China to Increase the Use Ratio of Green Power and Build a Circular Economy

SHANGHAI, Dec 10 (SMM) - The implementation plan for carbon peaking in the iron and steel industry takes shape: increasing the use ratio of green power and building a circular economy.

The iron and steel industry will achieve a peak in carbon emissions by 2025, and the industry will reduce its carbon emissions by 30% from the peak by 2030. The carbon emissions are expected to be reduced by 420 million mt. The iron and steel industry ranks among the top 3 across all industrial sectors in terms of total emissions of carbon dioxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, or particulate matters, so it is imperative for the iron and steel industry to reduce carbon emissions. A total of 650 million mt of crude steel production capacity at 230 companies across the country have completed or are implementing ultra-low emission transformations. As of the end of October 2021, 26 steel companies in 6 provinces have disclosed the plans for reducing carbon emissions, among which 19 companies have disclosed their plans for organised emissions, unorganised emissions, and clean transportation, and 7 companies have disclosed part of the plans. These companies only account for less than 5% of all steel companies in China.

China's annual comprehensive utilisation volume of bulky industrial solid waste is about 2 billion mt

The latest data released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) showed that during the “13th Five-Year Plan" period, China has significantly improved the comprehensive utilisation of industrial resources and the clean production. In 2020, China’s comprehensive utilisation volume of metallurgical slag, tailings and other bulky industrial solid wastes was about 2 billion mt, and the recycling and utilisation volume of waste paper, steel scrap, plastic scrap and other 7 major renewable resources reached 380 million mt. The pollutant emission intensity of key industries was reduced by 20% from 2015. According to Huang Libin, Director of the MIIT Department of Energy Conservation and Comprehensive Utilisation, China has made positive progress in green industrial development during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, which is mainly reflected in three aspects: the acceleration of green transformation, the strong growth momentum of green and low-carbon industries, and the initial formation of a green manufacturing system. Statistics show that during the“13th Five-Year Plan” period, the energy consumption per unit of industrial added value of the enterprises above designated size was reduced by about 16%, and the water consumption per unit of industrial added value was reduced by about 40%. The reduction in comprehensive energy and water consumption in key medium and large size steel companies has reached the world's advanced level, and so is the reduction in the comprehensive AC power consumption of primary aluminium companies. 

CAMU: Less than 1/3 of steel scrap processing enterprises benefit from tax rebate policies

Li Shubin, executive vice president of the China Association of Metal Scrap Utilization (CAMU), stated in mid-November that the No. 106 [2013] document by Ministry of Finance clarified that the preferential policy of tax rebate upon collection for steel scrap processing enterprises has not been fully implemented, and the implementation rules have not been specified either. Among the 478 licensed enterprises in the first 8 batches, less than one third of them have benefited from this policy. In addition, the government has started to investigate into the issue of non-local invoicing of steel scrap in some provinces and cities since June 2016, and there are still no conclusive opinions so far. CAMU has repeatedly reported the above problems to the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Finance, but no progress has been made so far. The companies still face invoicing-related risks, and the lack of input tax invoices has affected the normal business. The differences in regional tax incentives for steel scrap transactions have caused serious issues of false invoices, which is not conducive to the healthy and standardised development of the industry. Li also said that although the scrap imports have been liberalised this year, the import volume is only about 480,000 mt, which is insufficient to supplement the domestic steel scrap supply void.