en.Wedoany.com Reported - Recently, a special seminar on green and low-carbon development and CBAM response for the special steel industry was held in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China. The seminar, themed "Accelerating Green Transformation and Jointly Addressing Carbon Trade," was hosted by the China Special Steel Enterprises Association (CSSEA) and organized by the Sinosteel Wuhan Safety & Environmental Protection Research Institute Co., Ltd. (Sinosteel WSEPRI). Industry academicians, experts, corporate leaders, and representatives from various sectors gathered to focus on the low-carbon transformation of the special steel industry and the response to the European Union's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), exploring pathways for high-quality industry development.
Attendees included Zhao Fazhong, Deputy Secretary-General of CSSEA; Yuan Lusheng, Deputy General Manager, CFO, and Board Secretary of Sinosteel International; Wu Qibing, Party Secretary, Chairman, and President of Sinosteel WSEPRI; Yang Dinghai, Vice President and CFO of Sinosteel WSEPRI; Xie Jin, Director of the Metrology Division of Hubei Provincial Market Supervision Administration; Zhang Xiliang, Director of the Institute of Energy, Environment and Economy at Tsinghua University; Zhou Yongzhang, Doctoral Supervisor at Sun Yat-sen University and Academician of the Russian Academy of Engineering; and Professor Qi Shaozhou, Director of the Climate Change and Energy Economics Research Center and Director of the European Studies Center at Wuhan University. Zhao Fazhong and Yang Dinghai chaired the morning and afternoon sessions, respectively. The seminar featured four core segments: leadership addresses, expert reports, corporate practice sharing, and a roundtable forum.
In his address, Wu Qibing stated that the low-carbon transformation of the special steel industry and the response to international carbon barriers require coordination by the association, theoretical support from academic think tanks, technical services from third-party institutions, and demonstration leadership from leading enterprises, fostering a multi-stakeholder collaborative low-carbon industry community. Sinosteel WSEPRI will fully support the industry's green development, providing technical services to special steel enterprises, including policy consultation, carbon measurement diagnostics, carbon management improvement, CBAM response, carbon reduction pathway planning, and low-carbon digital platform development. Yuan Lusheng noted in his address that with the deepening of global green governance and China's domestic "dual carbon" strategy, technological innovation is fundamental, requiring coordinated efforts to reduce carbon at the source; carbon management systems are key, hoping to leverage the association platform to promote mutual recognition between domestic carbon accounting standards and EU CBAM rules; and industry chain collaboration is essential, as responding to CBAM requires coordinated efforts across the entire chain.
During the keynote report session, Zhao Fazhong, Zhang Xiliang, Zhou Yongzhang, Qi Shaozhou, Meng Jiajia, Technical Manager at TÜV Rheinland, and Han Jing, Director of the Carbon Neutrality Research Center at Sinosteel WSEPRI, shared insights on topics including the current status and transformation pathways of low-carbon development in the steel industry, new changes in global green trade barriers, the impact of CBAM on China's steel industry, CBAM accounting key points and compliance strategies, special steel breakthroughs in the carbon tariff era, and improvement of carbon data quality.
Zhao Fazhong systematically reviewed the phased achievements and core shortcomings of the green transformation of China's special steel industry, assessed the impact of CBAM on special steel product exports, cost structures, and market patterns, and constructed a solution framework from five dimensions: technological upgrading, management optimization, policy coordination, market layout, and international cooperation. He stated that China's special steel industry is facing a dual historical intersection of the deepening domestic "dual carbon" strategy and the restructuring of global green trade rules, with CBAM representing a comprehensive test for the special steel industry from production to export, and from cost structure to technological pathways.
In his report, Zhang Xiliang pointed out that China's steel industry still has a 90% share of long-process production, while the United States has reached a 75% share of electric arc furnace production. With highly globalized industry chains, China imports 72% of the world's tradable iron ore. After the official implementation of the EU CBAM, export and output losses for China's steel industry are expected to expand from 0.80% and 0.06% in 2025 to 3.19% and 0.39% in 2035, respectively. He recommended that enterprises carry out technological innovation to improve their carbon governance levels; actively participate in the national mandatory carbon market and proactively purchase allocated allowances; and actively participate in the national voluntary carbon market to purchase high-quality CCER.
Zhou Yongzhang introduced international green trade rules and response cases of Chinese enterprises, proposing the construction of a carbon competitiveness system for the special steel industry. He stated that the evolution of global green trade rules is restructuring the logical framework of international trade; policy tools represented by the EU CBAM and the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) are building new green trade barriers; and carbon emission costs are becoming the fourth core factor determining the international competitiveness of export enterprises. He recommended that enterprises immediately conduct carbon emission data inventories, establish facility-level emission ledgers; simulate and calculate quota surpluses or deficits; and plan emission reduction pathways in advance.
Qi Shaozhou stated that future international trade will revolve around "carbon," with green rules becoming key to market access, and future foreign trade competitiveness will shift from traditional cost and scale advantages to carbon-centric value competition. He recommended that enterprises formulate short-, medium-, and long-term CBAM response strategies; identify whether export products fall within CBAM coverage and calculate carbon costs; connect with local zero-carbon industrial parks to understand green electricity prices and carbon management services; commission third parties for product carbon footprint pre-assessments; develop zero-carbon participation plans, prioritizing green electricity direct supply and carbon accounting outsourcing; and join the park's green industry alliance while strengthening carbon asset management.
Meng Jiajia outlined phased response plans for enterprises: at the short-term strategic level, enterprises need to establish standardized compliance monitoring systems and optimize accounting methods by using actual calculated values to replace default parameters; at the medium-term strategic level, build upstream supplier carbon compliance assessment mechanisms to break down supply chain data barriers; at the long-term strategic level, construct core competitiveness for low-carbon collaboration across the entire industry chain, promoting comprehensive green transformation of raw materials, processes, and technological routes.
Han Jing introduced that with the implementation of the domestic "dual carbon" strategy and the tightening of international green trade barriers, requirements for the standardization and precision of carbon data management in steel enterprises have significantly increased. To this end, Sinosteel WSEPRI has designed a "trinity" system solution for carbon data in the steel industry, standardizing data acquisition at the source, optimizing data control in the process, and leveraging digital technology to empower management decisions.
During the corporate experience sharing session, representatives including Feng Zhiwei, Assistant Director of the Safety and Environmental Protection Department at CITIC Pacific Special Steel Group Co., Ltd.; Wen Dong, Director of the Power Equipment and Environmental Protection Division at Fushun Special Steel Co., Ltd.; Wang Xinyao, Dual Carbon Researcher at Nanjing Iron & Steel Co., Ltd.; and Wang Jianchao, Low-Carbon Lead at Jianlong Beiman Special Steel Co., Ltd., shared typical cases of green and low-carbon transformation practices and CBAM response.
The roundtable forum, hosted by Chen Hui, General Manager of the Green and Low-Carbon Business Division at Sinosteel WSEPRI, featured discussions on topics such as "Pathways for the Steel Industry to Collaboratively Respond to CBAM," "Practical Measures for Special Steel Exports to Adapt to CBAM," and "Building Enterprise Carbon Data Management Systems." Nearly 100 representatives attended, including Gao Jian, Deputy General Manager of Fushun Special Steel Co., Ltd.; Lin Huachun, Party Secretary of Fujian Luoyuan Minguang Iron & Steel Co., Ltd.; Ouyang Yu, Deputy General Manager of Shougang Guiyang Special Steel Co., Ltd.; Wang Hui, Secretary-General of the Hubei Metal Society; and Wang Ximin, Secretary-General of the Metallurgical Equipment Branch of CSSEA. During the seminar, some representatives visited the Carbon Neutrality Laboratory and Low-Carbon Technology Exhibition Hall of Sinosteel WSEPRI.
