CONF: Beijing’s clean air blitz driving steel change
The imposition of new stringent emission standards on China’s steel industry shouldn’t be viewed just as a means for reducing the air pollution which envelopes much of North China but should also be seen as a way for China to upgrade its steel industry and adjust its structure, argued Liu Tao, director of the energy saving and environmental protection center of the China Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute.
“China is encouraging steel enterprises with capacities of over 2 million tonnes/year to upgrade their facilities to achieve ‘ultra low’ emissions, and smaller companies will have to merge with each other, which will help improve the industry’s structure,” Liu told delegates Wednesday attending the China International Iron Ore & Coking Coal & Coke Industry Conference in Shanghai.
In addition, “those steelmakers who barely have any hope of satisfying the new (environmental) standards will have no choice but to exit the market,” he said. As a result, “the structure of China’s steel industry can be optimized,” he told his audience.
China had proposed a scheme of modifications for the steel sector to meet “ultra low” emission levels in its 2018 work plan released in March and a draft of the new emission standards was issued in May, as Mysteel reported, which sets the caps for emissions of various pollutants generated during coking, sintering, iron-making, steelmaking and steel rolling processes. For example, the maximum allowable level of sulfur dioxide emissions from sintering machines was set at 35mg/cu m.
So far as industry restructuring is concerned, China is entering a difficult period for its supply-side reform objective as “the easier tasks have already been completed and those remaining are all the tough nuts to crack,” according to Liu. Many steelmakers complained to him that they can “hardly take a breath” under the increasingly strict and intensive environmental policies.
For example, the areas in China where production curbs in the winter months are to be implemented have been considerably expanded and the period of enforcement for those restrictions lengthened, he remarked. In 2017, Beijing ordered industrial enterprises in North and East China to curb part of their production during the winter months (during mid-November to March) to offset the pollution caused by coal burnt for home heating. This winter, similar measures will be adopted but there is already speculation the duration might be expanded.
Though air quality has largely improved thanks to these measures, more still needs to be done, Liu stressed. He noted that levels of particulate matter (PM 2.5) in some key areas such as in Fenwai Plains, spanning North, Northwest and Central China, remains around 60ug/cu m, on average – which is still way above the target level of 30ug/cu m which Beijing has set for PM 2.5.
“Though pressures are overlapping, we have to take the burden and move forward,” he said.
Written by Olivia Zhang, zhangwd@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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