Zhang Longqiang, Deputy Secretary-General of China Iron and Steel Association: China's steel is expected to achieve a century-old global leadership

Our reporter Suo Hanxue reports from Shanghai

In recent years, affected by factors such as the downturn in the real estate market, the profitability of China's steel industry has fluctuated greatly, how will the overall steel market operate in 2024? What is the international voice of China's steel industry? These are the most important issues in the industry.

In 2024, during the China Brand Day event, the reporter of "China Business Daily" interviewed Zhang Longqiang, Deputy Secretary-General of China Iron and Steel Association, Secretary of the Party Committee and President of the Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute.

China Business News: Since 2021, China's steel market has been in a downward range, what do you think of the current situation?

Zhang Longqiang: The steel industry is the basic and pillar industry of the national economy, and it is also an important area related to industrial growth and economic development, and it complements the development of the downstream steel industry. Since 2021, affected by factors such as the downturn in the real estate market, the recovery of steel demand has not been as expected, while the supply has remained high, the contradiction between supply and demand has accumulated, and corporate profits have declined under pressure. At present, the mainland steel industry is in the sixth market downward stage since 1990, which is mainly manifested as: first, the current round of steel industry market downward trend shows an "L" shaped trend; Second, the demand for steel varieties and output differentiation, such as the decline in the output of construction steel such as steel bars and wire rods, and the steady growth of steel demand in the fields of automobiles, machinery, home appliances, energy, infrastructure and other fields, has led to a significant increase in the output of plate and strip.

China Business News: What are your views on the steel market this year?

Zhang Longqiang: In the first quarter of 2024, steel production will decline slightly, the main indicators of the real estate industry are still weak, dragging down the recovery of steel demand, steel inventories will continue to be at a high level, and the overall profit of the industry will be declining.

As a basic industry of the national economy, the mainland steel industry has shown great resilience in the process of facing challenges, one is that the "Government Work Report" proposed that the GDP growth rate of about 5% will continue to support the relative stability of steel demand, the second is the acceleration of fixed asset investment and the recovery of downstream demand will hedge against the shrinking demand for real estate steel, and the third is that large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in and other new steel scenarios will bring incremental demand. The above three factors will boost steel demand in 2024 to be the same or slightly higher than in 2023.

China Business News: China is the largest importer of iron ore, what is the voice of Chinese steel in the world?

Zhang Longqiang: Over the past 70 years since the founding of the People's Republic of China, China's steel industry has developed rapidly, and has now built the largest and most complete steel industry system in the global industrial chain, which is one of the most globally competitive industries in the mainland.

In terms of scale, China's steel is the world's largest producer and consumer. Since 1996, China's crude steel output has always maintained the first place in the world, accounting for more than 50% of the global proportion since 2017, and there are 6 steel companies in the top 10 steel companies in the world in 2022. In terms of consumption, China's apparent steel consumption has always ranked first in the world since 1999, accounting for more than 50% of the global proportion since 2019.

In terms of comprehensive strength, in the 2023 Fortune Global 500 list, 12 of the world's 18 steel companies are on the list, accounting for 2/3 of the world, and 11 of the top 20 companies in the global steel enterprise patent innovation index, accounting for more than 50% of the world. By the end of 2023, the proportion of steel standards issued by China in the same field of ISO rose to 14.3%; In the past five years, the cumulative number of steel international standards issued has ranked first among all countries.

In terms of products and services, China Iron and Steel has applied the world's advanced technology, equipment, process and technology, and has built the world's most complete and largest steel industry system. The steel variety structure is complete, and the upgrading has achieved remarkable results, fully meeting the market demand, and at the same time integrating into the global supply chain, contributing China's good steel to the development of the world economy.

From the perspective of intelligence and greening, there are 4 companies in the global steel industry selected as lighthouse factories, and 2 in China. There are 3 long-process iron and steel enterprises in the world with a labor productivity of more than 2,000 tons/person/year, and 2 in China, and intelligent manufacturing is developing rapidly. China Iron and Steel has implemented the world's strictest ultra-low emission standards for pollutants, and about 50% of its production capacity has completed ultra-low emission transformation. Baowu Eight Iron and Steel hydrogen-rich carbon circulating oxygen blast furnace, Zhanjiang Iron and Steel million-ton hydrogen-based shaft furnace, and the world's first set of 1.2 million tons of hydrogen metallurgy of HBIS Zhangxuan Technology are leading the global hydrogen metallurgy industrialization.

From the perspective of the world's steel gravity, the United Kingdom lasted for 166 years, the United States lasted for 88 years, and since 1996 it has been transferred to China.

China Business News: At present, the industry is emphasizing the dual carbon goal, and at the same time, the steel industry consumes a lot of energy. In recent years, what progress has China made in terms of intelligence and greening?

Zhang Longqiang: In recent years, the innovative application scenarios of intelligent manufacturing in the steel industry have been emerging, covering the whole industrial chain of mining, raw material yards, ironmaking, steelmaking, steel rolling, energy, quality, logistics, scrap steel, etc., the integration index of industrialization and industrialization has risen to 59.9, the numerical control rate of key processes has reached 72.5%, and the digitization rate of production equipment has reached 53.8%. Calculated according to the on-the-job employees in the main industry, the labor productivity of the industry has increased significantly from 454 tons/person-year in 2012 to 888 tons/person-year in 2022, an increase of 95.6%. According to the China Steel Coordination Research Institute, smart factories and intelligent centralized control centers are becoming a new trend, 79.6% of enterprises pilot the application of big data models, the use of industrial Internet technology to achieve intelligent production process control and intelligent enterprise operation and management of enterprises reached 79.6% and 57.1% respectively.

In terms of greening. As of now, a total of 136 iron and steel enterprises have completed or partially completed ultra-low emission transformation and assessment and monitoring, involving more than 590 million tons of crude steel production capacity. 151 steel enterprises have been rated as national green factories, 6 national 4A-level scenic spots, and 18 national 3A-level scenic spots.

In terms of low carbon, Baowu, Anshan Iron and Steel, Hegang and Jianlong have released low-carbon development goals and roadmaps, and Hebei and other places have carried out green and low-carbon product certification and transition finance practices to provide a new model for the green development of the steel industry. HBIS Zhangxuan Technology 1.2 million tons of hydrogen metallurgy demonstration project, Anshan Iron and Steel Green Hydrogen Zero Carbon Fluidized Bed Efficient Ironmaking New Technology Demonstration Project, Zhanjiang Iron and Steel Million Ton Hydrogen Based Shaft Furnace Project, Zhongjin Metallurgical Hydrogen Based Shaft Furnace Direct Reduced Iron Project and other hydrogen metallurgy industrialization projects lead the world.

(Editor: Hao Cheng Review: Wu Kezhong Proofreader: Yan Jingning)