Posted on 04 Jul 2024
The local government of Tangshan, China's largest steel production hub in North China's Hebei province, has released an implementation plan setting out the city's path to achieving peak carbon emissions and to guide local industries to address the challenges that lie ahead, according to a post on the government's website.
The plan announced on June 27 proposes that efforts be made to help enterprises in Tangshan's largest pillar industry – iron and steel production – to achieve carbon peak by 2026. Progress towards meeting this objective in the steel industry will reflect the whole city's 'green development' status, the plan emphasizes.
To achieve this goal, the plan encourages Tangshan steel industry members to promote mergers and acquisitions among enterprises, optimize industrial layout, strictly control production capacity, expand electric-arc-furnace (EAF) production, improve ferrous scrap recycling systems, enhance steel product quality, reduce energy consumption, and improve mineral resource development.
Among the specific targets contained in the plan is one stating that by 2025, steel output via the EAF-route will reach around 5% of the city's total steel production, and that coal consumption will be lower by 10% from the level in 2020.
Also by 2025, energy consumption efficiency among steelmakers and coking companies in the city must reach above benchmark levels, and that production capacity whose energy consumption efficiency is above the exemplary level should account for more than 30% of the total steelmaking and coking capacity, according to the plan.
Energy consumption efficiency standards (Unit: kg standard coal consumption / tonne of product; 1 kg standard coal = 7,000 kilocalorie)
Industry | Benchmark | Exemplary level | ||
Iron & steelmaking | BF | 361 | 435 | |
EAF | Volume 30-50t | 67 | 86 | |
Volume above 50t | 62 | 72 | ||
Coking | Top-charging coke oven | 110 | 135 | |
Stamp-charging coke oven | 110 | 140 | ||
Besides the steel industry, the plan also stresses the need to promote low-carbon transformation in other sectors, such as petrochemicals, building materials, transportation, and urban and rural construction.
Moreover, it emphasizes that enhancing the utilization of recycled resources is key to reducing carbon emissions. The city proposes that by 2025, Tangshan's recycling volume of major renewable resources must be higher by more than 10% compared to 2020, and that by 2030, the average steel scrap ratio in the city's overall steelmaking raw materials mix must exceed 20%.
On this basis, to achieve its peak carbon emissions goal, the Tangshan municipal government plans to launch 100 major projects with an estimated total investment of Yuan 89 billion ($12.2 billion), involving decarbonization technological upgrades for equipment, development of renewable energy, promotion of circular economy, and construction of environmental infrastructure, the plan disclosed.
The progress that Tangshan makes towards carbon peak and carbon neutrality is being closely watched from Beijing as the coastal industrial city of over 8 million is one of the carbon peak 'pilot 'cities designated by the country's central government last year, Mysteel Global notes.
Last November, China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) announced that it was launching carbon-peak pilot projects in 100 domestic cities and zones, aiming to explore the paths towards peak carbon generation for areas with different resource endowments and development foundations.
The NDRC has initially assigned 35 cities and zones across 15 provincial regions including Tangshan as the first batch of areas to start the project implementation, as Mysteel Global reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
