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Top three challenges for China's steel industry over the past 25 years

According to Mysteel.com, in 2020, under the influence of special factors such as the epidemic, steel production in China exceeded the 1 billion ton mark for the first time, and its share in global steel production rose to 57%. While this unconventional high-speed growth has boosted profits for steel companies, it has also sparked cold reflections in the industry.

In March, the "2021 (12th) China Iron and Steel Development Forum" was held in Beijing. Many industry experts said it was necessary to be soberly aware that the rapid growth of China's steel industry last year was “abnormal,” and the development of the steel industry continues to face three major challenges, such as volume cuts, low carbon and safety.

Yu Yong, chairman of the World Iron and Steel Association and chairman of HBIS Group Co., Ltd., said on the same day that since 1996, when steel production exceeded 100 million tons, China has maintained the world's first steel production for 25 consecutive years. Especially in the past 10 years, China's steel production has consistently supported more than half of the world's steel production.

Luo Tiejun, vice chairman of CISA, said bluntly that the improvement in steel industry performance in recent years is mainly due to structural reforms on the supply side and a number of national macroeconomic policies aimed at tackling the epidemic. But we must be soberly aware that this rapid growth last year was “abnormal”.

Li Xinchuang, Party Committee Secretary and Chief Engineer of the Metallurgical Planning and Research Institute, also reminded that the current high growth in steel consumption should be taken lightly. This could make it difficult to achieve carbon targets, re-emerge supply and demand imbalances, and excessive investment in the steel industry. And the difficulty of protecting resources has increased.

Huang Libin, director of the Bureau for Monitoring and Coordination of Operations of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said it is necessary to drastically reduce steel production, study and formulate appropriate work plans to reduce steel production in 2021.

Luo Tiejun noted that studies have shown that the current steel production capacity in China can fully meet future demand, which has reached consensus in the industry. In the future, the metallurgical industry will focus on increasing investment in product quality, low carbon, environmental and intellectual aspects to achieve transformation and modernization.

The development of low carbon technologies is closely related to the development of volume reduction. China previously proposed to peak carbon dioxide emissions by 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality by 2060. The steel industry is a key carbon emissions industry that is paying attention to all countries around the world.