The new trend of "steel demand" promotes the steel industry to improve quality and efficiency



As a basic industry of the national economy, China's steel industry moved forward steadily in the first three quarters of this year, showing resilience in development

Crude steel output was 795 million tons, up 1.7% year-on-year; Monthly steel production and consumption fluctuate less than the previous two years; The industry as a whole has remained profitable in each month, and the industry profits have been rising month by month since June.

Jiang Wei, vice president and secretary-general of the China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said that China's steel industry maintained a stable operation in the first three quarters, and actively explored the market and continuously accumulated new momentum for the development of the industry in the context of facing multiple challenges.

From the demand side, the market and policy dual "drive", focus on expanding steel demand.

"In the first three quarters of this year, the demand for steel used in domestic manufacturing has risen, becoming one of the main driving forces supporting the growth of steel production." "Jiang Wei said.

The reporter noted that on the one hand, the smooth operation of the manufacturing industry has become an important support for "steel demand". In the first three quarters, 27 of the 41 industrial categories maintained year-on-year growth in added value. Especially in September, the growth trend of many industries such as "downstream" machinery and automobiles is obvious, which lays a solid foundation for the smooth operation of the "upstream" steel industry.

On the other hand, the vigorous development of strategic emerging industries continues to expand the "steel demand" market and promote the optimization and upgrading of steel variety structure.

As a representative of strategic emerging industries, new energy vehicles have a strong momentum of development. Data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology show that in the first three quarters, the production and sales of new energy vehicles in China completed 6.313 million and 6.278 million, respectively, up 33.7% and 37.5% year-on-year.

Zhang Longqiang, president of the Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute, said that the production of new energy vehicles in China has increased significantly, significantly boosting the demand for new energy vehicle body steel and non-oriented silicon steel. At the same time, in order to continuously reduce energy consumption and increase driving range, the lightweight of new energy vehicles has higher requirements for high-strength automotive steel and high-magnetic induction and high-energy non-oriented silicon steel.

At present, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and the rapid development of strategic emerging industries have put forward higher requirements for comprehensive properties such as steel strength, toughness, high temperature and low temperature resistance, and fatigue life, and the potential of new steel demand has been continuously released.

Relevant departments have introduced policies and measures to promote the upstream and downstream supply and demand docking of the steel industry. In August this year, seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the Work Plan for the steady growth of the Steel Industry, proposing the implementation of technological innovation and transformation actions, steel consumption upgrading actions, supply capacity improvement actions and leading enterprise cultivation actions, focusing on expanding steel demand and ensuring the stable and efficient operation of the industry.

From the supply side, the expansion of demand has driven the upgrading of supply to a certain extent, and the steel industry has gradually transformed into a high-end, green and intelligent direction.

-- High-end "fist" products continue to emerge. China Baowu Iron and Steel Group 1300 mpa ultra-high strength hot dip galvanized automotive steel made a breakthrough, Angang Group 33 mm thick X80 class large strain oil pipeline steel plate to achieve the world's first, Shougang Group global first two oriented electrical steel products......

Cisa data show that since the beginning of this year, the number of steel varieties for emerging industries such as wind power and photovoltaic has continued to grow. In the first three quarters, the output of electrical steel plate (strip) increased by 14.3% year-on-year, hot-rolled sheet increased by 18.2% year-on-year, and cold-rolled narrow steel strip increased by 15.7% year-on-year.

-- Accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of production processes. This year, the country's first roll of low-carbon emission hot formed steel for automobiles was rolled out of Angang Group. The product uses the "100% scrap + electric furnace" short process production, different from the traditional long process, the process omits the coke as the main fuel, iron ore as the raw material of the blast furnace smelting molten iron process, can reduce carbon dioxide emissions by more than 50%.

"In the steel production process, the short-flow process of 'scrap + electric furnace' is one of the most effective ways to reduce carbon." Tian Yong, deputy general manager of Angang Group, said that in addition, replacing coke with hydrogen as the main fuel in the traditional long-process process can also effectively reduce carbon.

According to statistics, by the end of September, a total of 96 steel enterprises had completed ultra-low emission transformation and evaluation and monitoring, involving crude steel production capacity of about 453 million tons.

-- Digitalization empowers the entire steel manufacturing process. Bring together 26 production lines, integrate 210 sets of related systems, and collect more than one million points of data... The digital twin intelligent operation system created by Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., LTD., for tens of millions of tons of steel enterprises, restores the real production line to achieve digital production and visual manufacturing.

"Through intelligent algorithms and system models, the system can shorten the development cycle, reduce energy consumption per ton of steel, improve the efficiency of industrial chain collaboration, and reduce the cost of industrial chain cooperation." Nanjing Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. executive vice president Xu Xiaochun said.

At present, steel enterprises are actively promoting the deep integration of digitalization, intelligence and other new generation information and communication technologies with the entire process of steel manufacturing. Csa data show that the application density of robots in the steel industry has reached 54 units (sets) / 10,000 people, 90% of steel enterprises have established a production and manufacturing execution and energy control system, and enterprises above 5 million tons have basically established a control connection system.

"In recent years, we have comprehensively implemented supply-side structural reform in the steel industry, focused on resolving excess capacity, and vigorously promoted green and low-carbon transformation, laying a solid foundation for realizing the modernization of the steel industry and promoting the high-quality development of China's economy. China's steel industry has shown a good development pattern." Vice Minister of industry and Information Technology Wang Jiangping said.