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The iron and steel industry is an important foundation of the national economy. It is the inevitable choice, to achieve high-quality development in the new era of the iron and steel industry, to speed up the green development of the iron and steel industry. This paper studies the effect of steel industry agglomeration on regional economic growth and air pollution. Through the analysis of the characteristics of iron and steel industry agglomeration, and the empirical analysis of the relationship between iron and steel industry agglomeration, regional economic growth, and air pollution, it is found that: (1) Iron and steel industry agglomeration helps to promote economic growth; (2) Iron and steel industry agglomeration has an obvious spatial correlation effect and obviously drives the development of surrounding areas; (3) Iron and steel industry agglomeration will cause air pollution. The marginal effect of air pollution will decline rapidly with the development of iron and steel industry agglomeration. (4) The impact of green process innovation investment on air pollution presents an inverted U-shaped effect, which has a positive effect on air recovery after exceeding the critical point. (5) The air self-purification capacity represented by precipitation, helps to reduce air pollution. Based on the above conclusions, this paper puts forward some policy suggestions, such as making a scientific development plan for the iron and steel industry, accelerating green process innovation, effectively improving regional precipitation and precipitation times, vigorously promoting high-quality development of the regional economy, and comprehensively promoting coordinated development of the iron and steel industry, so as to cope with the dilemma of the coordinated development of the iron and steel industry, regional economic growth, and smog pollution, and strive for international development in the future. In the competition, we should gain the first opportunity and obvious competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2023, China's crude steel production amount reached 1.019 billion tons, and the energy consumption of China's steel industry amount reached 561 million tons of coal. China's steel industry, with its dominant reliance on coal for energy and the primary use of blast furnaces and converters in production processes, as well as its massive output, has become the main field for achieving China's "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" goals. Firstly, this article summarizes the current production status of the steel industry and the situation of carbon emissions in the steel industry. Secondly, it discusses the dual-carbon policies based on the national and steel industry levels and outlines the future directions for China's steel industry. Subsequently, it analyzes the current state of research and application of mature and emerging low-carbon technology in China's steel industry and details the low-carbon plans of China's steel companies using the low-carbon technology roadmaps of two representative steel companies as examples. Finally, the article gives policy suggestions for the further carbon reduction of China's steel industry. The purpose of this paper is to show the efforts and contributions of China's steel industry to the early realization of its "carbon peaking" and "carbon neutrality" goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most research on the hot strip mill production scheduling problem (HSMPSP) arising in the steel industry, it is accepted that a schedule with lower penalty caused by jumps of width, hardness, and gauge will result in lower roller wear, so it is regarded as a better schedule. However, based on the analysis of production processes, it is realised that rolling each coil also cause roller wear. In order to assessing the roller wear associated with production scheduling more precisely, it is necessary to consider it as another factor besides those jumps, especially when complicated constraints are involved. In this paper, an improved method is proposed to quantify the expected wear of the rollers done by those jumps and rolling processes. Then the HSMPSP whose objective is to maximise the total length of all scheduled coils is formulated as a team orienteering problem with time windows and additional production constraints. A heuristic method combining an improved Ant Colony Extended algorithm with local search procedures dedicated to HSMPSP is developed. Finally, computational results on instances generated based on production data from an integrated steel mill in China indicate that the proposed algorithm is a promising solution specific to HSMPSP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel industry is a major source of CO2 emissions, and thus, the mitigation of carbon emissions is the most pressing challenge in this sector. In this paper, international environmental governance in the steel industry is reviewed, and the current state of development of low‐carbon technologies is discussed. Additionally, low‐carbon pathways for the steel industry at the current time are proposed, emphasizing prevention and treatment strategies. Furthermore, the prospects of low‐carbon technologies are explored from the perspective of transitioning the energy structure to a "carbon–electricity–hydrogen" relationship. Overall, steel enterprises should adopt hydrogen‐rich metallurgical technologies that are compatible with current needs and process flows in the short term, based on the carbon substitution with hydrogen (prevention) and the CCU (CO2 capture and utilization) concepts (treatment). Additionally, the capture and utilization of CO2 for steelmaking, which can assist in achieving short‐term emission reduction targets but is not a long‐term solution, is discussed. In conclusion, in the long term, the carbon metallurgical process should be gradually supplanted by a hydrogen–electric synergistic approach, thus transforming the energy structure of existing steelmaking processes and attaining near‐zero carbon emission steelmaking technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest carbon emitter in China's manufacturing sector, the low-carbon transition of the steel industry is urgent. CO2 capture, utilization, and storage (CCUS) technology is one of the effective measures to reduce carbon emissions in steel industry. In this paper, a comprehensive assessment model of source–sink matching-levelized cost in China's steel industry is constructed to evaluate the potential, economy, and spatial distribution of CCUS retrofits of blast furnaces in the BF-BOF steel industry. The results show that, if no extra incentive policy is included, the levelized cost of carbon dioxide (LCOCD) of 111 steel plants with a 420.07 Mt/a CO2 abatement potential ranges from −134.87 to 142.95 USD/t. The levelized cost of crude steel (LCOS) range of steel plants after the CCUS retrofits of blast furnaces is 341.81 to 541.41 USD/t. The incentives such as carbon market and government subsidies will all contribute to the early deployment of CCUS projects. The CCUS technology could be prioritized for deployment in North China, Northwest China, and East China's Shandong Province, but more powerful incentives are still needed for current large-scale deployment. The research results can provide references for the early deployment and policy formulation of CCUS in China's steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is currently the world's largest producer and consumer of iron and steel. This industry is one of the most energy- and emission-intensive industries in China. It is unsuspicious that energy conservation and emission reduction in this industry are crucial for China to fulfill its obligations of reducing greenhouse gas emission and mitigating global climate change. An appropriate allocation of CO2 emissions permit is the most important precondition for establishing an efficient and effective emissions trading system that had recently been launched in China's pilot regions. This paper proposes a new emissions permit allocation method based on a Nash equilibrium data envelopment analysis model. This method is more appropriate in emissions permit allocation for China's iron and steel firms in an imperfectly competitive market where the product price is endogenous. A noncooperative game is formulated and the mixed complementarity problem is utilized to identify a Nash equilibrium in the allocation of emissions permit (AEP). The most up-to-date AEP using a unique data set of China's major iron and steel enterprises in 2014 is provided in this paper. The results show that the AEP improves the desirable output generation by satisfying the reduction targets of the undesirable outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The blast furnace and basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) is still the main process used for the production of iron and steel in China. With the approach of the "dual carbon" target, the iron and steel industry needs to transform and upgrade to "green" and "low-carbon" practices. At present, the low-carbon hydrogen metallurgy technology route based on hydrogen instead of carbon is mainly adopted at home and abroad, and the domestic route is mainly based on oxygen-rich BFs and hydrogen-based shaft furnaces (SFs). It promotes the transformation of the traditional BF to hydrogen-rich, oxygen-rich, and carbon-recycled (Hy-O-CR) technology. A new ironmaking system and method for a reduction smelting furnace (RSF) with Hy-O-CR is presented in this paper. The ironmaking system includes nine sets of equipment, such as an RSF, gas dust collector, dryer, CO2 separator, electrolytic water device, blower, heat exchanger, storage tank of reduction gas, and chimney. From top to bottom, the RSF includes an indirect reduction zone, a soft melting dripping zone, and a coke combustion zone. The ironmaking methods include coke and ore mixed charging, injection of the mixed reduction gas composed of electrolytic green hydrogen and circulating gas from the furnace gas into the indirect reduction zone, injection of oxygen into the coke combustion zone, CO2 recovery of the furnace top gas, and slag and iron treatment. By redesigning the size of the furnace type and optimizing the parameters, the metallization rate of the indirect reduction zone can be as high as 85–95%, and the carbon consumption per ton of hot metal can be greatly reduced. By using oxygen to recycle the reduction gas produced by its reactor, the process achieves the goal of reducing CO2 emissions by more than 50%, thus realizing green and low-carbon metallurgy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the mechanical properties and engineering application of electric furnace (EAF) slag mixed soil are investigated. The samples of steel slag are taken from a steel manufacturing company in Huangshi, a city of China. The mixed soil was firstly prepared by mixing the steel slag and clay mixture in different proportions. The optimal moisture content for mixing the soil is investigated from the experiment through direct shear test. Based on three axial compression tests, the optimum steel slag ratio is determined. Finally, the mechanical properties of steel slag mixed soil are tested in a practical engineering problem through a numerical simulation. The steel slag mixed soil is used to replace the original soil of the embankment and compared with that of the original one. The comparison study shows that the method proposed in this paper is simple and effective. Moreover, from the practical problem analysis, the optimal utilization of electric furnace slag can be achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Economic Annals-XXI / Ekonomìčnij Časopis-XXI is the property of Institute of Society Transformation and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Determine the main factors affecting carbon emissions of the Chinese steel industry is indispensable commitments to achieve the sustainable development of China. Hereby, based on the Stochastic Impacts by Regression on Population, Affluence and Technology (STIPRAT) model, this paper combines the economic growth function, carbon emission production function, and the FDI function of the Chinese steel industry, and uses the three-stage least square equation model (3SLS) to analyze the relationship between China's economic growth, carbon emissions in the steel industry, and FDI (foreign direct investment) inflows. The results document a complete two-way causal relationship of three variables in the whole country and the Western region, while the relationship in the Eastern region and the Central region is not complete. Moreover, there are no bidirectional causal relationship between carbon emissions and FDI in the Eastern region, while only bidirectional causality between carbon emissions and FDI in the Central region. These findings are of great significance for the Chinese steel industry to formulate effective emission reduction policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the 2030 carbon peak target, this paper studies the top-down provincial carbon quota allocation in China's iron and steel industry. Considering the principles of fairness, efficiency, sustainability and development, three provincial carbon quota allocation schemes are constructed based on entropy method, three-stage DEA and ZSG-DEA model respectively, which make up for the gap of carbon quota allocation scheme with the total amount of carbon peak target of the iron and steel industry. The allocation results show that the allocation based on the entropy method can roughly solve the problem of uneven distribution of carbon quota of the steel industry in various provinces, and the carbon quota in the steel industry decreases from the eastern region to the western region. Considering the two environmental indicators of local government competition and urbanization level, the initial carbon quota allocation scheme can be effectively adjusted, which is conducive to promote the enthusiasm of some underdeveloped areas. The allocation scheme, which combines the entropy method with the ZSG-DEA model, can enhance the efficiency of carbon quota allocation among provinces while ensuring fairness. However, this fairness is limited and more advantageous to economically developed regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Thermal power, steel, cement, and coal chemical industries account 62.6% energy consumption and 84.6% carbon emissions of China simultaneously in 2015. This research use C3IAM-Tice model to analyze the impact of advanced technologies ratio increasing quantitatively. The model can explore the balance of emission reduction and economy efficiency of energy use, finally got the technology structure optimization for these four industries. The paper uses the historical energy consumption and CO2 emission, combing with the low-carbon developing goal objection, to create the database for these four energy- and carbon-intensive industries. As the result, the scenario-4, which is the most advanced technology-oriented strategy, shows 282 Mt CO2 emission reductions for the 2020 Goal. In this scenario, 26.19%, 47.43%, 65.39%, and 28.98% of the CO2 emissions per unit of added value in thermal power industry, steel industry, cement industry, and coal chemical industry could be reduced comparing with data in 2005. Although the advanced technology-oriented strategy shows the positive impact, we need to consider the cost of elimination of existed technology. On the other hand, the paper notices the future technology, with new energy alternative, low-carbon economy development, and industry restructure together, which are important factors for the low-carbon development of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To meet the current environmental challenges and sustainable development, closed-loop supply chain (CLSC) management has become increasingly important and urgent. In this paper, we mainly consider three uncertainties: (1) uncertainty of time-delay in re-manufacturing and returns, (2) uncertainty of system cost parameters, (3) uncertainty of customers' demand disturbances. Using control theories we dynamically analyse and establish a class of dynamic closed-loop supply chain models of linear discrete time system, including the product return model, the re-manufacturing model and the third party reverse logistic providers (3PRLP) collecting model. Furthermore, we analyse the robust operations in the closed-loop supply chains and bring forward relative strategies with robust H∞ control methods. Finally, according to the practical operations of scrap supply chain in the Chinese steel industry, we carry out some simulation calculations to prove how our proposed robust H∞ control strategies can restrain all uncertainties of our closed-loop supply chain system. Our analyses and results may be helpful for further insight into closed-loop supply chain uncertain operations and production control, for both theoretical researchers and practitioners, especially for those in the Chinese steel manufacturing industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a number of adverse factors, China's steel industry has maintained a rapid growth trend. China continues to consume two-thirds of the world's iron ore, the majority of which is imported. In this context, Chinese steel companies have begun to consider integrating their supply chains to increase efficiency and lower costs. However, the increasingly volatile international environment makes this an extremely risky proposition. As a result, the issue of how Chinese steel producers should participate in global supply chain integration has emerged as a critical research question that requires investigation. In this paper, we examine the supply chain integration problem using a typical China–Australia steel trade as an example. Specifically, we discuss in detail whether relevant firms should continue to promote supply chain integration in the Chinese–Australian steel industry, as well as the decision boundary of influence, using evolutionary game theory and policy risk cost factors. The empirical analysis demonstrates that policy risk has a range of effects on different types of steel firms. Even when international tensions are considered, smaller steel companies may retain a greater willingness to integrate their supply chains. Overall, the above findings can provide necessary decision support for enterprises to formulate supply chain management strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The impact of trade on the environment and the climate has become a focus of attention. Tending to develop industries with higher added values, developed countries rely on importing high energy consumption goods from developing countries, and however, some CO emissions are embodied in the process of import. Currently, the accounting method of the territorial responsibility used to get the international data of greenhouse gas inventories ignores the difference between domestic consumption and export demands. Thus, developing countries bear the responsibility of pollution emissions from the export. The steel industry is an important basic industry of China's national economy as well as a vital part in the industrial system. With the expansion of trade scale, the impact of the export and import of China's steel on CO emissions is growing. This paper studied the embodied CO emissions in the trade of China's steel from 2005 to 2014, using the input-output model and the trade data of the China's steel imports and exports. The results indicate that (1) the complete CO emissions of China's steel industry are high. (2) The increase in the export scale makes the embodied CO emissions in the trade of China's steel export increase, and (3) China is a net exporter of CO emissions in the steel trade. Especially after 2007, the value of China's steel exports has been larger than that of China's steel imports, so China had borne much CO emissions responsibility in the trade of China's steel. Therefore, this paper puts forward that, in the future, the export structure of goods should be optimized into the high-tech products with the high added value, low energy consumption and low carbon emissions, and meanwhile, service industry is promoted to improve technical support to reduce CO emissions in the steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decades, a multilayer transshipment network of bulk shipping has been formed along the Yangtze River so as to support the fast development of Chinese iron and steel industry. Yet with the decrease of iron ore trade in China since 2014, the bulk port system on Yangtze River probably will be subject to change in the future. Under this background, this paper aims to analyze the development potential of Yangtze River bulk ports system with a focus on iron ore transshipment. To realize this objective, we firstly sort out the main transshipment patterns of bulk shipping, and optimize the bulk-shipping network with an optimization model. Several scenarios are then proposed and examined in the model by changing corresponding parameters. Cooperation among ports as one scenario is analyzed by applying core theory in cooperative game. Based on the changes of transshipment plans observed under the various scenarios, we finally ascertain the different development potentials of the system, and provide suggestions to the port operators and local maritime authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract - This paper chooses scrap steel as research object, firstly we use grey relational analysis between the present phase of steel industry in China and three phases of that in developed countries according to industrial lifecycle. Then we set up GM(l,l) power model, and build objective function of least average comparative error, solve the optimized solution of its whitenization equation by particle swarm optimization algorithm. At last, apply it to forecast the demand of scrap steel for the next several years in China. The forecasted result is consistent with fact, and the demand we forecast gives scientific evidence to the design of reverse logistics networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At present, the problems of homogenization and low quality in China's iron and steel industry are particularly prominent and the ability of the enterprises to cope with change is insufficient. Adopting product differentiation strategy and dynamic adjustment strategy can allow steel enterprises and the industry to better adapt to future changes. By introducing the product differentiation degree (substitution coefficient) and the bounded rationality strategy to simulate these two strategic means, this paper constructs an extended two-stage dynamic game model to analyse the dynamic game scenarios and steel market stability in China. As new findings, we report the following: (1) The system is more likely to fall into an unbalanced state when multiple enterprises adopt the policy of dynamic output adjustment simultaneously. (2) Enterprises with large output and small output have different output adjustment policies. When enterprises with big-scale output adopt a bit larger adjustment policies, enterprises with small output will be strongly impacted, and the available adjustment space will be sharply compressed. (3) The gradual increase in the difference between products reduces the stability of the market. (4) When product differentiation and bounded rationality strategies coexist, the steel market may fall into an unbalanced state when the degree of product difference increases excessively and the enterprise adopts more drastic output adjustment policies. Therefore, there are pros and cons to product differentiation strategy and bounded rationality adjustment strategy. When each steel oligopoly enterprise formulates a production plan, it needs to comprehensively consider the output changes of the other enterprises and carefully weigh the strategic issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Mining & Metallurgy (10057854) is the property of Beijing Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy Technology Group and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Abstract With the increasing international attention paid to environmental issues, the ability to pursue continuous development while protecting the environment and thereby achieving a win-win situation has become a significant issue for developing countries such as China. In previous studies, environmental regulation has been proven to be an effective governance mechanism. However, few studies have attempted to analyse the comprehensive impacts and determine the optimal stringency of environmental regulation, especially for a specific industry, based on the actual situation in China. Therefore, this paper calculates the effects of the current and proposed environmental regulation of China's steel industry from 2006 to 2013 by adopting a pollution treatment approach, and based on this calculation, it constructs a recursive dynamic steel industry chain CGE model to investigate the macroeconomic, market and technology impacts from an industry chain perspective under 3 different levels of environmental regulation of the steel industry. The simulation results show that real GDP and the outputs of the downstream sectors of the steel industry will suffer slightly, while the outputs and exports of the steel industry itself will benefit from stringent environmental regulation over the long term. In addition, the material efficiency of steel use will be improved in the long term through the implementation of environmental regulation of the steel industry. Based on the results, it is recommended that a moderate level of environmental regulation should be adopted initially, which can then be smoothly transformed into more stringent regulation during a period of economic growth to avoid sudden and major shocks. In addition, this paper also provides a reference for other substantial industries in China when choosing the optimal pattern for the implementation of environmental regulations. Highlights • The current environmental regulation of China's steel industry is far from adequate for compensating for the full external environmental costs. • A recursive dynamic steel industry chain CGE model of China is constructed. • The outputs and exports of China's steel industry will benefit from stringent environmental regulation. • The material efficiency of steel use will be improved in the long term while not sensitive to the stringency of environmental regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China’s iron and steel industry has made great progress in energy savings and emission reductions with the application of many waste heat recovery technologies. However, most of the medium and low temperature waste heat and radiant waste heat has not been effectively utilized. This paper proposes a thermoelectric system that generates electricity by absorbing the radiant heat from the surface of steel ladles in a steel plant. The thermoelectric behavior of modules in this system is analyzed by a numerical simulation method. The effects of external resistance and module structure on thermoelectric performance are also discussed in the temperature range of the wall surface of a steel ladle. The results show that the wall temperature has a significant influence on the thermoelectric behavior of the module, so its uniformity and stability should be considered in practical application. The ratio of the optimum external resistance to the internal resistance of the thermoelectric module is in the range of 1.6-2.0, which indicates the importance of external load optimization for a given thermoelectric system. In addition, the output power and the conversion efficiency of the module can be significantly improved by increasing the length of the thermoelectric legs and adopting a double-layer structure. Finally, through the optimization of external resistance and structure, the power output can reach 83-304 W/m2. This system is shown to be a promising approach for energy recovery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A multi-stage Malmquist-Luenberger index model is constructed for the multiple production of iron and steel industry. • The proposed model can evaluate environmental total factor productivity (ETFP) growth of whole system and sub-process. • Technical regression of steel-making sub-process is the main source of restricting system ETFP growth. • The change of system ETFP varies greatly, being highest in the eastern region, and lowest in the western region. • Compared with the single-stage conventional MLPI, the multi-stage MLPI is smaller and has more discriminatory power. This paper develops a multi-stage Malmquist-Luenberger index (MLPI) model by considering the joint production of desirable and undesirable outputs in multiple production processes. The proposed approach not only evaluates the environmental total factor productivity (ETFP) growth of the whole system but also investigate the progress and regress of each sub-process, i.e., the iron-making sub-process and the steel-making sub-process. Driving factors of ETFP change are identified through multi-stage MLPI decomposition. With an application of the proposed model in China's 48 iron and steel enterprises over the period of 2009–2013, the validity of the proposed models has been demonstrated. Moreover, this study explores the regional difference analysis of system and multi-stage ETFP among 31 provinces in eastern, central and western regions. Results show that the ETFP of system, iron-making sub-process and steel-making sub-process experienced increase annually, the most important finding is that the environmental efficiency increase is the most critical driving factor in promoting ETFP growth. Technical regression of steel-making sub-process is the main source of restricting system ETFP growth. In addition, the change of system ETFP varies greatly in different regions, being highest in the eastern region, and lowest in the western region. Compared with the single-stage conventional MLPI, the multi-stage MLPI is smaller and has more discriminatory power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the conventional data envelopment analysis (DEA) window analysis, a decision-making unit (DMU) in each window is treated as different units in each period so that the evaluation for one unit is performed on different scales over time. This paper proposes a novel window analysis based on common weight across time (CWAT), which evaluates each unit in each window by its common scale independent of time. The model for obtaining common weights is described as linear programming. And the paper suggests the Malmquist productivity index (MPI) on CWAT, CWAT MPI, to analyze productivity change by inheriting the result of window analysis. The numerical experiments are illustrated to examine the validity of CWAT and MPI, and the result shows that the proposed method provides a new evaluation scale compared to previous studies. The proposed model is applied to evaluate the performance of China 45 iron and steel enterprises during 2009–2017. The energy and environmental efficiency are calculated using CWAT, and CWAT MPI analyzes the productivity change. • We study a DEA window analysis based on common weights. • The proposed DEA window is represented by linear programming. • We discuss the Malmquist index in the DEA window. • The MPI is the geometric mean of all indices calculated in individual windows. • The performance of the iron and steel enterprises is evaluated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Process industries, such as chemicals, aluminium, steel, pulp and paper, and thermal electricity generation, are important basic industries for economic growth in an economy such as the Chinese one. In order to promote improved efficiency and growth-inducing structural change, it is of paramount importance to model the development of such industries in a relevant way. It will then be necessary to go outside the smooth textbook production theory and turn to models incorporating typical features of process industries, such as embodied technical change, a sharp difference in substitution possibilities before and after investing, and a dynamic change at the industry level driven by entry and exit of plants and embodied technical change. The purpose of the paper is to give an introduction to the key production function concept of a short-run industry production function, and to show how this concept is the key to understanding industry dynamics. An empirical application is made on data for Chinese coal-fired electricity generation plants for one year. However, this will only be the first stage in a full-blown dynamic analysis. Combined cross-section and time-series data for plants are then required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents an in-depth case study of the Shanghai Baosteel Group as a contribution to the overall assessment of the competitiveness and catch-up capability of the Chinese national champions after China's WTO accession. Significant competitive advantages of the firm in the domestic industry are identified, with cautionary remarks concerning the future stiff competition with the global steel giants. Through detailed examinations of the corporate governance mechanism and the industrial policy implementation in Baosteel and the whole steel sector, the paper sheds light on the institutional and policy challenges that the Chinese government has to face in building up its big businesses. It is concluded that whether Baosteel could emerge as a globally competitive steel firm depends critically upon the effectiveness of both the further reform of the state-dominated corporate governance system and the improvement of the industrial policy enforcement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China consumed 116 million tonnes of steel in 2000, making it the largest consumer of steel in the world. China differs fundamentally from other countries at similar levels of economic development in that the secondary sector, the traditional consumer of steel products, already accounts for a significant proportion of domestic production. This suggests that little of any future growth in China's steel consumption will result from further rises in the 'steel intensity' of domestic production. Rather, growth in GDP will be the driving force behind future growth in steel consumption. This paper uses a macroeconomic Bayesian vector autoregression model to forecast steel consumption in China to 2010. This technique uses historical correlations among the variables in a system of equations and Bayesian priors on the estimated parameters, to introduce more flexibility into the forecasting process and align the models closer in nature to structural commodity market models. The forecasts suggest that steel consumption in China will rise from 116 million tonnes in 2000 to around 182 million tonnes in 2010. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper tracks the energy use and changes to China's energy-efficiency regulatory framework governing the iron and steel industry for the last thirty years. The detailed institutional analysis identifies both abating and augmenting effects of the regulatory framework changes on the energy intensity changes. The paper then assesses the impacts of various other factors on the energy intensity of China's iron and steel industry by using time-series data on the sector level. The quantitative analysis shows that technology progress, specifically the production process transition from high-energy intensive open-hearth furnace (OHF) to more energy efficient basic-oxygen furnace (BOF), is the biggest contributor to energy intensity reductions in China's iron and steel industry in the last thirty years, even after controlling for regulatory change and policy incentives. The ownership reform resulting from changes in the regulatory framework change contributed to energy intensity reductions in China's iron and steel industry, while fast market expansion resulting from market liberalization and regulation decentralization served as a principal barrier for energy efficiency improvements. Government policies, represented by financial subsidies from governments, correspond with energy intensity reductions in key large and medium sized enterprises, but interestingly, seem to be ineffective at producing energy intensity reductions for the industry as a whole. As other research indicated, rising coal prices also contributed to energy intensity reductions in China's iron and steel industry. Finally, the paper concludes that, to further incentivize energy intensity reductions, the Chinese government should consider correcting the negative impacts of the regulatory framework change, as well as transferring production processes to the highly energy efficient electric-arc furnace (EAF) and extending policy regulations to wider enterprise groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, five particulate emission points from a sinter plant in China, including anthracite crusher, raw material blender, sinter strand, screener, and circular cooler, were selected for particle sampling. The particle size distribution, the toxic element content (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Ti, and Zn), and the morphology of the samples were determined by the gravimetric method, the ICP-OES, and the SEM-EDS, respectively. In addition, the gray relational analysis method was used to evaluate the rank of the particulate emission points in the sinter plant. The results show that the emission factor of PM, PM, and PM of the whole sintering process is 0.121, 0.075, and 0.039 kg/t-sinter, respectively. Furthermore, the total toxic element emission factor is 5282.49 mg/t-sinter. The sinter strand is the most important emitter and contributes 43.8% of PM, 53.3% of PM, 56.4% of PM, and 81.1% of total toxic element in the sinter plant. Nevertheless, particles emitted from the post-sintering process are non-negligible and contribute 48.8% of PM, 41.3% of PM, 38.5% of PM, and 15.5% of total toxic element in the sinter plant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iron and steel sector is energy-intensive, and it consumed 18% of the world's total industry final energy consumption in 2013. At present, according to the statistical data of International Energy Agency (IEA) published in 2012, the iron and steel industry has the technical potential to reduce its current total energy consumption by approximately 20% by applying the best available technology (BAT), and more than half of this technical potential may be obtained in China, where more energy-efficiency technologies/measures should be implemented in the steel plants. So a review of energy-efficiency technologies/measures in steel industry could be helpful for steel plants to improve their energy efficiency. Therefore, this paper presents a list of energy-efficiency technologies and practices applicable to the steel industry, which includes case studies around the world and information of energy savings and cost when available. Also, a brief overview of the steel industry around the world, details and energy use conditions of different steel manufacturing processes, types of energy use and specific energy consumption of steel industry and details of secondary energy are also included in this paper to give readers a clear understanding of the energy use situation of the steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is the biggest steel producer and consumer in the world. Therefore, it is important to understand the dynamic mechanisms of the steel flow, to forecast the future trends, as well as evaluate different improvement measures. Although the previous models are able to depict the dynamic material flow, the market dynamics are excluded such as production capacity planning, the cost competitiveness of each route, the market prices of resources, etc. This paper presents a cradle to cradle model to describe the comprehensive mechanism of the steel lifecycle by combing both material and market dynamics. The model is used to predict and quantify the future steel flow in China from 2012 to 2100. The results confirm that the secondary (from scrap) steel production share will increase along with the sufficient scrap supply in the long term. Meanwhile, the analyses also highlight that market dynamics has a profound impact on the steel flow. With the aim of promoting sustainable thinking in steel production and usage, this paper focuses on a number of material efficiency strategies and investigates their impact by using what-if scenario analyses. The results indicate that the benefit of reuse and remanufacturing scrap is limited when the generation of scrap is insufficient in the next two or three decades. The analyses also identified two strategies (i.e. less material for same service and more intensive use) are effective measures to improve the sustainability in China steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a key energy-intensive sector, the iron and steel sector play an important role of achieving China's national energy efficiency target. This paper reviewed China's energy management system and industrial energy saving policies. Since the 11th Five Year Plan (FYP), China have set explicit energy saving targets for major industrial enterprises by target responsibility system (TRS), while “the Top-1000 program” during the 11th FYP and “the Top-10,000 enterprises project” during the 12th FYP are the most important actions saving energy in industry sectors. Industrial enterprises mainly implement energy saving policies by closing outdated facilities, applying advanced energy efficiency technologies and improving product structure. This paper also evaluates the energy saving performance of the iron and steel sector from 2006 to 2011 with 2005 as reference year. During this period, the iron and steel sector saved energy of 195.1 million tce based on the “value-added method”, and 167.1 million tce based on the “production output method”. The gap between the two methods comes from the contributor of production structure improvement, which resulted in the change of value-added per unit production output. Closing outdated facilities and applying advanced technology contribute 33% and 67% of the energy saving based on production output, which reflects the change of energy efficiency technologies. China has approved the new target of “achieving the peak of CO 2 emissions around 2030”, as a response, future energy policy should be transformed from “energy saving amount” into “total amount control”. Increasingly economic-market policy tools should be encouraged, and energy efficiency and produce quality should be continually improved. In addition, in the 11th and 12th FYP, energy policies are mainly implemented in large-scaled enterprises, however, in the future they should be given sufficient attention to middle and small sized enterprises (SMEs). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has set an ambitious national determined contributions target to peak CO 2 emissions by 2030 and aims to be carbon neutral by 2060. One of China's top energy consumers and CO 2 contributors, the steel industry accounts for 13% of the country's total consumption and 15% of CO 2 emissions. In response to the present global warming trend, there is an urgent need to cut energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to promote low-carbon growth. This paper attempts to provide a detailed analysis of the steel industry's CO 2 emission reduction path to carbon neutrality. Further efforts in terms of industrial structure, material efficiency, energy efficiency, and low- or zero-carbon technologies are required to achieve a low-carbon transition. Given that decarbonization is a significant priority in the steel industry in many countries, this study focuses on the goals and technological paths of low-carbon emissions projects to optimize existing technology priorities and propose development directions. Deep decarbonization is also projected to be achieved by combining CCUS and hydrogen metallurgy technologies. The steel industry requires collaborative efforts to standardize CO 2 emission accounting methodologies and establish a carbon trading system to strengthen carbon emission management. • The steel industry is one of the key contributors to carbon neutrality which needs to accelerate decarbonization. • Reducing energy consumption and CO 2 emissions to keep up with the current global warming trend are reviewed. • This paper selects low-carbon emission projects to optimize current technology priorities and provide development directions. • Policy recommendations and next steps for low-carbon transition are given. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovative emission reduction technologies combined with optimized processes can effectively reduce the environmental pressure in the iron and steel industry (ISI). Identifying and comparatively analyzing the carbon emissions (CE) from steel productions is conducive to achieving China's ambitious carbon reduction targets. In this paper, we investigated two innovative routes: the shaft furnace-induction furnace-basic oxygen furnace route (SF-IF-BOF) and shaft furnace-electric smelting furnace-basic oxygen furnace route (SF-ESF-BOF), alongside two traditional routes: the blast furnace-BOF route (BF-BOF) and SF-electric arc furnace route (SF-ESF). The analysis was based on a functional unit of 1000 kg of crude steel (CS). By establishing the mass and energy balance models and decision criteria, 12 typical smelting scenarios for these routes were analyzed and compared in terms of materials consumption and CE. The results showed that increasing the proportion of scrap was beneficial for reducing CE. Under the condition of a 50% scrap ratio, the CE of the SF-IF-BOF, SF-ESF-BOF, BF-BOF, and SF-EAF routes were 768, 823, 946, and 870 kg, respectively. The SF-IF-BOF route displayed the most significant advantage of CE reduction. In addition, by using 100% zero-carbon electricity substitution, the SF-EAF route exhibited the greatest CE reduction effect of 41% (from 870 to 510 kg/t). While deploying 100% biomass fuels to replace coal, the CE of the BF-BOF route reduced by 80%. Finally, after introducing biomass fuels and zero-carbon electricity, the CE of the SF-IF-BOF route was minimized to a significantly low 13 kg/t (from 768), nearing zero CE. This research is expected to provide a novel solution for further CE reduction in the future of ISI, contributing to environmental sustainability and carbon reduction goals. • Suggestions for solutions to reduce CO2 emissions in the steel industry are provided. • Emissions of the SF-IF-BOF and SF-ESF-BOF compared to the BF-BOF and DRI-EAF routes. • DRI is considered to be generated using COG zero reforming process. • Using zero-C electricity and biomass can reduce CO2 emissions for the steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The steel industry in China, the world's largest, contributes to about 15% of the nation's total carbon emissions. Instead of direct combustion, the technology of converting off-gas from the steel industry into liquid fuels not only enhances the added value of this byproduct but also helps alleviate carbon emissions. This study, for the first time, integrates the specific circumstances of China to evaluate the carbon emissions of Ethanol to Jet (ETJ) and Fischer–Tropsch to Jet (FTJ) fuel technologies utilizing Basic Oxygen Furnace Gas (BOFG) and Coke Oven Gas (COG) as feedstocks. Six cases were examined using Aspen Plus (V11) for mass and energy balance: Case 1: BOFG/ETJ, Case 2: BOFG/FTJ, Case 3: COG/ETJ, Case 4: COG/FTJ, Case 5: (COG + BOFG)/ETJ, and Case 6: (COG + BOFG)/FTJ. The analysis underscores that the FTJ pathway exhibits superior carbon reduction efficiency relative to ETJ. Compared to traditional petroleum-based aviation fuels (86.65 g CO2eq/MJ), the FTJ pathways utilizing COG or COG + BOFG as feedstocks exhibit significant advantages in greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reductions, with carbon emissions of 23.60 g CO2eq/MJ and 41.48 g CO2eq/MJ, respectively, representing reductions of 72.76% and 52.13%. Furthermore, employing uncertainty analysis based on the Monte Carlo method establishes the credibility of the findings. Finally, sensitivity analysis for parameter optimization and process improvements demonstrates the significant impact of the life cycle assessment (LCA) allocation method on computational results for exhaust gas feedstocks. Given the limited coverage of lifecycle assessments for Ethanol to Jet and Fischer–Tropsch to Jet pathways in China, this study could assist policymakers in determining the development trajectory of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The huge energy consumption and high pollutants emission have restrained the sustainable development of China's iron and steel industry. It is very necessary to explore those underlying obstacles which hinder the sustainable development of this industry from a systematic point. This paper adopted an improved emergy based method and a set of indicator system to evaluate the sustainability of steel production enterprises, in which dilution method, disability adjusted life years (DALY) method and potentially disappeared fraction (PDF) method were integrated into classic emergy analysis to quantify the impact of emissions, and then the related indicator system characterizing the industrial production process was put forward. One steel production enterprise in Sichuan Province, China, as a case, was studied using the proposed methods and indicator system. The research results show that this enterprise is not sustainable in the long term, due to large share of nonrenewable inputs and strong dependence on imported inputs; emissions' impact further aggravates this situation due to the increasing environmental loading; the proposed methods and indicator system can act as one of helpful tools for decision-making in steel & iron industry. Finally, this paper gives some corresponding suggestions so as to improve the comprehensive performance of this enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China produced 49.2% of the world's total steel production in 2017. From 1990 to 2017, the world's total steel production increased by 850 Mt, of which 87% came from China. After 30 years of rapid expansion, China's steel industry is not expected to increase its production in the medium and long term. In fact, the industry is currently in the stage of industrial restructuring, and great changes will arise in production structure and technical level to solve pressing issues, such as overcapacity, high energy intensity (EI), and carbon emission. These changes will directly affect the global energy consumption and carbon emissions. Thus, a review of China's steel industry is necessary to introduce its current situation and development plan. Therefore, this paper presents an overview of the Chinese steel industry, and factors involved include steel production, production structure, energy consumption, technical level, EI, carbon emission, scrap consumption, etc. In addition, four determinants are analyzed to explain the EI gap between China and the world's advanced level. In addition, comparison of steel industries between China and the world, development plans for energy savings, and emission reduction are also included in this paper to give readers a clear understanding of China's steel industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Towards the target of carbon neutrality, the need for deep decarbonization in iron and steel industry is increasingly recognized. Existing studies rarely mention the effects of collaboration with its source industries for carbon emission reduction in ISI. Furthermore, the fundamental laws of CO 2 emission reduction capacity with cost change of source substitutions for various steel production routes under market economics are unclear. To avoid the blind substitution of clean sources for meeting the urgent requirements for decarbonization in China's steel industry, which may result in increased carbon emissions and uneconomical carbon reduction from a lifecycle perspective. This paper integrates the production and utilization processes of source resources into the steel production process, establishes coupling models of carbon and value flows for four main types of steel production routes, and aims to quantitatively analyze the specific CO 2 emission reduction potential and costs. Three economic market development scenarios from 2021 to 2060 are set, and the marginal carbon prices of various source substitutions are determined. Subsequently, decarbonization pathways with the goal of minimizing production costs are developed. Finally. The future resource demand and the carbon emission reduction contributions of source industries collaborated are predicted. The results show that (1) about 81.7–89.9 % of CO 2 emissions could be reduced in the scenarios; (2) the demands of electric power and hydrogen energy will reach 54.48–511.90 BkWh and 7.47–10.31 Gt in 2060, respectively; and (3) collaboration with source industries could make 18.3–18.3% of CO 2 emission reduction contributions. All in all, this study could provide scientific support for the low-carbon transformation of China's steel industry. • Carbon and value flows of BF-BOF, Scrap-EAF, DRI-EAF, MOE-EAF routes are analyzed. • CO 2 emission reduction potential with marginal carbon price is determined. • Decarbonization paths during 2021–2060 for China's steel industry are developed. • Quantify the contribution of collaborative carbon reduction with source industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Promoting low-carbon development in the iron and steel industry (ISI) is essential for China to achieve the carbon neutrality targets. This paper separately adopts the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index (LMDI) technique and the Mean Impact Value (MIV) method to analyze the impact of driving factors on the CO 2 emissions of ISI in the historical and future dimensions. Furthermore, this paper establishes the extreme learning machine model optimized by the bat algorithm (BA-BP) to explore the carbon emission reduction pathways of ISI in the business-as-usual (BAU) scenario, the low-speed, medium-speed and high-speed development scenarios considering the constraints of carbon neutrality targets. The results reveal that: (1) Production capacity and energy efficiency are important drivers of CO 2 emissions in ISI; (2) The emission reduction situation is not optimistic under the BAU scenario, and it is difficult to accomplish the carbon neutrality goals by 2060; (3) Under the most ideal emission reduction pathway (corresponding to the high-speed development scenario), ISI will reach its peak in 2022 with the peak value of 2143.42 MtCO 2. Compared to the peak year, the CO 2 emissions will be reduced by 654.69 MtCO 2 and 1558.61 MtCO 2 in 2030 and 2050, respectively. Moreover, the achievement of short-term and long-term emission reduction targets depends on production capacity decline and technological progress, respectively. The optimal emission reduction pathway provides a reference for ISI to formulate periodic emission reduction targets. • The improved extreme learning machine is employed to predict the carbon emissions. • The emission reduction pathways are explored under the carbon neutrality target. • Controlling production capacity is a crucial reduction strategy. • The energy rebound effect is supposed to be weakened. • The application of advanced technologies will greatly promote emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The iron and steel industry is the leading industry supporting China's industrial sector. Currently, there is less assessment work on green and low-carbon technologies for the iron and steel industry. This study clarifies the overall strategy of technology assessment by researching the relevant theories and methods of technology assessment. The study further establishes a scientific and reasonable comprehensive assessment index system of green and low-carbon technologies for the iron and steel industry from the aspects of technology index, economy and promotion, and application, including factors such as 11 indexes, the amount of energy saving, carbon dioxide emission reduction, and the resource recovery rate by utilising analytical and comprehensive methods and combining with the characteristics of the technologies. By analysing and comparing the advantages and disadvantages of the commonly used assessment methods, the entropy weighting method, grey correlation analysis method, and TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution) method are combined and optimised to construct a comprehensive assessment model. The Latin hypercube sampling method is also introduced to analyse the technical parameters in combination with the evaluation model. Finally, fourteen iron and steel green and low-carbon technologies were selected for case assessment and uncertainty analysis of technical parameters, and it was found that the comprehensive assessment result of gas combined cycle power generation technology was optimal. After determining the weights of each assessment indicator through the entropy weighting method, it is concluded that the technical performance indicator > economic indicator > promotional indicator. A comparative analysis of the results under the three preference decisions concludes that technical performance is the main obstacle to improving the comprehensive assessment score of the technology, followed by the economics of the technology. Finally, the uncertainty analysis of the technical parameters shows that the fluctuation of the technical parameters not only affects the performance of the technology, but also affects the weights of the indicators and the comprehensive evaluation results of the technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Probing the determinants of energy conservation and decoupling energy use from economic growth in the iron and steel (IS) industry are at the forefront of China's environmental concerns. This study first constructed an extended logarithmic mean divisia index model to estimate determinants of the IS industrial energy consumption. The Tapio approach and decomposed decoupling analysis is further utilized to analyze the decoupling relationship between the industry's total energy use and its value creation as well as the decoupling states of the determinants. Finally, grey Verhulst technique is employed to predict the future trend of decoupling state. Empirical results based on statistical data of the IS industry during 2006–2017 demonstrate that: (1) Regulatory effect and scale effect contribute to energy conservation. Growth effect significantly increases energy consumption while technological effect and structural effect exert unstable impacts on energy use. (2) Weak decoupling states between energy use and value creation are mainly observed during the research period. Structural, technological, regulatory, and scale effects are mainly weak decoupling, while the growth effect is mainly expansionary negative decoupling. (3) A weak decoupling state between the two variables is predicted up to 2030 with the help of grey theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green and low-carbon transformation of the iron and steel industry stands as a pivotal cornerstone in the development of China. It is an inevitable trajectory guiding the future of industry. This study examined the energy consumption and carbon emission trends in the iron and steel industry. Variations under different scenarios were analyzed while emphasizing production control, changes in production structure and energy efficiency improvement. The analysis integrated the extreme energy efficiency model. This study proposed methods to enhance energy efficiency in the iron and steel industry. The costs of energy efficiency improvement and production structure changes were assessed using marginal energy saving and abatement cost curves. The findings showed that the carbon emission reduction contribution of crude steel production decline is the highest, while energy efficiency improvement technology offers the smallest, whose contribution, however, is substantial and cannot be overlooked by 2030. Energy efficiency improvement in the Chinese iron and steel industry results in an average unit energy saving and abatement cost of 27.0 yuan. It results in a total abatement cost of 21.02 billion yuan and a potential abatement of 780 Mt. Considering abatement potential, altering production structure offers significantly higher cumulative abatement compared to energy efficiency improvement technology. This is because the per unit abatement cost of production structure change is 702.7 yuan. However, this high cost poses a challenge to widespread adoption. The integration of the iron and steel industry into the carbon trading system necessitates reinforcing market constraints and expediting process adjustments. These steps are crucial to achieving the green and low-carbon transformation of the industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimated the cost curve of energy saving and CO 2 emissions reduction in China's iron and steel sector. Forty-one energy saving technologies which are widely used or popularized are selected, their investments, operation costs, energy savings and CO 2 abatement are collected and the data in 2010 are taken as a baseline. Then energy conservation supply curve and CO 2 conservation supply curve under two different discount rates are calculated in the paper. These 41 technologies result in a saving contribution of 4.63 GJ/t and a CO 2 abatement contribution of 443.21 kg/t. Cost-effectiveness of technologies was analyzed based on the fuel price and an estimated CO 2 price. When comparing the result with the promoted technologies during the 12 th five-year-plan, we found that some promoted technologies are not cost-effective in current situation. Three scenarios are set through changing the diffusion rate of technologies and the share of BOF and EAF, based on this energy saving potentials of technologies in 2020 and 2030 are forecasted. At the same time, we compared the change of the CSC depending on the year and the energy saving potentials in three scenarios of 2020 and 2030, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Burnt dolomite powder is the by-product in preparing raw material in steel plants. It is treated as a solid waste in the steel industry case by its small particle size. This paper discusses the potential for utilizing burnt dolomite powder by briquetting with different binders include syrup, lime and ethoxyline resin. Burnt dolomite lumps of size 30mm could be used in slag splashing process. Moreover, compressive strength, curing time and effective MgO content in burnt dolomite lumps were considered in experiment. Experiments results found that the burnt dolomite lumps with 0.9% resin binder have the best compressive strength, 20.86Mpa. Additionally, the dolomite lumps with syrup or lime binder have an excellent chemical composition of high content of active MgO and low free water content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Due to increasing energy scarcity and pressures from climate change, Chinese iron & steel (IS) companies have struggled to implement practices to reduce their energy consumption and CO2 emissions. However, it is not clear whether these practices can improve the environmental or economic performance of these companies. The determinants that drive or hinder the implementation of these practices are also not known. Therefore, this paper describes an empirical analysis of a total of 85 questionnaires of various IS companies across China. A regression analysis was applied in this paper to verify the relationship among CO2 reduction practices, determinants and performance as reported by the IS companies. The results show that although some CO2 reduction practices can result in significant environmental performance, their impacts on the improvement of economic performance are less clear. The paper discusses some implications regarding strategies for prompting CO2 reduction practices that have been considered during the discussion about the determinants that impact on the practices. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

At one level, this paper centres on the closure of a steel plant in Germany, the closure and then reprieve of another in the UK and the expansion of a third in China, but at another level this changing geography of steel production can be seen as symptomatic of and symbolizing profound changes in the global manufacturing economy. The closures at Dortmund (permanently) and Redcar/south Teesside (temporarily) both reflected the growing international – not to say global – restructuring of the steel industry and the strategies that steel-producing companies adopted in the face of profound changes in markets and patterns of production and trade. To that extent, at first sight this might appear to be a familiar and not unexpected outcome of those processes. However, the outcomes both at local level and for the steel plants themselves turned out to be very different because they reflected the complexity of global processes and the interacting effects of many influences operating at different spatial scales within the complex social relations of capital. Not least this was because the closure in Dortmund and the ending of steel-making there were directly implicated in a major expansion of steel production in China, by Shagang in Jiangsu Province, via the transfer of a major steel complex, disassembled in Dortmund and reassembled in Jinfeng. The disassembly of a major production complex, its transport to the other side of the world and its reassembly there as functional fixed capital added a dramatic and radical new twist to the meaning of global shift. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The carbonisation of energy structures is a principal reason for the high carbon levels of carbon dioxide (CO 2) emissions in the steel industry. The implementation of an energy substitution policy in the Chinese steel industry has important practical significance for this industry in terms of reducing CO 2 emissions. Based on this, this paper divides 20 types of energy-saving and emission-reduction (ESER) technologies into 4 categories: coal-saving technology, electricity-saving technology, comprehensive energy-saving technology, and linkage technology according to the energy-saving effect of different technology on energy varieties. Considering the energy substitution constraints on energy structures within the steel industry, we construct a bottom-up optimisation model based on a scenario analysis to analyse the emission reductions under 3 different scenarios: the baseline scenario (BAU), policy scenario (PS), and strengthened policy scenario (SPS). Results show that the emission reduction of coal-saving technology and comprehensive energy-saving technology in 2030 is 102 million tons CO 2 (MtCO 2) and 129 MtCO 2 , respectively, in the PS, and 116 MtCO 2 and 130 MtCO 2 , respectively, in the SPS. Compared with these types of technology, electricity-saving technology is maintained at the level of the BAU. Linkage technology is developed in the latter period of the SPS. The emission reduction of linkage technology in the SPS in 2030 will be 4.1 MtCO 2. During the period of 2015–2020, priority should be given to the development of thin slab continuous casting technology in comprehensive energy-saving technology and the development of blast furnace thick phase high efficiency coal injection technology in coal-saving technology. During the period 2020–2030, priority should be given to the development of thick layer sintering technology, hot delivery & hot charging technology of continuous casting slab, online treatment technology in comprehensive energy-saving technology and low temperature rolling technology, converter 'negative energy steelmaking' technology, and double preheating technology for hot stove of blast furnace in coal-saving technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The byproduct gas in steel industry is one of the most significant energy resources of an enterprise. Due to the large quantity of yield, fluctuation, and various categories of users encountered in a blast furnace gas (BFG) system, it is very difficult to accurately predict the amount of gas to be generated and forecast the users' consumption demand. In this paper, a two-stage online prediction method based on an improved echo state network (ESN) is proposed to realize forecasting in the BFG system. In this method, one completes the prediction realized at the levels of BFG generation and consumption using a class of ESN with input compensation and parameter optimization. At the second stage, to predict gas holder level of the BFG system, the energy flows being predicted at the first stage are denoised, and their correlation with the holder level are determined by using a concept of grey correlation with time delay. Then the effect factors exhibiting high correlation levels are extracted to construct the model of the gas holder. The prediction system designed in this manner is applied in the Energy Center of Baosteel Co., Ltd, China. The results demonstrate that the prediction system exhibits high accuracy and can provide an effective guidance for balancing and scheduling of the byproduct energy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This paper describes a study on identifying key successful factors in knowledge transfer resulting from business mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in those (so-called) traditional industries (e.g., textile and steel & iron) with the data collected in the steel and iron industry in Southwestern China. Specifically, this research investigates the relationship between prior-gained knowledge of merging companies, preparation and implementation processes, and actual performance after knowledge transfer. The result reveals that such prior-gained knowledge of merging companies will have a significant positive impact on the motivation for proposed M&A, while it, in contrast, may only have a limited impact on other factors such as the levels of transferred knowledge, its investments, implementation process, and the final performance. In fact, the prior-gained knowledge about the transferred knowledge among involved firms in the M&A is often mutually complementary. This research suggests that intensive motivation for M&A will have a positive impact on the desire levels of knowledge transfer, which will in turn have a positive impact on the success of knowledge transfer implementation process, and a successful implementation process then certainly will make a positive contribution to the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. Managerial implications and suggestions for future research are also discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]