Steady improvement of steel scrap to help steel industry carbon peak

On July 7, the National Development and Reform Commission website "" difference" circular economy development plan ", "planning", "difference" into a new stage of development in our country, developing circular economy, promote the economical and intensive utilization of resources, construction of resource recycling industry system and waste materials recycling system, and to ensure the security of national resources, promote the implementation of carbon, carbon neutral,It is of great significance to promote ecological progress.

Steel scrap utilization increased steadily

In 2020, the consumption of scrap steel in China is about 260 million tons. The "Planning" makes it clear that the consumption of scrap steel will reach 320 million tons in 2025, indicating that the consumption of scrap steel will steadily increase in the next few years.At the same time, the Plan proposes to formulate guidelines for the circular development of the park and promote the typical development model of circular economy in key industries such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, metallurgy and equipment manufacturing.

From the point of view of resource supply, but also support the growth of scrap consumption.Domestic sources of scrap steel can be divided into self-produced scrap, processing scrap and depreciation scrap, among which depreciation scrap is the largest source.China has entered the late stage of industrialization, and the steel resources saved in the early development and construction have entered the depreciation cycle stage. For example, the renewal and elimination of consumer goods such as automobiles and home appliances, and the scrapping and dismantling of machinery and ships are all in the accelerated release stage. Depreciation scrap steel will become the main increment of scrap steel in the future.

The industrial dispersion pattern is expected to improve

At present, China's steel scrap industry is generally in the primary stage of development, with low entry threshold, low concentration, lack of advanced large-scale processing and distribution enterprises, and small operation scale of steel scrap recycling and processing enterprises, which is difficult to achieve large-scale production, resulting in high cost.

The Plan proposes to implement standardized management of the recycling and utilization of renewable resources such as scrap iron and steel and non-ferrous metals, improve the industry's standard level, and promote the agglomeration of resources to competitive enterprises.At the same time, we will strengthen the standardized management and environmental supervision of dismantling and using enterprises of waste electrical and electronic products, scrapped vehicles and scrapped ships to create a fair market competition environment.

The optimization of the market competition environment is conducive to the improvement of the market share of superior enterprises and the decentralized pattern of scrap industry. At the same time, the improvement of large-scale production and industrial chain is conducive to the improvement of production efficiency and the reduction of scrap processing costs, thus promoting the large-scale procurement and utilization of scrap steel by iron and steel enterprises.

Further replace iron ore to help the industry carbon peak

Increasing the recycling and utilization of scrap steel resources is one of the important means to promote the solution of the problem of steel raw material security. It is under this background that the relevant policies to support the development of scrap steel industry in China are accelerated to be implemented.In 2020, the utilization amount of scrap steel in China is about 260 million tons, replacing about 410 million tons of 62% grade iron concentrate, and each ton of scrap steel replaces about 1.6 tons of 62% grade iron concentrate. According to this calculation, the utilization amount of scrap steel will increase by 0.6 million tons in the next five years, and it will be able to replace nearly 100 million tons of 62% grade iron concentrate.

Using scrap steel to produce 1 ton of steel can reduce about 1.6 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and about 3 tons of solid waste emissions.In the short term, the reduction of crude steel output is an immediate way to achieve carbon peak in the steel industry. In the medium and long term, the gradual increase of scrap steel consumption will also be one of the important means to reduce carbon emissions.