China steel sector marks real progress in Cornerstone Plan - CISA

Since the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) launched the Cornerstone Plan in March 2022 to raise China's self-sufficiency rate of steelmaking raw materials, substantial progress has been made in the construction of domestic iron ore mining projects, stated He Wenbo, the association's executive chairman, at a meeting with CISA members held on February 13 in Beijing.

The plan aims to boost China's domestic iron ore output to 370 million tonnes/year by 2025, which translates to a massive 100 million t/y increase from the 2020 level.

To achieve the target, China's National Development and Reform Commission organized eight meetings during the past year to coordinate the exploitation of key iron ore mining projects with multiple government departments, which effectively advanced the country's domestic mine development, according to He.

In the meantime, the CISA, Metallurgical Mines Association of China, and major Chinese steel mills jointly conducted surveys among key mining projects in the country, He noted, and they had collected 114 key issues on mining operations among 55 projects, such as environmental protection, energy saving, and safety management.

Moreover, Chinese iron and steel enterprises actively responded to the plan by ramping up the exploration and construction of iron ore mines, Mysteel Global noted.

For example, Ansteel Iron &Steel Group, the country's second-largest steel producer, inaugurated the new Xi'anshan iron ore project in November last year, marking an iconic advance in the Cornerstone Plan, He highlighted.

Located in Anshan city in Northeast China's Liaoning province, the Xi'anshan project is the country's largest single underground iron ore mine project with a designed production capacity of more than 10 million t/y iron ore concentrates, as Mysteel Global reported.

With such joint efforts, China has seen a marked improvement in its capacity for iron ore supply, with its self-sufficiency rate of iron ore increasing by 0.22 percentage point on year to 20.44% in 2022, according to Mysteel's calculation.

Written by Anthea Shi, shihui@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.