The steel industry faces two specific challenges

Recently, Edwin Basson, Director-General of the World Iron and Steel Association, published a blog post emphasizing that the steel industry needs to face two specific challenges in 2019.

The first challenge is climate change, for which steel materials can make an important contribution. The iron and steel production is about 1.8 billion tons in 2018, 70% of which are new steel produced from raw materials. In the production process, carbon dioxide emissions are expected to account for between 7% and 9% of the global total. At the same time, steel materials play a very important role in the emission reduction plan formulated by the Paris Accord. Whether it is renewable energy or large-scale transportation, or smart cities or electrification, to reduce carbon emissions, a large amount of steel materials is needed.

The second challenge is the recyclable mode of production that society is increasingly concerned about, namely "circular economy", which is one of the foundations of economic decision-making. This may have an important potential impact on all metal materials. As a reusable and recyclable material, iron and steel itself will undoubtedly be affected by the circular economy policy. After all, there are not many materials that can play a key role in building a low-emission, reusable, remanufactured and recycled world.

If we want to be the first choice in the development of modern society, we iron and steel workers must strive to prove our importance to future success.