As an era of tremendous growth of steel industry, the world annual steel production had been increasing from 28.5 million tons in 1900 to 843 million tons in 2000. The first period of rapid growth appeared from mid of 1950’s to mid of 1970’s, and the second one has started from the end of 1990’s and has been continuing so far. The increasing demand for steel product s resulted from rapid economy growth has been the boosting force for iron and steel production, and technological progresses have been the driving force for the development of steel industry. It is expected that in the 21st century the annual world steel production may hit a target of 2 billion tons and the annual world iron production may surpass 113 billion tons. The Chinese steel industry may keep an annual capacity of 400~450 million tons based on the requirement of domestic market, and the annual iron production might be declining after 2015. The challenges to Chinese ironmaking industry will be the insufficiency of natural resources, the unreasonable structure of blast furnace ironmaking, the over2consumption of energy and the heavy impact on global environment . Chinese steel industry must be domestic demand oriented. The healthy development of Chinese ironmaking industry depends on how we could deal with these challenges.
张寿荣, 银汉. 21世纪炼铁发展趋势及对中国高炉炼铁的挑战[J]. 中国冶金, 2009, 19(9): 1-8.
ZHANG Shou-rong, YIN Han. The Trends of Ironmaking Industry and Challenges to Chinese Blast Furnace Ironmaking in the 21st Century. China Metallurgy, 2009, 19(9): 1-8.