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INDUSTRIAL PROFILE <HEADLINE> Iron and steel industry to have new operational norms <BYLINE> Liu Ping <TEXT> China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued recently The Norms for Production and Operation of Iron and Steel Industry, laying down specific standards for production scale, equipment and environmental protection of iron and steel enterprises. Under the norms, steel enterprises meeting the productions scale requirements should have produced crude steel of 1 million metric tons (tonnes) and above in 2009, and specialty steel companies should have a special steel output of 300,000 tonnes and above in 2009, with alloy steel accounting for over 60% (not including specialized companies with 100% alloy steel for production high speed steel and tool steel.) Comparing with the norms issued previously for soliciting public opinions and proposal, the final version of the norms has eased the access standards on specialty steel companies from the former above 500,000 tonnes to above 300,000 tonnes. However, production scale is the not only requirement for iron and steel companies fixed by the Chinese government. There are other requirements. Blast furnaces should have effective capacity of over 400 cubic meters; converters shall have nominal capacity of above 30 tonnes; electric furnaces, nominal capacity of over 30 tonnes; sinter machine shall have an area of above 90 square meters; coke oven carbonized chamber shall have height of above 4.3 meters. Blast furnace shall be equipped with coal powder injection and power generating units with pressure recovery, coke oven, blast furnace and converter shall have coal gas recovery unit, companies with the condition shall have the coke oven equipped with coal moisture control and coke dry units, sinter machine shall have gas and heat recovery and desulfurization units, and steel rolling shall adopt heat-storage heating oven. Under the environmental protection provision of the norms, production of 1 tonne of steel should emit no more than 2 cubic meters of wastewater, no more than 1 kg of soot and dust, and no more than 1.8 kg sulfur dioxide. One thing merits attention. Before China published the Iron and Steel Industry Adjustment and Boosting Plan, China plans to eliminate production capacity blast furnace of equal to or less than 300 cubic meters by 2010, and those of equal to or less than 400 cubic meters by 2011. But according to the newly published norms, the elimination of 400-cubic-meter blast furnace will be fulfilled one year ahead of the schedule. The publication of the norms is at the time when China's iron and steel industry is facing overcapacity and bleak market demand. According to statistics released by the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), China's social stocks of five steel products in the 26 major steel markets accumulated at 15.78 million tons in the end of May, which was 2.869 million tons in the end of June of 2008, and 8.96 million tons in June of 2009. In fact, since beginning of this year, Chinese authorities including the State Council, or the cabinet, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), have again and again put on alerts on the overcapacity in the iron and steel industry. But the situation has not changed. Minister of MIIT Li Yizhong said at a recent national meeting on iron and steel industry, the iron and steel production capacity has released too fast this year. China's steel output reached 269 million tons in the first five months, up 23.8% year on year. Since June, the daily steel production slowed down, but the total steel output for the whole year of 2010 is predicted to increase about 10% to hit a new high to 620-630 million tons on the basis of the record 568 million tons output last year. The fast release of production capacity has exceeded the growth of demand and added pressure on domestic market. At present, some steelmakers have already run in the red amidst the high prices of raw materials but low prices of steel products. What is more important that the fixed asset investment in the iron and steel industry is still growing while facing the overcapacity. MIIT statistics show that the fixed asset investment hit RMB135.6 billion in the first five months, up 13.8% year on year. At the same time, a group of expansion projects is still speeding up construction, surely to further expand production capacity of the steel industry, and make the work of energy efficiency and emission reduction and structure adjustment more difficult. Li said China would take big efforts to curb the fast growth of steel production capacity including the legal and administrative means. Except the projects approved by the state for starting preliminary work, the country would not approve and put on record any iron and steel production expansion projects by the end of 2011. It will also carry out check-ups of illegally-launched projects under and completed construction, and firmly ban launching of iron and steel projects in any forms. However, the norms do not give specific departments who are in charge of supervising and dealing with companies which have not met the requirements on production scale. Earlier, the government's requirements mainly focus on sizes of blast furnace and converter, and fixing access threshold for overall scale of enterprises, the first of such in China. But the restriction of the norms mainly covers the interest of local small firms, so the implementation of the new policy depends much on the attitude of various local governments, which bear the pressure of maintaining the GDP growth and employment. |
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<欄目> 行業分析 <標題> 鋼鐵行業面臨新的生產經營 標準 <記者> 劉平 <正文> 中國工業和信息化部近日正式發佈了《鋼鐵行業生產經營規範條件》，提出了鋼鐵企業生產規模、設備、環保等方面的明確標準。符合生產經營規範條件的企業生產 規模要達到2009年普鋼企業粗鋼產量100萬噸及以上，特鋼企業30萬噸及以上，且合金鋼比大於60%（不含合金鋼比100%的高速鋼、工模具鋼等專業 化企業）。 與此前公佈的徵求意見稿相比，此次正式公佈的《條件》，將特鋼企業的准入範圍有所放寬，從50萬噸以上放寬為30萬噸以上。 產能規模並非中國政府對鋼鐵企業制定的唯一規範要求。如在工藝裝備上，高爐有效容積400立方米以上，轉爐公稱容量30噸以上，電爐公稱容量30噸以上， 燒結機使用面積90平方米以上，焦爐炭化室高度4.3米以上。高爐須配套煤粉噴吹和餘壓發電裝置，焦爐、高爐、轉爐須配套煤氣回收裝置。有條件的企業焦爐 須採用煤調濕並配套幹熄焦裝置，燒結機須配套煙氣餘熱回收及脫硫裝置，軋鋼採用蓄熱式加熱爐。在環境保護方面，鋼鐵企業噸鋼污水排放量不超過2立方米，噸 鋼煙粉塵排放量不超過1千克，噸鋼二氧化硫排放量不超過1.8千克。 值得注意的是，在此前公佈的《鋼鐵產業調整和振興規劃》，中國的計劃是在2010年底前淘汰300立方米及以下高爐產能，2011年底前再淘汰400立方 米及以下高爐，而新的《條件》公佈意味著，400立方米高爐這個門檻提前1年施行了。 《條件》的出台，正值中國鋼鐵業產能過剩、市場需求低迷時期。中國鋼鐵工業協會公佈的數據顯示，5月末，中國26個主要鋼材市場五種鋼材社會庫存量合計為 1,578萬噸，而2008年6月底時的庫存量為286.9萬噸，2009年6月的庫存量為896萬噸。 事實上，今年以來，從國務院到發改委再到工信部，已經不斷高調警告鋼鐵行業產能過剩，但現實情況依然沒有改觀。工信部部長李毅中近日在全國鋼鐵工業座談會 上指出，今年以來，鋼鐵產能釋放過快。前5個月產鋼2.69億噸，同比增長23.8%。6月份以來，雖然日均單產有所下降，但預計全年鋼產量會在去年創紀 錄的5.68億噸基礎上又增加10%左右，達6.2-6.3億噸，再創歷史新高。過快的產能釋放，超過了需求的增長，加大了國內市場壓力，目前，面對高價 原料、低價鋼材，部分鋼鐵企業已出現虧損。 而更值得關注的是，在產能過剩的同時，鋼鐵固定資產投資還在增長。工信部數據顯示，前5月鋼鐵固定資產投資高達1,356億元人民幣，同比增長 13.8%。仍有一批擴能項目在加緊建設，這將造成鋼鐵產能繼續擴大，加大了節能減排和結構調整的難度。 李毅中表示，要下大力氣抑制鋼鐵產能的過快增長，通過嚴格的法律和行政手段抑制新增產能，除國家已批准開展前期工作的項目外，2011年底前不再核准、備 案任何擴大產能的鋼鐵項目。同時，要對在建和已建成的違法違規項目進行清理查處，堅決制止以任何名義擅自建設鋼鐵項目。 不過，此次公佈的《鋼鐵行業生產經營規範條件》並沒有明確指出，不符合產量規模要求的企業，將由誰來監督處理。此前，政府方面對淘汰落後鋼鐵產能的標準主 要集中在高爐、轉爐的規模方面，對企業總體規模的限定還是第一次，但由於此次對產能規模的限定主要會涉及到各地一些小企業的利益，所以准入條件是否能落實 還要看各地方政府的態度，畢竟地方政府承擔著保證GDP和就業等的壓力。 |