Strengthen environmental protection: three questions for iron and steel industry

The distribution map of steel production capacity in China's coastal areas "in the future of steel reduction development, which enterprises and production capacity will be eliminated? We can be sure that: not just one or two, but one batch, or even a large number." Recently, the third member congress of Metallurgical Industry Energy Conservation Committee of China Energy Conservation Association was held in Huangshi City, Hubei Province. Li Xinchuang, chairman of metallurgical industry planning and Research Institute and chairman of metallurgical industry planning and Research Institute, warned against the representatives of major iron and steel enterprises from all over the country. He said that from the perspective of development law, at present, the development of iron and steel industry is in the three stages of reduction stage in the quantitative period, reorganization stage in the high-quality period and strengthening environmental protection stage in the intermediate transition, which are the important nodes connecting the preceding and the following.

Both reduction and environmental protection have made positive progress, and reorganization has become the key point, which will decide whether to achieve the level from the quantitative period to the high-quality period Stable transition. In order to avoid disorderly industrial layout under the development of reduction, it is necessary to strictly prevent new production capacity, optimize industrial layout, and meet the ultra-low emission standards, which should be kept "in the future, China's steel demand will be in the stage of reduction adjustment." According to Li Xinchuang, China's steel demand is about 886 million tons in 2019 and 881 million tons in 2020. During the "14th five year plan" period, China's steel demand overall showed a fluctuating downward trend, which will further drop to about 810 million tons in 2025. In recent years, with the in-depth promotion of capacity reduction and environmental governance, some places have made efforts to promote the relocation or shutdown of iron and steel enterprises in specific areas, mainly including urban steel plants, steel plants around the city, urban steel plants along the air pollution transport channel, riverside (Lake) steel plants and other types. Hebei, Jiangsu, Shandong, Liaoning, Guangxi, Fujian and other places have promoted industrial restructuring. Relocation and new bases have become one of the important contents.

A number of coastal iron and steel base projects are under construction and to be built, and a number of existing coastal iron and steel base expansion projects have been planned. The planned projects exceed 150 million tons. It is predicted that the proportion of steel industry in the future coastal areas will increase by more than 10% compared with the current one. Taking Jiangsu Province as an example, by 2025, the ratio of steel smelting capacity along the river and along the coast of the province will be adjusted from 7:3 to 5:5 (there will be more than 20 million tons of steel capacity in the new coastal steel base). In Shandong, the iron and steel enterprises and production capacity scattered in 12 cities are gradually transferred to Rizhao Linyi coastal advanced steel manufacturing industry base and Laiwu Tai'an inland high-quality steel production base. By 2022, the proportion of steel production capacity in coastal areas will be increased to more than 50%; by 2025, the proportion of steel production capacity in coastal areas will be increased to more than 70%. In addition to the capacity transfer from Shandong, Jiangsu and other provinces to the coast, the iron and steel capacity is also transferred from the key areas of air pollution control to other regions.

A large number of Hebei, Shandong and other real estate can be transferred to Guangdong, Guangxi and Fujian, involving production capacity of more than 100 million tons. In this regard, Li Xinchuang believes that instead of releasing and replacing, moving and replacing, pushing forward the relocation of steel enterprises and blindly adjusting the layout against the development law of the iron and steel industry, we should implement different policies and treat them differently. "China's iron and steel industry has been in the stage of high-quality development. In the future, it is the top priority to strictly prevent new production capacity, promote joint restructuring and explore green, low-carbon and intelligent development. If the ultra-low emission standard is reached, it shall not be moved without stopping. " He pointed out that the layout of the iron and steel industry should also be based on the whole country, laws and regulations, industrial development conditions and scientific laws, and from the overall and long-term perspective, the productivity layout planning of the iron and steel industry should be formulated at the national level. Some areas are key areas, some areas are optimization areas, and some areas are restricted areas. Standards should be set in terms of industrial boundary conditions and development direction to avoid industrial chaos The layout situation continued to develop.

The original energy balance is not enough to support the new development mode. Enterprises should make energy conservation planning in advance and comprehensively improve the low-carbon development level of iron and steel. According to statistics, in 2018, the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises decreased to 555.24kg standard coal / ton, a year-on-year decrease of 2.68%. However, due to the year-on-year increase of 6.6% in crude steel production and 3.75% in total energy consumption in 2018. Affected by the expansion of production scale, the pressure of total energy consumption control in steel industry is still huge. On November 4, 2019, the national development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of industry and information technology and the National Bureau of Statistics jointly issued the notice on doing a good job in the investigation and verification of production capacity and output in the steel industry. Even though it is clear that the "steel enterprises beyond the 2016 production capacity final list" are not included, it is still regarded as the "last straw" for legal compliance.

According to Li Xinchuang, the capacity of this part may exceed expectations, which will promote the introduction of new industrial policies. "Next, all iron and steel enterprises should attach great importance to the development plan of the 14th five year plan. At the end of the 13th five year plan, many enterprises have undergone major changes in industrial layout, production scale and technological process. The original energy balance is not enough to support the new development model, so we must do a good job in energy conservation planning in advance. " He said. Taking Guangxi as an example, according to preliminary statistics, the capacity of replacing from other provinces into Guangxi is more than 40 million tons. According to the calculation of 550Kg standard coal per ton of steel comprehensive energy consumption, 22 million tons of new standard coal will be consumed, while the space for energy consumption increase of the whole Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region during the 13th five year plan is only 18 million tons of standard coal, which is difficult to meet even if it is fully contributed to the new steel capacity 。 "Energy conservation assessment and environmental impact assessment shall be done for the steel projects to be relocated. Iron and steel enterprises must do this work well in advance, so as to avoid being passive after relocation. "

Li Xinchuang told reporters that the new construction should not only focus on products, but also on energy conservation, carbon reduction and structural optimization. The construction of carbon whole process management and control system plays a key role in carbon reduction. He suggested that iron and steel enterprises should keep up with the situation and do a good job in the early stage of carbon trading: first, formulate a low-carbon development plan. Find out the actual emission background of enterprise carbon emissions, and formulate specific countermeasures for enterprise carbon trading in the future; secondly, carry out low-carbon development evaluation system, with improving carbon productivity as the core, and comprehensively improve the low-carbon development level of enterprise. The industrial policy is more environmental friendly, the energy-saving benefit of EAF steel is obvious, and it will usher in the development opportunity. In the 2019 new edition of the Guiding Catalogue of industrial structure adjustment, 13 items are involved in the category of steel encouragement, and the application of new products and technologies in the steel industry will be more prominent.

"At present, the environmental protection cost of producing one ton of steel has increased from about 100 yuan to 250-300 yuan. The enterprise has to transform and upgrade, and cope with the cost increase through energy conservation and emission reduction and product structure adjustment." Li Xinchuang said that iron and steel enterprises should build an advanced energy-saving technology library, especially the relocation projects should be designed and put into operation simultaneously with the best energy-saving technology. Some insiders also believe that with the increasing support of China's industrial policies, increasing waste steel and power resources, as well as the introduction of environmental taxes and carbon taxes, the advantages of energy conservation and environmental protection of short process steelmaking of electric furnaces will gradually be transformed into economic advantages. As the structure of iron and steel smelting process enters the dynamic adjustment period, the electric furnace steel will usher in certain development opportunities. It is understood that compared with other countries, there is still a large gap in the proportion of electric furnace steel in China.

In 2018, the proportion of EAF steel in Europe, the United States, India and other countries is about 60%, the proportion of other countries in Asia is between 20% and 30%, and that in China is 2.6% higher than that in 2017, but only 11.6%. "The proportion of China's EAF steel is significantly lower than that of Europe, America, Japan and South Korea and other traditional iron and steel powers, resulting in a huge gap between China's comprehensive energy consumption index per ton of steel and that of foreign countries in terms of structural energy consumption." Li Xinchuang said. In August 2019, the Ministry of industry and information technology issued guidance on guiding the development of EAF short process steelmaking (Draft for comments): by the end of the 14th five year plan, the steelmaking process structure has been continuously optimized, and the proportion of China's EAF steel output in the total crude steel output has increased to about 20%. "From 11.6% to 20%, the increase of steel output of electric furnace is less than 10%, which will save energy about 30 million tons of standard coal, with obvious energy-saving benefits."

Li Xinchuang predicted that China's steel industry electric furnace steel will go through three stages: the first is the initial stage of bottom exploration and recovery, and the proportion of electric furnace steel will develop to 15% - 20%; the second is the stage of rapid growth, and the ratio of electric furnace steel will increase from 20% to about 30%; the third is the stage of slow balance, and the electric furnace steel will constantly adapt to the market, resources, environment, technology, power and other conditions, and gradually reach a new balance. "It is estimated that the steel ratio of electric furnaces in China will reach about 20% by the end of 2025." However, he believes that from the comprehensive judgment of the national resource and energy situation, product demand and industrial structure, advantages and disadvantages of long and short process, the steel industry is dominated by long and long process combination is still the development direction of China's steel industry in the near and medium term.