Status, technological progress, and development directions of the ironmaking industry in China

ABSTRACT

The ironmaking industry in China is developing rapidly. This paper discusses the status, technological progress, issues, and possible development directions of ironmaking in China. Because the standards for waste discharge and energy consumption have become more redundant, the steel production capacity has decreased by ∼145 million tons from 2016 to 2018. New sintering and coking technologies, such as water vapour spray sintering, high-temperature exhaust gas sintering, and semi-coke utilization, have led to distinct energy and efficiency improvements. Moreover, blast furnaces (BFs) are becoming larger and more intensive, due to which labour productivity has increased noticeably. However, some issues still remain, such as high fuel ratios, hot blast temperatures, and BF longevity. Nevertheless, eco-friendly and intelligent ironmaking is gaining importance and could be the development directions of the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Ironmaking progress
• status
• energy saving
• environmental protection
• artificial intelligence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China [Project No.: 51904026], Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities [Project No.: FRF-TP-18-028A1] and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [Project No.: 2019M650490].