Iron and steel industry is an important basic industry of the national economy. How can China's iron and steel industry enter a new stage of development with high quality? Recently, the Ministry of industry and information technology, the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of ecological environment jointly issued the guiding opinions on promoting the high-quality development of the iron and steel industry (hereinafter referred to as the opinions), which clarified the objectives and paths for the iron and steel industry to achieve high-quality development, and clearly proposed to strive to basically form a reasonable layout structure, stable resource supply, advanced technology and equipment, prominent quality brand, high level of intelligence and strong global competitiveness by 2025 Green, low-carbon and sustainable high-quality development pattern. At present, what are the opportunities and challenges for the development of China's iron and steel industry? How to greatly enhance the resource guarantee of the iron and steel industry? What new changes will intelligent manufacturing present in the steel industry in the future? The reporter interviewed relevant principals and industry experts of iron and steel enterprises. The iron and steel industry has developed from big to strong, with good opportunities and many challenges Throughout the year, the accumulated revenue of key large and medium-sized iron and steel enterprises reached 6.93 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.7%, and the total accumulated profit reached 352.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.7%... Looking at the operation report card of China's iron and steel industry in 2021, the benefits are bright and the trend is good. "This is not only due to the strong market demand last year, but also due to the continuous promotion of the supply side structural reform of the iron and steel industry in recent years." Luo Tiejun, vice president of China Iron and Steel Industry Association, said that during the 13th Five Year Plan period, China's iron and steel industry achieved remarkable results in reducing production capacity, adjusting structure and promoting upgrading, reducing crude steel production capacity by more than 150 million tons, and the labor productivity of the main iron and steel industry increased from 527 tons / person to 850 tons / person per year. The 14th five year plan is a key period for the high-quality development of raw material industry. Opportunities and challenges coexist in the development of iron and steel industry. "At present, China's iron and steel industry still has problems such as high pressure of overcapacity, green and low-carbon development level to be improved, low industrial concentration and so on." Li Xinchuang, chief engineer of metallurgical industry planning and Research Institute, said that the release of the opinions is of great significance to guide the iron and steel industry to realize the transformation from large to strong. Good opportunity. "At present, China is in the late stage of industrialization and the middle and late stage of urbanization. Driven by the goal and task of industrialization and urbanization, the domestic steel demand will remain at a high level in the next few years." Li Xinchuang said that 5g, industrial Internet and other new generation information technologies provide favorable conditions for the transformation and upgrading of the iron and steel industry. There are many challenges. "Due to the low contribution rate of domestic resource supply to steel production, it is urgent to strengthen the short board of resources and ensure the safe operation of the industrial chain." Luo Tiejun said that in addition, although the merger and reorganization of the iron and steel industry has made positive progress since the 13th five year plan, the industrial concentration is still not high, and it is difficult for the industry to cope with changes in market demand in a coordinated manner. During the 14th Five Year Plan period, carbon peak and carbon neutralization will become a hard constraint for the high-quality development of the industry. We must further optimize the structure of raw materials, energy and processes, save energy and reduce emissions, and promote low-carbon development. Establish a diversified raw material supply system and improve the resource guarantee ability A stable raw material guarantee system is the cornerstone of the high-quality development of the iron and steel industry. The opinion proposes to make full use of domestic and international markets and resources to establish a stable and reliable diversified raw material supply system. During the 13th Five Year Plan period, China's dependence on foreign iron ore reached more than 80%. "The high proportion of imports and the rising price of imported ore have eroded the benefits of the iron and steel industry and the downstream steel industry, threatening the safe and stable operation of the industry." According to Luo Tiejun's analysis, the reasons are: first, the development of domestic iron ore resources and the output of scrap resources are insufficient; Second, the supply channels of overseas iron ore resources are too concentrated, and the proportion of equity mines is low. The key is to greatly enhance resource guarantee and establish a stable and reliable diversified raw material supply system. From a domestic perspective, we should strengthen the basic support capacity of domestic iron ore. In response to supply risks, the opinions proposed to establish iron ore production capacity reserve and mineral land reserve system. Li Xinchuang believes that as an important strategic resource related to the national economy and the people's livelihood, the establishment of a reserve system is expected to become an important regulatory means to stabilize market prices and ensure the safety of the industrial chain. At the same time, expand the utilization of scrap steel alternative products. The opinion proposes to encourage the import of resource products and semi-finished products. "In the past two years, China's import of resource products and semi-finished products has been at a high level." Luo Tiejun said that making full use of international and domestic scrap resources is conducive to reducing dependence on imported iron ore, reducing energy consumption and carbon emissions, and better ensuring resource security. From abroad, it is necessary to strengthen the development of international iron ore resources. In Luo Tiejun's view, it is necessary to increase the investment and development of overseas mineral resources, increase the proportion of rights and interests of overseas resources, diversify the sources of overseas resources and effectively improve the ability of resource support. Vigorously develop intelligent manufacturing and cultivate new industrial competitive advantages The intelligent hot-dip galvanizing workshop of Baosteel cold rolling plant can operate normally without workers on duty after intelligent upgrading; Liugang Transparent Factory built based on cloud nail digital technology, big data image recognition technology replaces experience, and effectively solves the problem of quality fluctuation in iron and steel production; By accessing 5g network, Valin Xiangtan Iron and steel company has realized the remote control of crown block, which not only greatly improves the efficiency, but also greatly reduces the labor cost In recent years, 5g, artificial intelligence and other new technologies have accelerated in the iron and steel industry, and the Internet of the iron and steel industry has entered the stage of industrial ecological construction. The digital display rate of key processes in China's metallurgical industry will reach 47.4% in 2020, and the digital production rate of key equipment will reach a high level. "Intelligent transformation is a systematic project, which runs through the whole process of procurement, design, production and sales." Luo Tiejun said that at present, there are problems in China's iron and steel intelligent manufacturing, such as different levels, standards to be improved, and low supply quality of software and hardware. According to the opinions, by 2025, the numerical control rate of key processes will reach about 80% and the digital rate of production equipment will reach 55%. The goal of building more than 30 intelligent factories will help push the iron and steel industry into the "fast lane" of intelligent development. Li Xinchuang proposed that on the one hand, accelerate the construction of new infrastructure systems such as industrial Internet and 5g in the iron and steel industry, and cultivate a number of industry intelligent manufacturing system solution suppliers; On the other hand, build a data support platform for the iron and steel industry, promote the application of big data in the production and operation of the iron and steel industry, and improve the ability of optimal allocation of resources and the level of intelligent decision-making. "In the future, the iron and steel industry should adhere to intelligent technological innovation, focus on the intelligent operation and maintenance of equipment, the transparency of production process, the overall coordination of supply chain and the cleaning of environmental protection management, integrate 5g, industrial Internet, artificial intelligence and other new technologies into manufacturing and operation, and cultivate new competitive advantages in the iron and steel industry." Luo Tiejun said. Promote the merger and reorganization of enterprises and promote the improvement of industrial concentration For a long time, the low industrial concentration and decentralized structure have made it difficult for the iron and steel industry to cooperate on issues such as orderly competition, R & D and innovation, energy conservation and consumption reduction, which restricts the high-quality development of the industry. The opinion proposes to encourage leading enterprises in the industry to implement merger and reorganization and build several world-class super large iron and steel enterprise groups. It should be noted that since the 13th five year plan, the pace of merger and reorganization of China's iron and steel enterprises has significantly accelerated, and the concentration of the iron and steel industry is generally on the rise. According to the data, the proportion of crude steel output of the top 10 iron and steel enterprises in the country increased from 35.9% in 2016 to 41.5% in 2021. "Before the reorganization, steel enterprises generally had the problems of low product grade and serious operating losses." Qian Gang, chairman of CITIC Pacific special steel group, said that since the reorganization of Qingdao special steel in 2017, it has continued to cooperate and integrate in many aspects such as talent exchange, user expansion and cost reduction in procurement, and turned losses into profits in just a few months. "At present, it has entered the fast lane of sound and healthy development, showing a good momentum of development." Qian Gang said that the next step will follow the relevant national policies, actively pay attention to resource integration, promote mergers and acquisitions, orderly expand the scale of production capacity, strengthen independent research and development of high-end new products, and improve the market influence and core competitiveness in subdivided fields. The restructuring has achieved remarkable results, but experts believe that compared with developed countries, there is still a large gap in the concentration of China's iron and steel industry, and the number of enterprises is large and scattered. "Considering the current situation of the layout of China's iron and steel industry, the merger and reorganization of iron and steel enterprises should break barriers and innovate mechanisms." Li Xinchuang proposed that we should focus on several aspects—— From the perspective of enterprises themselves, state-owned iron and steel enterprises should combine their own development strategy, deeply integrate domestic iron and steel industry resources across regions and ownership, and strive to build a world-class super large iron and steel enterprise group. At the same time, the advantageous enterprises in each subdivided field should implement merger and reorganization in the professional field to create a professional pilot enterprise. From the perspective of regional development, for the regions with relatively concentrated iron and steel industry, relying on the strong enterprises in the region, integrate the iron and steel enterprises in the region and improve the discourse power of the regional market. From the perspective of industrial chain, we should take iron and steel enterprises as the core, establish cross industry and cross regional joint reorganization with upstream raw material suppliers and downstream customers, and create a collaborative and efficient industrial ecosystem. (Xinhua News Agency)