How can this "cheap" metal support the industrial backbone of our motherland?

1. The metal with the largest production and usage

Iron is widely distributed in our daily lives. The abundance of iron in the earth's crust is 4.75%, ranking fourth after oxygen, silicon and aluminum. According to the World Steel Statistics 2023 released by the World Steel Association, the global crude steel production in 2022 was 1.885 billion tons. Figure 1 shows the relative production of the top 9 metals [1]. If the production of crude steel is 100, then the sum of the 2nd to 9th place is only 10.86. Only about 10% of crude steel. Ah, steel, the domineering quantity!

Figure 1 Relative production of the top nine metals

According to the World Steel Statistics 2023 released by the World Steel Association, in 2022, China's crude steel output will reach 1.018 billion tons, ranking first in the world, accounting for 54.0% of the world's total crude steel output; India and Japan ranked second and third in the world, with crude steel outputs of 125 million tons and 89 million tons respectively; the United States and Russia's crude steel outputs were 81 million tons and 72 million tons, ranking fourth and fifth respectively. South Korea, Germany, Turkey, Brazil, and Iran ranked 6th to 10th, with crude steel outputs of 66 million tons, 37 million tons, 35 million tons, 34 million tons, and 31 million tons respectively.

Despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's steel production still increased in 2022. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics[2], the annual output reached 1.34 billion tons, which is more than the total output of other continents.

China has seven of the world's top ten steel groups. A few years ago, there was a saying that China's steel production ranked first in the world (excluding Hebei Province). Hebei Province ranked second (excluding Tangshan), and Tangshan ranked third. Now, my country has many large steel groups. According to the "World Steel Statistics 2023" released by the World Steel Association, China's Baowu Steel Group ranks first in the world in the top ten steel groups published globally. Baowu Group was reorganized by Baosteel Group and Wuhan Iron and Steel Group. It is currently the only steel group in the world with an output of more than 100 million tons (Figure 2).

Figure 2 Baowu Group

In addition to Baowu Group ranked first, my country's Anshan Iron and Steel Group ranked third, Shagang Group ranked fifth, and Hesteel Group ranked sixth, followed by Jianlong Group, Shougang Group, and Shandong Iron and Steel Group.

2. Widespread use of steel

Iron has many applications [3], including pharmaceuticals, pesticides, thermal hydrogen generators, gel propellants, combustion activators, catalysts, water cleaning adsorbents, sintering activators, powder metallurgy products, various mechanical parts products, and hard alloy material products. Pure iron is used to make the cores of generators and motors, reduced iron powder is used in powder metallurgy, and steel is used to make machines and tools. In addition, iron and its compounds are also used to make magnets, medicines, inks, pigments, abrasives, reducing agents, preparation of iron salts, preparation of electronic components, nutritional supplements (iron enhancers), and in adhesives as fillers for epoxy adhesives and in the preparation of casting repair adhesives.

Steel has a wide range of uses. Steel materials are widely used in various fields such as construction, machinery, shipbuilding, communications, agriculture, automobiles, transportation, railways, military industry, coal, mining, petroleum, and chemicals, and are indispensable (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Demand share of rigid winding in downstream industries (2019)

Steel is widely used in various engineering fields, among which construction is the largest steel consumption industry. China's annual steel consumption in the construction field is equivalent to the total steel production of Japan and the United States. In the next few years, my country's construction will still be in its heyday, and it can be foreseen that a large amount of steel will be produced and used in the construction industry. It is no exaggeration to say that the development and progress of steel has directly promoted the development of modern architecture. The continuous improvement of modern architecture's demand for materials has also promoted the development of steel.

Located on the central axis of Beijing, the National Stadium, the main venue of the Beijing Olympic Games, is like a "bird's nest" woven with branches, gently pressing the profound historical and cultural pulse of the ancient capital of Beijing. 2008-08-08 The torch of the 29th Olympic Games was lit here under the watchful eyes of the whole world and amid the cheers of 91,000 spectators, and the Beijing Olympic Games was grandly opened here (Figure 4).

Figure 4 Bird's Nest

As the world's largest steel structure project to date, the "Bird's Nest" uses 42,000 tons of steel for its external steel structure. The entire project, including steel in concrete and rebar, uses a total of 110,000 tons of steel. Moreover, it is worth being proud of that all the steel used is domestically produced. The steel used in the "Bird's Nest" was developed by our country's scientific researchers after many technical "breakthroughs". It is not only unprecedented in thickness and scope of use, but also has good earthquake resistance, low temperature resistance, weldability and other characteristics. China's independently innovated steel supports the steel structure of the "Bird's Nest", and also makes the design service life of the main structure of the "Bird's Nest" reach 100 years, with a fire resistance level of one and an earthquake fortification intensity of 8 degrees.

The terminal building of Beijing Daxing International Airport is the world's largest single terminal building project (Figure 5). The main structure is a cast-in-place reinforced concrete frame structure, with partly a steel-concrete structure. The roof and its support are steel structures, with a total steel structure of about 130,000 tons. The steel structure of the main terminal roof adopts a spatial grid structure system, with a steel grid area of ​​1.8×105 m2, a maximum span of 180 m, a height difference of about 30 m, and a mass of more than 50,000 tons, exceeding the Bird's Nest. The total length of the steel pipe is nearly 500 km, which can circle the Fifth Ring Road of Beijing five times. During the construction period of the concrete structure, the amount of steel bars tied in 10 months is almost enough to build two Liaoning ships.

Figure 5 Beijing Daxing International Airport

In 2019, the construction industry's demand for steel was 486 million tons, supporting half of the downstream steel demand industry.

The machinery industry is the second largest industry in terms of steel demand after construction, and its development level has a significant impact on steel consumption.

The automobile industry is an industry that consumes a large amount of steel in the manufacturing industry. The steel consumption of my country's automobile industry is closely related to automobile production. As the third largest source of steel demand, automobiles mainly affect the demand for cold-rolled coils, medium and thick plates and other steel plates and high-quality steels such as bearing steel and spring steel. The automobile manufacturing industry has a great impact on the demand for steel (Figure 6). In 2020, China's automobile production was 25.225 million units and sales were 25.311 million units. In the first half of 2021, China's automobile production was 12.569 million units and sales were 12.891 million units. Automobile steel mainly includes automobile beam steel, wheel steel, automobile lining plate, automobile (sedan) panel, etc., as well as special steels such as gear steel for transmission parts. According to statistics, steel accounts for about 72% to 88% of the raw materials used to produce one car. In 2020, China's automobile industry consumed 52.5 million tons of steel.

Figure 6 Steel consumption per vehicle

3. The cheapest metal

Iron (steel) is not only the metal with the highest output and the largest usage, but also the cheapest. As shown in Figure 7, the price of steel is only about 1/12 of copper, about 1/80 of cobalt, about 1/200 of lithium, about 1/1000 of silver, about 1/2000 of germanium, about 1/14000 of ruthenium, about 1/70000 of gold, and about 1/160000 of rhodium.

Figure 7 Metal price comparison

4. The current situation of my country's steel industry

The development of my country's steel industry has gradually grown from almost zero to the world's No. 1 in output. In 1949, my country's steel output was very small, only 160,000 tons a year. However, with the continuous development of my country's steel technology, my country's steel output jumped to the first place in the world in 1996. However, there are still the following problems.

1) Technical difficulties

The output of crude steel is indeed very high, but the uses of steel production are diverse, and special steel is needed in many aspects, such as high-speed rail, aerospace, military weapons, etc. The world's largest producer of high-precision special steel is Japan, which accounts for 20% of the total special steel output, while my country's output accounts for only single digits. If my country cannot overcome the technical difficulties in the production of special steel, we will have to face the situation of importing steel from abroad for a long time. Doing so will not only easily damage the interests of my country's steel groups, but also easily be controlled by others.

2) Iron Ore

my country is a vast country with abundant resources, but these abundant resources do not include iron ore needed for steel production, especially high-quality iron ore. China has abundant iron ore resources but they are not rich. The quality of iron ore is not high. It is mainly medium and low-grade ores. The reserves of rich ore resources account for only 1.8%, while the reserves of poor ore account for 47.6%. There are many small and medium-sized mines, few large mines, and even fewer super-large mines. The ore types are complex, and difficult-to-select ores and multi-component co-existing ores account for a large proportion. On average, only 1/3 of the iron can be extracted from the entire ore, which increases the difficulty of mining and production costs. In addition, the distribution of iron ore in my country is still very uneven, and it is scattered and scattered. There are very few mines that can be mined for a long time.

The top 10 countries in the world in terms of iron metal reserves are: Russia (No. 1) with 29 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 36.9%; Australia (No. 2) with 17.9 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 63.7%; Brazil (No. 3) with 10.1 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 58.5%; Canada (No. 4) with 10 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 38.6%; India (No. 5) with 6.3 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 61.1%; the United States (No. 6) with 6 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 23.6%; South Africa (No. 7) with 5.9 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 62.5%; China (No. 8) with 3.5 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 38.8%; Sweden (No. 9) with 2.4 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 53.3%; and Venezuela (No. 10) with 1.7 billion tons of iron metal reserves and an average Fe grade of 60%[4].

The two countries with the richest iron ore resources are Australia and Brazil, and their iron ore is of high quality and has a high iron content. With such a huge difference in resources, my country has to rely on imports for its huge steel production needs.

In fact, 90% of my country's iron ore is shipped from other countries every year. It can be said that iron ore for steel production is basically imported. For this reason, our iron ore import fees are also huge, and now exceed 100 billion US dollars a year. In the case of long-term loss of the initiative in resource bargaining, this will further squeeze the production profits of steel companies.

Difficulties will always be overcome. Although the road to the development of my country's steel industry has been very difficult since its inception, it has achieved remarkable results today. I believe that even if we face more difficulties in the future, our many steel workers will overcome them and allow China to once again create a miracle of steel.

5. Conclusion

Among metals, iron is the undisputed number one in terms of production and usage, and it is also the cheapest metal. Iron and steel are widely used in various fields, and the top three downstream industries are construction, machinery and automobiles. China has long been a major steel producer and consumer in the world, and will surely become a steel powerhouse standing in the east of the world in the near future.

References
[1] yumanqiu. The world's top ten metals with the highest production, copper is on the list, the first is one of the industrial ferrous metals. (2021–12–03) [2020–04–11].
[2] National Bureau of Statistics. [2023–04–11].
[3] Baidu Knows. What is the most widely used metal (2019–08–14) [2020–04–11].
[4] Longbow has a heart. The top ten countries in the world in terms of iron metal reserves: Russia is the first… (2020–04–11) [2020–04–11].

About the author: Jia Chengchang, professor and doctoral supervisor at University of Science and Technology Beijing. Graduated from the Department of Metal Materials of Beijing Iron and Steel Institute in 1982 with a bachelor's degree. Obtained a master's degree from Tohoku University, Japan in 1987. Obtained a doctorate from Tohoku University, Japan in 1990. Postdoctoral fellow and chief engineer at Kanagawa Science City, Japan from 1990 to 1994. Won more than 30 national invention patents. Published more than 200 papers in domestic and foreign academic journals, including 76 SCI-indexed papers and 127 EI-indexed papers, and a single article has been cited more than 100 times. Edited 15 academic monographs: "Composites Tutorial", "Introduction to Ceramic Matrix Composites", "Sintered Metal Oil-bearing Bearings", "Introduction to Metal Matrix Composites", "Superhard Materials and Tools", "Metal Powder Gel Injection Molding", "Sintering Practice and Scientific Foundation", "Professor Han Fenglin's Papers", etc. He has won the second prize of Science and Technology Progress of the Ministry of Education, the first prize of Excellent Textbooks of China Metallurgical Education Association, the first prize of National Teaching Achievement in Higher Education (participated), the first prize of Education and Teaching Achievement of Beijing, the second prize of Excellent Journal of China Nonferrous Metals Society, the Outstanding Worker of China Metal Society, the Outstanding Instructor of the "Challenge Cup" National College Student Science and Technology Competition, the Outstanding Editorial Board Member of "Journal of Composite Materials" of the Composite Materials Society, "I Love My Teacher - the Best Teacher in My Mind" of Beijing University of Science and Technology, Advanced Individual in Teacher Ethics, Outstanding Party Member, Advanced Worker, First Prize for Teaching Achievement, SCI Inclusion Award for Scientific Papers and other honors. Main social part-time jobs: Honorary Director of China Composite Materials Society, Honorary Director of Powder Metallurgy Branch of China Metal Society, Executive Director of Powder Metallurgy Branch of China Mechanical Engineering Society, Director of Powder Metallurgy and Ceramics Branch of China Nonferrous Metals Society, Honorary Director of Powder Metallurgy Branch of China Steel Structure Association, Distinguished Expert of China Nonferrous Processing Association, Director of Powder Branch of China Building Materials Industry Association, Distinguished Expert of Powder Metallurgy Branch of China Machinery Association, Editorial Board Member of Journal of Composite Materials, Consultant of Powder Metallurgy Technology, Editorial Board Member of Powder Metallurgy Industry, Editorial Board Member of China Molybdenum Industry, Editorial Board Member of Powder Metallurgy Materials Science and Engineering, Editorial Board Member of China Materials Science and Equipment, Editorial Board Member of Metal World, and Guest Contributor