues to increase, and steel prices are unlikely to rise sharply. Qu Xiuli, vice chairman and secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Association, analyzed that in the later stage, iron and steel companies will continue to implement ultra-low emission transformation and promote carbon peaking. Capital investment and operating costs will further increase, and the task of stabilizing economic benefits is arduous.

Li Xinchuang said that the "dual control" of energy consumption has become a pre-evaluation condition for the development space and even the living space of the steel industry. The prohibition of new production capacity will still maintain a high pressure situation. In 2022, the steel industry will face pressure on energy conservation and efficiency enhancement: First, the energy consumption increase of my country's steel industry is limited; second, the structure of my country's steel industry and energy consumption structure restrict the development of the industry; third, the space for energy intensity of my country's steel industry is narrowing .

Capacity and output "dual control" or will become a normalized policy

The per capita crude steel consumption of typical developed countries in the world will enter a decline stage after reaching its peak, and my country will also follow the same development law. According to Li Xinchuang’s analysis, considering that after 2025, my country will basically enter the late stage of industrialization, combining my country’s per capita crude steel consumption level, industrial structure, export structure, industrialization process and urbanization process, and "carbon peak, carbon neutrality". "Constrain the target. At the same time, considering that my country will basically realize socialist modernization in 2035, in the long run, my country's steel demand will show a slow decline.

"After entering the later stage of industrialization, due to the continued urbanization, my country's steel demand will not decline rapidly." Li Xinchuang said. In the next few years, my country's GDP, fixed asset investment, industrialization process, urbanization development and other factors will still have a relatively obvious pulling effect on crude steel demand, and crude steel demand will remain high. However, multiple strong constraints such as carbon emissions, environmental energy, resource security, and industrial policies will form bottleneck constraints, and the constraints will become more and more rigid, superimposed on the impact of national macro policies such as steel import and export tax rebates and reduction of crude steel production. my country's crude steel output is expected to fluctuate at a high level around 1 billion tons.

Li Xinchuang emphasized that prohibiting new production capacity is the “bottom line” and “red line”. Consolidating the results of capacity reduction is still one of the key tasks of the steel industry in the future, and “dual control” of production capacity and output may become a normalized policy.

More economic and market-based approaches to carbon reduction

my country's steel industry strongly supports the high-quality development of the national economy and manufacturing industry. Under the "dual carbon" goal, the steel industry should bear the brunt as a key industry for carbon reduction. Liu Shijin, deputy director of the Economic Committee of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference, believes that in order to effectively implement the "dual-carbon" goal, three key issues should be focused on: First, carbon reduction cannot be singled out. The four-in-one coordinated promotion of green and growth; second, carbon reduction cannot be "movement". Green technologies should be used to replace traditional technologies. This is to reduce carbon emissions, not to reduce production capacity, not to reduce the growth rate, and not to have green technology. Under the circumstances of technology and supply, the normal order of supply and demand is artificially disrupted; third, carbon reduction indicators cannot be misplaced, and more economic and market-based methods should be adopted.

In the context of green and low-carbon development, steel, as an industry with high energy consumption and large carbon emissions in my country's manufacturing industry, needs to be driven by technological innovation to accelerate low-carbon transformation. Gan Yong, chairman of the Chinese Society of Metals, former vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said that in the process of implementing the "dual carbon" goal of my country's steel industry, industrial structure adjustment and process structure adjustment are two important starting points, and key common technologies Breakthrough is an important support, and energy-saving and intelligent manufacturing are effective means.

Gan Yong introduced that from the perspective of the low-carbon metallurgical technology route of the steel industry, it mainly includes eight aspects: one is policy support to eliminate outdated production capacity; the second is to strengthen information construction and use digital transformation to empower; the third is to optimize the distribution of steel and encourage Short process technology; fourth is the synchronization of energy saving and carbon reduction; fifth is to develop products with full life cycle theory; sixth is to develop and utilize CCUS technology; seventh is to research and promote new technologies of hydrogen energy; eight is to reform the technological innovation system.