Sulfur dioxide emissions per ton of steel were 0.19 kg/t, smoke and dust – 0.15 kg/t, nitrogen oxide – 0.30 kg/t
Total emissions from China's steel industry in January 2024 increased by 12.4% compared to the same month in 2023. This was reported by the China Steel Association (CISA).
Emissions of sulfur dioxide per ton of steel totaled 0.19 kg/t (-7.1% per year), smoke and dust – 0.15 kg/t (-12.24% per year), nitrogen oxide – 0.30 kg/t (-7.81% per year). Emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter decreased by 3.25% and 10.02%, respectively.
The total volume of water used by steel companies in January increased by 5.9% per year – to 7.85 billion cubic meters. In particular, new water consumption decreased by 1.8% year-on-year, while reuse increased by 6% year-on-year. The water reuse rate was 98.4%, an increase of 0.13 percentage points compared to the previous year.
Chinese steel mills produced 7.2 million tons of steel slag in January, an increase of 5% from the previous year. Blast furnace slag production increased by 5.9% year on year – to 19.42 million tonnes. The utilization rate of steel slag was 98.63% (+0.61 percentage points per year) and that of blast furnace slag was 96.99% (+0.44 percentage points per year).
Blast furnace gas production totaled 79.76 billion cubic meters, an increase of 3.9% per year, BOF gas production totaled 6.65 billion cubic meters (+3.4% per year), and coke oven gas production totaled 4.67 billion cubic meters. The blast furnace gas utilization rate was 98.9%, an increase of 0.38 percentage points compared to January 2023, the BOF gas utilization rate was 98.02% (+0.09 percentage points percentage per year) and the coke oven gas utilization rate was 98.73% (+0.27 percentage points). per year).
As Compraço previously reported, China increased steel production by 0.6% in 2023 compared to 2022 – to 1.019 billion tons. Thus, the downward trend in the country's steel industry stopped after two consecutive years of falling production.
Last year, Chinese authorities did not introduce restrictions on steel production in line with ambitions to reduce CO 2 emissions, which helped increase smelting volume and revenue for local steel mills. At the same time, in 2021-2022, the downward trend of the industry was supported by adequate restrictions. Thus, for 2023, emissions increased by 7.8% per year.
