The years spanning 2021-2025, the designated period of China’s 14th Five-Year Plan, will be a “golden time” for the development of China’s steel scrap industry, as the country aims to raise scrap use in steelmaking to 30% by the end of this period, according to Li Shubin, executive vice president of China Association of Metalscrap Utilization (CAMU).
Speaking at the steel scrap forum of the 5th China Steel Derivatives International Conference in Shanghai (CSDIC) on July 28, Li said that the goal is crucial in the context that China is endeavouring to reduce atmospheric pollution and achieve peak carbon emissions.
Pic: Li Shubin, executive vice president of CAMU
To increase steel scrap use “is the best way for the ‘green’ development of the steel industry, and the most effective way to deliver (Chinese) President Xi Jinping’s ‘double-carbon’ goals (reaching carbon peak by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2060),” Li stressed at the forum.
Using scrap to produce one tonne of steel can reduce carbon dioxide emissions totalling 1.6 tonnes, reduce standard coal consumption equivalent to 350kg, 1.7 tonnes of water and 1.6 tonnes of iron ore concentrates, as Mysteel Global reported.
The 30% scrap ratio goal has been written into China’s “14th Five-Year” development plan for the steel scrap industry, which has been finalized and will be issued “very soon”, according to Li.
In fact, China’s steel scrap use has risen significantly in recent years, Mysteel Global notes. Over the 13th Five-Year Plan Period (2016-202), China’s scrap use averaged 18.8%, up from 11.3% over 2011-2015, according to CAMU’s statistics.
Over the first half of this year, the steel scrap utilization rate was 21.9%, up another 0.2 percentage point on year. China’s steel scrap consumption totalled 137 million tonnes over the period, up by a huge 44.2 million tonnes or a notable 47.1% on year, thanks to “the country’s curtailment of pig iron production and the record high profits of the domestic steel mills,” Li stated.
In addition, increasing the country’s reserves of steel scrap, by progressing the end-of-the-life cycle of industrial products such as automobiles, will also facilitate the realization of the 30% steel ratio, he maintained.
By 2025, China’s steel scrap reserve will reach 300-320 million tonnes, up from 250 million tonnes in 2020, Li quoted CAMU’s forecast.
Written by Olivia Zhang, zhangwd@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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