After experiencing a turning point in ultra-low emissions, this industry became a key focus of governance in 2019

China Environmental Protection Online Waste Gas Treatment: The ultra-low emissions of the steel industry have entered the countdown. Since 2017, the environmental requirements for steel enterprises have been raised in areas such as emission indicators, monitoring requirements, total quantity indicators, and environmental taxes. Non electric industries, including steel, will also move towards differentiated management, and policies such as resolving overcapacity and stopping and limiting production will also be linked to environmental protection levels.

The steel industry is the next main battlefield for ultra-low emissions. The proposal of ultra-low emission standards and work plans for the steel industry marks the beginning of air pollution control work in the non electric industry nationwide.

With the improvement of pollution control in coal-fired power plants in recent years, the focus of air pollution control has shifted from electricity to non electricity industries. Deep governance of the steel industry has become a key focus of work in 2019. Liu Bingjiang, Director of the Atmospheric Environment Department of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, also pointed out that multiple steel companies have reached ultra-low emission standards. At the same time, in serving the environmental governance of the steel industry, Liu Bingjiang emphasized the need to first solve the problem of "bad currency driving out good currency", and then crack down on the problem of winning environmental protection renovation projects at low prices.

As is well known, the steel industry has always been a heavily affected area of industrial pollution. From the perspective of the removal of major pollutants, the current removal rates of nitrogen oxides and sulfur dioxide in the steel industry may still be below 50%. The emissions of sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, and particulate matter in the steel industry rank third, third, and third among all industrial sectors, respectively. Unlike the coal-fired power industry, the flue gas fluctuations in the steel sintering and pelletizing processes are relatively large, and there is no temperature gas section that is suitable for existing mature denitrification technology. It is expected that the overall exhaust emissions will account for about 8% of the industrial exhaust emissions.

According to the requirements of the 2018 government work report on "promoting ultra-low emission transformation of industries such as steel", cities such as Tangshan, Handan, and Anyang have taken the lead in carrying out ultra-low emission transformation of steel enterprises. Earlier, Hebei had announced that it would launch a comprehensive emission compliance action for industrial enterprises in 2018, and implement ultra-low emission transformation for key industries such as steel and coking. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has previously released a draft work plan for ultra-low emission transformation of steel enterprises, which specifies that all new (including relocation) steel projects must reach ultra-low emission levels. By the end of October 2020, steel enterprises in key areas for air pollution prevention and control, such as the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region and its surrounding areas, the Yangtze River Delta, and the Fenwei Plain, that meet the conditions for transformation, will have basically completed ultra-low emission transformation.

It is also pointed out that "we will strive to complete the transformation of steel production capacity by 480 million tons by the end of 2020." This also means that nearly half of the transformation tasks will be completed before 2020. At present, there are not many enterprises that have truly completed the renovation. From the perspective of the enterprises they have contacted, they are mainly from developed regions. Even if it has already met the standards, the governance situation is uneven, and most existing steel companies have not met the newly introduced ultra-low emission standards. In the past year, the key areas of the Blue Sky Defense War have been strengthened for inspection, and the pollution problem of steel and casting enterprises with scattered pollution has become the focus of inspection. In this context, various enterprises, including local governments, are continuously facing severe challenges.

For enterprises, cost is undoubtedly a concern. A senior industry insider admitted that the transformation of ultra-low emissions in the steel industry may cost 80 billion yuan. In addition to secondary investment, the key is that normalized ultra-low emission operating costs will cause a significant increase in production costs for enterprises. The sintering process, as an important link in the emission of atmospheric pollutants in the steel industry, is also a difficult point to control. Due to the more complex composition and working conditions of flue gas, the ultra-low emission technology requirements for non electric flue gas such as steel are higher, and the corresponding investment is also very huge.

In 2019, the large-scale, strong and customized steel environmental protection restrictions will continue. Through ultra-low emissions, it will promote the merger and restructuring of the steel industry, releasing more production capacity in the industry, which is conducive to enhancing the development space of the industry. During this period, meeting the requirements of environmental protection as the first condition for the survival of enterprises will undoubtedly force them to increase investment in environmental protection, comprehensively control desulfurization and denitrification, and eliminate outdated production capacity, which has become a major advantage for leading steel enterprises. At present, it is still an industry by industry approach, and other industries that use more coal should be included in the ultra-low emission transformation.

Domestic securities firms predict that the strong supervision and inspection of atmospheric governance, combined with the improved profits of industrial enterprises, will jointly promote the release of the non electric market. It is expected that there will be a market space of about 192.2 billion yuan for non electric atmospheric governance, and about 65.7 billion yuan for ultra-low emission transformation of thermal power. Previously, after the implementation of ultra-low emissions in the power industry, relevant institutions estimated that the market size released reached over 40 billion yuan. From the perspective of the steel industry, based on the transformation time points and the proportion of crude steel production in each region, it is expected to complete 50% of the transformation from 2018 to 2020, and the average annual investment in transformation during this period will exceed 10 billion yuan.