China's steel industry is facing external policy shocks, including EU carbon tariffs. As the first green tariff on a global scale, the EU carbon tariff policy was officially launched on October 1 this year and will be gradually implemented between 2026 and 2034. In the first phase of the policy, exporters in six industries, including steel, cement and fertilizer, will have to report their carbon emissions to the EU. In addition, the EU plans to announce an anti-subsidy investigation into steel imports from China in late October. On October 12, Chinese Ministry of Commerce spokesman He Yadong responded that the above practices of the EU disrupt the international trade order, push up downstream production costs, affect the interests of consumers, and are not conducive to the stability of the global industrial chain and supply chain, and are not conducive to the long-term development of local industries and the healthy operation of the market. He Wenbo said that to promote and promote cooperation, in line with the needs of global development and technological progress, any geopolitical, artificial barriers are not only unwise and immoral, the world steel industry should be highly vigilant. "The green and low-carbon transformation of the steel industry is a systematic and social project, not just an industry task." He Wenbo said.

According to him, on the basis of the various green and low-carbon development plans already launched in the steel industry, CISA is planning an overall transformation plan covering the entire process of carbon neutrality. He Wenbo mentioned that in terms of cleaner production, China plans to complete the ultra-low emission transformation program accounting for 80% of existing steel by 2025. After the transformation, the high-standard green production capacity will be enough to support all of China's demand for steel materials in the coming decades. Through the implementation of this plan, China's steel environmental standards, environmental performance, environmental technology will reach a new level. In terms of low-carbon development, a number of enterprises, including China Baowu Group, have deployed and launched a series of exploration and research and development investments in breakthrough low-carbon technologies, and the engineering practice of the world's latest low-carbon production process. In the above statement, He Wenbo also said that if there is a gap between China's steel industry at this stage and the steel industry of developed countries and economies in the world, the most critical is not necessarily the development level of green low-carbon technology, but the change in business concepts. China's steel industry should take the initiative to come out of the thinking inertia formed under the continuous expansion of the total demand environment.

"More than 40 years of continuous total demand expansion has created a new and strong Chinese steel, and it has also solidified some people's way of thinking, and this transition is no less difficult than the green low-carbon transition, which is a soft flaw in the way of thinking." He mentioned that there is also a hard defect accompanied by this, that is, the concentration of production entities in China's steel market is obviously low, and the natural behavior of business entities is not enough to support a rational market order. In He Wenbo's view, at this stage, the two major defects of "soft and hard" have formed constraints on the efficient operation and high-quality development of China's steel, and if these constraints can be lifted, the potential accumulated in the past 40 years of development of China's steel will be further developed. He believes that the above two major defects are problems in development and historical stages that must be passed, which need to be rationally analyzed and calmly faced. "Looking back at the development of steel in the world, no country ahead of us has gone through such a process." He Wenbo said.