Under the background of "dual carbon", the green transformation of the industry is accelerating. This year's "Government Work Report" proposed to accelerate the digital transformation of traditional industries and small and medium-sized enterprises, and focus on improving the level of high-end, intelligent and green. To this end, this edition will focus on green transformation reports on steel, building materials, construction and other areas in the near future, so stay tuned.
China is the world's largest steel producer and consumer, and steel production accounts for more than half of the world's share. The steel industry accounts for about 15% of the country's total carbon emissions, making it the largest carbon emitter among the 31 categories of manufacturing.
"In response to the green and low-carbon proposition of the transformation and development of the steel industry, the industry has carried out a lot of fruitful work." Luo Tiejun, vice president of the China Iron and Steel Association, said at the recently held 2023 (<>th) China Iron and Steel Development Forum that in the next step, the steel industry will continue to promote green, low-carbon and ultra-low emission transformation, and take the lead in carbon emission management, energy structure adjustment, hydrogen metallurgy application, etc., to promote the green and low-carbon transformation of China's steel industry.
The market is at stake
Steel production has entered the peak plateau zone. According to data from the National Bureau of Statistics, the national crude steel production in 2022 will be 10.18 billion tons, down 1.7% year-on-year. Luo Tiejun analyzed that since China's crude steel production reached a peak of 2020.10 billion tons in 65, it has fallen for two consecutive years. On the surface, it is the reason for limiting production, but it is actually caused by the decline in downstream demand.
According to the report of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, affected by the decline in demand in the construction industry, it is expected that China's steel demand will be about 2023 million tons in 9, a slight decrease year-on-year. Looking forward to the steel demand trend of the downstream industry this year, new demand has grown, new energy vehicle steel has increased significantly, and the demand for new energy steel such as wind and photovoltaics has continued to grow. In addition, the upgrading trend of traditional demand is obvious.
Recently, users in key downstream industries have put forward new demand for green steel and low carbon steel for steel mills.
In August 2022, HBIS Group and BMW Group signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Building a Green and Low-carbon Steel Supply Chain, under which the two parties will develop green and low-carbon automotive steel materials and complete relevant certifications based on BMW Group's low-carbon demand for steel materials.
In November 2022, Baosteel and Beijing Benz officially signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Building a Low-carbon Green Steel Supply Chain. Baosteel will gradually supply Beijing Benz with low-carbon steel with significantly reduced carbon intensity in 11.
Reducing the carbon footprint of steel production at source is one of the effective levers for reducing CO2030 emissions throughout the life cycle of a vehicle. According to the BMW Group's plan, by 2019, the average life cycle carbon emissions of bicycles will be reduced by 40% compared with 20, including 80% in the supply chain, 50% in production, and 2050% in use, aiming to achieve climate neutrality throughout the value chain by <>.
"Almost all multinational automotive companies have officially announced carbon neutrality action plans, aiming to achieve carbon neutrality from 2040 to 2050." Zhong Shaoliang, deputy director general of worldsteel, said that the construction industry is also actively taking action. The global initiative Zero Carbon Steel, whose members are mainly construction companies, has pledged to source 2030% of its zero-carbon steel by 50. 2050% procurement of zero-carbon steel after 100.
Mao Xinping, academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and professor at the University of Science and Technology Beijing, believes that at present, social development and market users have put forward an urgent demand for ecological steel materials, and the time is tight and the intensity is large. The imminent implementation of carbon neutrality in China's steel industry is an important issue related to the high-quality development of the industry and the survival of enterprises.
Needless to say, China's steel industry is facing the severe challenge of carbon neutrality. The EU plans to implement the carbon border adjustment mechanism, which will be partially piloted from October this year and officially implemented in 10. Industry analysts believe that once the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism is substantially implemented, it will directly affect China's steel products exports to Europe. Long-process steel companies are facing challenges such as rising export costs and declining product competitiveness.
"'Dual carbon' is a global consensus and action, and international exchanges and cooperation should be strengthened. At the same time, attention should be paid to the emergence of new trade and technical barriers. Li Yizhong, president of the China Federation of Industrial Economics, said.
Pollution reduction and carbon reduction continue to advance
At the beginning of last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other three ministries and commissions issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Iron and Steel Industry" proposed that by 2025, the steel industry will basically form a high-quality development pattern with 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.
According to the relevant target requirements, it is necessary to build a resource recycling system for the coupling development of industries, complete ultra-low emission transformation of more than 80% of steel production capacity, reduce the comprehensive energy consumption of tons of steel by more than 2%, and reduce the consumption intensity of water resources by more than 10%, so as to ensure that carbon emissions peak before 2030.
At present, major transformation projects in the steel industry, such as ultra-low emission transformation and extreme energy efficiency, continue to advance. Data show that 47 steel companies have completed the whole process of ultra-low emission transformation publicity, involving about 2 million tons of steel production capacity; 43 enterprises have completed some ultra-low emission transformation publicity, involving about 26 million tons of steel production capacity.
At the same time, the "Three-Year Action Plan for Energy Efficiency Benchmarking in the Steel Industry" was formed, and the cultivation activity of "'Dual Carbon' Best Practice Energy Efficiency Benchmarking Factory" was launched, with the goal of 2025 million tons to 2 million tons of steel production capacity reaching the energy efficiency benchmark level by 3.
Pollution reduction and carbon reduction need to be promoted in a coordinated manner. The Steel Industry Low-carbon Work Promotion Committee issued the "Steel Industry Carbon Neutrality Vision and Low-carbon Technology Roadmap", which clarifies the "dual carbon" goal and technical realization path of China's steel. The steel industry EPD platform, the first EPD (Environmental Product Declaration) platform in China's industry, has also been launched.
Key steel enterprises actively respond to the national "dual carbon" strategy, explore cutting-edge technologies, and expand green development space. On December 2022, 12, the world's first hydrogen-rich gas (coke oven gas) zero-reforming shaft furnace direct reduction hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project, HBIS 16.120 million tons of hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project, was fully completed, leading the transformation of traditional "carbon metallurgy" to new "hydrogen metallurgy". On March 3 this year, HBIS Group and BHP Billiton signed a cooperation agreement on CCUS (carbon dioxide capture, utilization and storage) industrial demonstration project in the steel industry, which will jointly promote the research and development, demonstration and standard guidance of CCUS technology in key links of the steel industry.
Facing the global green and low-carbon sustainable development, CITIC Pacific Special Steel has formulated a low-carbon sustainable development roadmap and is committed to leading green manufacturing. The company continues to strengthen the research and development of special steel products, produce new products with high strength, light weight and long life, and empower the clean energy industry chain.
"After the continuous casting billet with a diameter of 1200 mm is put into application, it will support a significant increase in China's wind power installed capacity, save energy and reduce consumption by more than 15% in the entire industrial chain, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 26,<> tons per year." Xu Xiaohong, assistant president of CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group Co., Ltd. and president of the research institute, said.
Seek progress in stability and make concerted efforts
"Carbon neutrality of steel must be promoted in a coordinated manner." Fan Tiejun, president of the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, analyzed that carbon neutrality is a complex, long-term and systematic project, not a simple problem of energy conservation and environmental protection, but a new change in the development mode, which requires innovation in the original production mode in many aspects such as smelting technology, production raw materials and supporting facilities.
At present, the mainstream process of steel production is the blast furnace-converter long process, which accounts for about 90% of the long process in China. Due to its carbon-based reduction properties, zero carbon emissions cannot be achieved. The hydrogen reduction ironmaking process, which the industry has high hopes for, is a breakthrough ironmaking process that is still in the stage of technical research.
Electric furnace short process process in China accounts for about 10%, using scrap steel as raw material, mainly electricity as energy, theoretically speaking, electric furnace production process in the condition of complete green power energy supply, can achieve close to zero carbon emissions.
According to the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of the Iron and Steel Industry, by 2025, the proportion of electric furnace steel output in the total crude steel output will increase to more than 15%. Zhang Haideng, deputy director of the Department of Raw Material Industry of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said that it is necessary to implement the high-quality development of electric furnace short-process steelmaking to lead the project and promote the high-quality and efficient utilization of scrap resources.
At present, the steel industry is in a period of deep adjustment, and it is particularly important to seek progress in stability. Under the pressure of overcapacity, the steel industry must avoid a serious imbalance between supply and demand. "The steel association put forward the proposal to accelerate the creation of a new mechanism for the governance of steel production capacity in the new development environment, with the aim of making the reasonable release of steel production capacity according to market demand." Luo Tiejun said that the key to creating a new mechanism is to form an industry consensus mechanism that has a restraining effect on production capacity and output, leading to the survival of the fittest and the balance between supply and demand, which is inseparable from the government's guidance and supervision, the industry's self-discipline, and more urgently looking forward to the early implementation of the national carbon emission regulation and control mechanism.
Liu Feng, deputy director of the Carbon Emissions Trading Management Division of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment's Department of Climate Change, said that the steel industry should use market mechanisms to promote low-cost green transformation and be prepared to participate in the national carbon market. An in-depth assessment of the current situation of carbon emissions, emission reduction potential, and enterprise data base should be carried out to find out and identify the emissions of different types of steel enterprises in each key process. Accelerate the improvement of technical specifications and quota allocation plans for carbon emission data accounting, reporting, and verification. Steel companies themselves should also continuously strengthen their ability to manage carbon emission data and participate in market transactions.