Ministry of Industry and Information Technology significantly increases steel environmental protection and energy conservation standards

In July, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology held a national steel industry symposium in Dalian and announced the "Conditions for the Production and Operation of the Steel Industry" (hereinafter referred to as "conditions").

This is China's first complete standard production and operation document for the steel industry.

According to this document, in addition to strict requirements on the production of steel companies such as industrial scale and production processes, the new standards have also greatly increased the standards for energy conservation and environmental protection in the past. Among them, there are strict regulations for sewage discharge and energy conservation.

For example, according to the steel industry policy formulated in 2005, the integrated energy consumption of the ton steel was lower than 0.7 tons of standard coal, but the new steel industry standard is that the energy consumption per ton of steel blast furnace process must not exceed 0.446 tons of standard coal, a decrease of nearly 40 %.

The new iron and steel enterprise operating standards also stipulate that the discharge of sewage per ton of steel does not exceed 2 cubic meters. This is more of an environmental protection requirement than the requirement for new water, dust, and carbon dioxide per ton of steel specified in the 2009 steel revitalization plan.

Xu Zhongbo, a professor at Beijing University of Science and Technology, told the author that the new steel industry standard is basically the average level. If this standard is applied to the whole country, it is very significant for energy conservation and emission reduction.

Sharply increase steel environmental protection and energy conservation standards

According to the new standards of the steel industry announced by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, new standards for environmental protection and energy conservation have been greatly increased.

The new steel industry standards also divide different industries. This is different from the 2005 and 2009 policies.

The steel industry policy in 2005 proposed that the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel in the industry was reduced to 0.76 tons of standard coal, and it was lowered to 0.73 tons of standard coal and 0.7 tons of standard coal in 2010 and 2020 respectively. The steel revitalization plan of 2009 proposed that the comprehensive energy consumption per ton of steel in key large and medium-sized enterprises should not exceed 620 kg of standard coal.

The new standard specifies the energy requirements for different processes. For example, the "conditions" proposed that the coking process energy consumption is not more than 155 kg standard coal / ton, the sintering process energy consumption is not more than 56 kg standard coal / ton, the blast furnace process energy consumption is not more than 446 kg standard coal / ton, converter process energy consumption is not Above 0 kg standard coal/ton, the energy consumption of the Pudong Iron & Steel Electric Furnace is not more than 92 kg standard coal/ton, and the energy consumption of the special steel electric furnace is not more than 171 kg standard coal/ton.

Analysts told the author that the above-mentioned major processes are more specific to the energy conservation assessment of enterprises, and that many environmental protection requirements are also new.

In addition, environmental standards are also improving. The new standard adopts the standard requirements for the revitalization plan for the steel industry in 2009, which means that the consumption of fresh water per ton of steel must not exceed 5 tons. It also reaffirmed the provisions of the 2009 steel revitalization plan. The emissions of tons of steel smoke and dust are less than 1.0 kg, and the carbon dioxide emissions per ton of steel are less than 1.8 kg. Newly added new environmental protection standards in 2009 - no more than 2 cubic meters of waste water per ton of steel.

No more steel production capacity will be approved before 2011

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has raised its standards significantly.

Since 2005, although the country has classified steel as an industry with overcapacity, companies are still increasing their investment. The production capacity has increased from 100 million tons to the current level of 700 million tons.

At the National Iron and Steel Industry Symposium held in Dalian on July 12-13, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology Minister Li Yizhong revealed that current steel investment is still growing. "A number of energy expansion projects are in full swing, which will lead to continued expansion of China's steel production capacity and increase the difficulty of energy conservation, emission reduction and structural adjustment."

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology believes that steel output this year will reach 620 million to 630 million tons, which will set a record high.

The reason is that steel investment is still increasing while controlling production capacity. From January to May this year, steel investment in fixed assets was as high as 135.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 13.8%, maintaining a high level. However, related to capacity expansion, steel prices are still falling and the industry is facing losses. In response, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has confirmed that it will no longer approve and file any steel projects with capacity expansion before the end of 2011.

At the same time, it is necessary to clean up and investigate violations of laws and regulations that are under construction and have been completed, and resolutely stop the construction of steel projects under any name. In addition, the existing iron and steel enterprises no longer permit the removal of small furnaces, and the method of building large furnaces expands production capacity. Instead, it adopts the principle of “reduction of displacement” or “equal replacement” to increase environmental protection and energy conservation requirements and control overcapacity. increase.