In the first three quarters, China's iron and steel industry research and development investment continued to increase

In the first three quarters of this year, as the national economic stabilization package and replacement policy measures gradually fell into effect, the main steel industries in our country showed a recovery and improvement, especially in infrastructure construction and manufacturing. The iron and steel industry operated steadily on the whole, and research and development investment continued to increase.

In the first three quarters, Chinese steel enterprises overcame challenges such as weakening demand, falling prices and rising costs, actively adapted to market changes and adopted measures to improve quality, reduce costs and increase efficiency, said Qu Xiuli, vice chairman and secretary-general of China Iron and Steel Association, at the CISA information conference held on the same day. Under the support of a series of national tax policies, such as the retention tax rebate, research and development expenses, etc., the management expenses and financial expenses of member iron and steel enterprises kept falling, and the research and development expenses increased by 11.9% year on year.

According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, in the first three quarters, the country's cumulative steel output was 781 million tons, down 3.4% year on year. According to CISA's calculation, in the first three quarters, China's apparent steel consumption was about 741 million tons, down 4.2% year on year; Procurement costs of coking coal for key steelmakers rose 51.1 per cent year on year, while the cost of imported iron ore was still higher than the same period in 2019 and 2020.

It is worth mentioning that despite many challenges, green and low-carbon development has accelerated across the industry. By the end of September, the whole process of ultra-low emission monitoring and evaluation of about 179 million tons of steel production capacity had been completed by 34 enterprises and published on the CICA website, and part of the ultra-low emission monitoring and evaluation of about 129 million tons of steel production capacity had been completed by 23 enterprises.

Qu Xiuli said that the next step, the iron and steel industry will strengthen the construction of the industrial chain, accelerate the promotion of resources guarantee "cornerstone plan" and to promote steel structure housing as the main direction of the implementation of the steel application expansion plan; Improve the industry-university-research-application collaborative innovation system, and increase the intensity of investment in scientific and technological innovation and R&D; Establish production capacity management new mechanism, promote industry union energetically