The Ministry of Ecology and Environment gives enterprises "reassurance": "The environmental protection policy requirements are continuous, and the mechanism will be more perfect"

China Metallurgical News, China Iron and Steel News Network

Reporter Fan Sancai reports

Reporter Gu Xuechao photography

"I went to the company and asked what is the biggest problem that the company is facing? Businesses tell me about policy uncertainty. Here I would like to give you a 'reassurance', our environmental protection policy requirements are continuous, the policy of accurate, scientific and law-based pollution control will not change, and the mechanism will be more perfect. On July 31, Zhang Haolong, deputy director of the Department of Atmospheric Environment of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, made a keynote report at the eighth (expanded) meeting of the sixth session of the Iron and Steel Association, sharing several experiences on how to achieve green, low-carbon and high-quality development in a traditional industry such as steel.

The picture shows Zhang Haolong

In particular, he mentioned that when determining the development direction, enterprises should consider handling the "three major relationships" of treating the symptoms and the root cause, the long-term and the short-term, and the development and emission reduction, so as to adhere to the "three insistences" of high-quality implementation of ultra-low emission transformation, adhere to the coordination of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and adhere to the supply-side structural reform.

Air pollution prevention and control work to help the high-quality green transformation of the steel industry

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, a series of historic changes have been made in the field of air pollution prevention and control. "In particular, the ultra-low emission transformation has made an important contribution to the continuous improvement of air quality." Zhang Haolong said.

The data speaks for itself. Compared with 2018, the national PM2.5 concentration will decrease by 16.7% in 2023, and the number of heavily polluted days will decrease by 8.3%. Bloomberg United States reported the results of a study by the University of Chicago showing that "China's reduction in air pollution in 7 years is comparable to the reduction in air pollution in United States in 30 years."

Zhang Haolong pointed out that air pollution control has also promoted the green transformation of the industry, which is mainly reflected in the following three aspects.

The first is air pollution control to help the supply-side structural reform of the industry. In 2016, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment worked closely with relevant departments to actively promote the supply-side structural reform of the steel industry. In the past ten years, the industry concentration has been greatly improved, the equipment level has been significantly improved, the production capacity layout has been continuously optimized, and the transportation structure has been continuously optimized. "The average scale of enterprises in the country has increased by 52%, the average scale of enterprises in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas has increased by 90%, and the proportion of bulk material railway and waterway transportation in the steel industry has increased by 8 percentage points." He said.

The second is the high-quality implementation of ultra-low emission transformation, which has helped the green level of the industry to be significantly improved. "Up to now, 80% of the country's crude steel production capacity has completed the ultra-low emission transformation of the whole process or key projects." Zhang Haolong said that the whole process of ultra-low emission enterprises exceeded 100, 460 million tons of crude steel production capacity completed the whole process transformation, 420 million tons of production capacity to complete the sintering pellet desulfurization and denitrification, material yard closure and other key engineering transformation. From a regional point of view, 92 of the 100 full-process publicity enterprises are located in key regional provinces, of which all production capacity in Tianjin and Shanghai, and about 80% of the production capacity in Hebei, Jiangsu and Shandong have completed the full-process ultra-low emission transformation. From the perspective of enterprises, about 80% of the production capacity of large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises such as Baowu, Shougang and CITIC Pacific has completed the whole process transformation, which has played a good leading role; Small and medium-sized enterprises are also actively carrying out transformation, and half of the 250 million tons of production capacity of 60 enterprises completed so far in 2023 are enterprises with less than 5 million tons.

According to reports, through the implementation of ultra-low emission transformation, not only the industry's pollutant emission performance has reached the international leading level, but also promoted the application of mechanized stockyards, sintering flue gas circulation, equalizing pressure released gas recovery, blast furnace gas fine desulfurization and other source treatment technologies, the industry's pollutant emissions have decreased by 60%, in addition to offsetting the increased carbon emissions of the end treatment, it has also coordinated the reduction of about 2% of carbon emissions, and realized the collaborative management of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. "Judging from the recent survey, the production process of iron and steel enterprises is so complex, and its environmental management level has been greatly improved, which is due to the comprehensive combing and rectification of ultra-low assessment and monitoring." Zhang Haolong said.

The third is to support the good and eliminate the inferior with differentiated policies to help the industry run smoothly. "We guide the local government to no longer 'layer by layer' on environmental protection for A-level enterprises, and resolutely oppose 'ultra-ultra-low'; guide Shandong, Shanxi, Hebei, Henan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other six provinces to introduce ultra-low emission differential electricity and water price policies, guide Tianjin, Hebei, Shandong and other six provinces and cities to introduce local standards, and guide Hebei Province to establish a 'service through train' mechanism for A-level enterprises." Zhang Haolong said that through the above measures, the trend of "bad money driving out good money" has been reversed, and green transformation and profit growth have been realized at the same frequency.

Statistics from the Steel Association show that by the end of 2023, the profit margin of enterprises that have completed the ultra-low emission transformation is 2.6 times that of other enterprises. Jiangsu Province, which has made the fastest progress in transformation, will achieve a profit of 26.63 billion yuan in the province's steel industry in 2023, 6.8 times the national average in the same period. As one of the two A-level enterprises in Jiangsu Province, Nanjing Iron and Steel will reduce environmental taxes and differential electricity prices by about 5,000 yuan and 120 million yuan respectively after completing ultra-low emissions in 2023, and make a net profit of 554 million yuan in the first quarter of 2024, a year-on-year increase of 47.24%.

Maintain strategic focus and continue to promote the high-quality development of the steel industry

"Although air quality continues to improve, the task of green transformation of the industry is still arduous." Zhang Haolong pointed out that it is mainly manifested in three aspects:

First, the effectiveness of governance is not stable, and the situation of air pollution is still grim. The concentration of PM2.5 in the mainland is still 2-4 times the current level in Europe and United States, and nearly one-third of the cities have not yet reached the standard. From January to June this year, PM2.5 concentrations in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas, as well as the Fenwei Plain, rebounded year-on-year.

Second, structural problems have not yet been solved, and the green transformation of steel has a long way to go. The structural problems of the industry with long process structure, high-emission sinter as the main charge structure, coal-based energy structure and high-road transportation structure have not been fundamentally improved. The production capacity of restricted equipment is still relatively high, and the production capacity of pelletizing shaft furnaces and pelletizing equipment with a single machine of less than 1.2 million tons/year in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei and surrounding areas accounts for 44% of the regional production capacity; The blast furnace production capacity below 1200 cubic meters accounts for 30% of the regional production capacity; There is a serious problem of "lack of chain" in the industry, and a large number of projects do not match the upstream and downstream after completion.

Third, the steel industry is still an industry with a high incidence of violations of laws and regulations. In recent years, the central ecological environment and environmental protection inspectors have found that the steel industry is still repeatedly prohibited from adding new production capacity and other violations of laws and regulations, if it cannot be effectively solved, it will further increase the imbalance between supply and demand, and affect the healthy development of the industry.

The just-concluded Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China adopted the "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization", emphasizing that it is necessary to lead the reform with a new development concept, based on the new stage of development, deepen the supply-side structural reform, lead the optimization and upgrading of traditional industries with the improvement of national standards, and support enterprises to use digital intelligence technology and green technology to transform and upgrade traditional industries. "The Party Central Committee has clarified the direction of reform, and the implementation of ultra-low emission transformation of the steel industry, coordinated governance of pollution reduction and carbon reduction, and supply-side structural reform is an effective way to implement these requirements." Zhang Haolong said that the steel industry should achieve "three insistences".

The first is to adhere to the high-quality implementation of ultra-low emission transformation. Zhang Haolong said that there is still more than one year to go before the end of 2025, and there are still more than 400 million tons of crude steel production capacity to complete the transformation and finishing work, especially in non-key areas, the progress is relatively slow, accounting for only 12% of the completed whole process of public production capacity, the environmental protection foundation and regulatory ability of the main body of the transformation are relatively weak, the historical legacy is complex, and the macroeconomic situation is severe, and the transformation work is facing certain difficulties. Some enterprises have a "wait-and-see mentality" and "luck mentality", and regard environmental protection investment as a priority area for "cost reduction".

"Opinions on Promoting the Implementation of Ultra-low Emissions in the Iron and Steel Industry" (Huan Qi [2019] No. 35) put forward that 'by the end of 2025, more than 80% of the country's production capacity will complete the transformation of the established goal will not change, and we have considered when formulating the "Opinions", for enterprises that have not completed the transformation by expiration, we will work with relevant departments to take differentiated management measures." Zhang Haolong said that enterprises that have completed the announcement of ultra-low emissions should pay attention to the establishment of a long-term mechanism and make full use of the monitoring and monitoring system established by ultra-low emissions to strengthen the internal environmental management of enterprises. "We will continue to implement the dynamic management mechanism of 'in and out', and in the past two years, we have asked the Steel Association to cancel the announcement of 4 enterprises, and some of the performance ratings of enterprises have been downgraded from A to C, and the lessons are profound." He stressed.

The second is to adhere to the synergy of pollution reduction and carbon reduction. "At present, the construction of ecological civilization in the mainland has entered a critical period, and more attention should be paid to structural and source measures." Zhang Haolong said that the first is to vigorously promote the application of energy conservation and pollution reduction synergy. The second is to adjust the structure of blast furnace into the furnace, increase the proportion of pellets into the furnace, increase the proportion of belt roaster equipment, gradually eliminate pellet shaft furnaces, reduce the use of sinter, reduce pollution, energy saving, carbon reduction and cost reduction. Third, we must pay attention to pollution reduction and carbon reduction in transportation links.

The third is to adhere to supply-side structural reform. "At present, air pollution control has entered the deep-water area, and it is necessary to exert force from the supply side and work hard from the structure." Zhang Haolong said that it is necessary to combine large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in work deployment to promote the gradual withdrawal of restricted processes and equipment with high energy consumption and emissions in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei and surrounding areas. Encourage the transfer of pig iron production capacity and pollutant emission indicators to key areas, and realize the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry and the continuous improvement of ambient air quality.