Recently, formulated by Beijing Shougang Co., Ltd. and approved by the Chinese Society for Metals, the eight group standards of the Evaluation Standards for Green Production Management in the Iron and Steel Industry were officially released. The release of these standards fills in the gaps in the evaluation standards of green production management in the iron and steel industry, and contributes Shougang's wisdom and planning to scientifically evaluating the green production management level of iron and steel enterprises, and promoting the green manufacturing, energy conservation and emission reduction, and low-carbon development of the industry.

Academician Mao Xinping of the Chinese Academy of Engineering and other technical experts from the Chinese Society for Metals, Baosteel, Ansteel and HBIS Group spoke highly of the work and agreed that this series of standards is advanced, systematic and scientific.

Green manufacturing is an important means of solving national resource and environment problems, an effective direction for the green development of the industry and the necessary reflection of enterprises taking the initiative to fulfill their social responsibility. In May 2018, the State Administration for Market Regulation and Standardization Administration of China jointly issued the General Principles of Green Factory Assessment (GB/T36132-2018). Due to the great differences in production procedures and processing technologies in various industries, the emphasis of building green factories is different, and the evaluation criteria are also quite different. At the national level, the evaluation standards for green production management in the iron and steel industry are mainly based on the energy and environment perspectives, such as process energy consumption, water intake limit, pollutant emission and other relevant standards, which lack systematicness. As such, it is imperative to establish and implement a set of green production management evaluation standards suitable for the characteristics of the iron and steel industry.

Proposed by the Chinese Society for Metals, Beijing Shougang Co., Ltd. undertook the task of compiling the Evaluation Standards for Green Production Management in the Iron and Steel Industry (Group Standards). Involving many units, professionality, a wide range of knowledge and difficult coordination, this series of standards is divided into eight parts: general rules, coking, sintering (pelletizing), ironmaking, steelmaking, hot rolling, cold rolling (carbon steel) and cold rolling (electrotechnical steel). In order to complete the compiling task to high standards of quality, Beijing Shougang Co., Ltd. assembled a standard compilation working team headed by the Company’s leading officials to formulate a detailed work plan. As there are no similar standards in China for reference, the members of the team set about formulating these group standards for the first time. They worked while learning, used their working clearance and spare time to immerse themselves in the investigation and compilation of the standards, and combined the ultra-low emission requirements of the state, provinces and cities. They also analyzed more than 60 standards such as national standards, metallurgical standards and local standards, and over 30 policy guidance documents, and compared these standards and documents with those of world-class enterprises and domestic advanced enterprises to ensure the advancement of various technical indicators and creatively design the basic framework and index system of this series of standards. According to the overall design, the green production level is divided into three levels, of which first-level enterprises are at the forefront of green production, second-level enterprises are at the advanced level of green production, and third-level enterprises are at the general level of green production. The overall rating of integrated iron and steel works shall be determined in the form of general rules and the reduced scores of single process scores. After the draft standards were formed, they were discussed internally many times in the steel sector, and opinions were sought widely in the domestic steel industry, resulting in the collection of more than 80 amendments. In addition, the compilation team revised more than 120 relevant clauses and adjusted or supplemented 75 indicators.

The formulation project of the eight group standards was approved in 2018. With the coordination and cooperation of the Group's Safety and Environmental Protection Department, Technology Institute, Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co., Ltd., Shougang Jingtang Xishan Coking Co., Ltd. and other units, and with the selfless dedication, excellence and full cooperation of the compilation team, the compilation task of the Evaluation Standards for Green Production Management in the Iron and Steel Industry was successfully completed in two years.

It has been reported that the Evaluation Standards for Green Production Management in the Iron and Steel Industry was implemented nationwide in January.