China’s steel industry is expected to continue its green transformation in pursuit of sustainable and high-quality development despite challenges, experts and government officials said. Liu Bingjiang, Chief Engineer of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, stressed the importance of maintaining strategic focus and tenacity within the industry for advancing low-carbon transformation. “Supported by digital and intelligent innovations, we are integrating green practices into the steel industry, persistently advancing high-quality development by safeguarding our ecological and environmental integrity,” Liu said. The steel industry has been playing a substantial role in enhancing China’s air quality through a series of initiatives like supply-side structural reform, ultra-low emission transformation and vigorous energy efficiency enhancement programs. “Yet, the industry continues to grapple with the arduous tasks of pollution reduction and carbon mitigation, with underlying structural issues yet to be fully addressed,” he said. “With just over a year remaining to finalize the ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry, the goal for more than 80% of the country’s crude steel production capacity to meet the transformation targets remains unchanged.”
Currently, 43% of China‘s crude steel production has completed the ultra-low emission transformation, and 39% has completed the transformation in key links. The steel industry’s emissions have decreased by 60%, reaching international leading levels, compared to 2018. The average PM2.5 concentration in the 10 cities with top steel production capacities decreased by 24% in 2023 compared to 2018. Among them, the average PM2.5 concentration decreased by 31% and 30% over the period in Tangshan and Handan in Hebei province, respectively, which are the top two cities for crude steel production in China. By the end of 2023, the profitability of steel enterprises that had completed the ultra-low emission transformation was 2.6 times that of other steel enterprises.
Ding Zhijun, an official of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), said that accelerating the green and low-carbon transformation of the steel industry is essential for building a modern industrial system and promoting new industrialization. Energy conservation and emission reductions are the only way forward for the high-quality development of the steel industry, he said. A forum on energy conservation and carbon emission reduction of the steel industry was held recently by the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute in Beijing, the China Daily reports.
