China (Steel production: 1.065 billion tons)

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China is the world's largest producer and consumer of steel, and has built the most complete and advanced steel production system, laying a solid foundation for achieving low-carbon, green, and high-quality development. Looking back at China's industrialization process, it also began with a massive push for steel production. At the start of the founding of the People's Republic, China's annual steel output was only 160,000 tons. Today, China's steel industry ranks first in the world in terms of output. From a state of extreme poverty to becoming a global steel production powerhouse, China has achieved this in just 60 years.

As an important foundational industry of the national economy, the steel industry is a globally recognized major source of carbon emissions and a key sector for carbon reduction. Against the backdrop of global low-carbon development, China is focusing on the "3060" dual carbon goals and actively building a carbon peak and carbon neutrality "1+N" policy framework. In particular, the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Peak in the Steel Industry," as part of the "N" series, will be released in 2022. China has set targets and specific requirements for the low-carbon transformation of the steel industry over the next three to five years: by 2025, China's steel industry aims to establish a high-quality development pattern characterized by a reasonable layout structure, stable resource supply, advanced technology and equipment, prominent quality brands, high intelligence, strong global competitiveness, and green, low-carbon sustainability.

China's steel industry has achieved unprecedented improvement over the past few decades. The variety of steel products we produce has increased significantly, and we have even created some rare steel types that are hard to find internationally, such as the famous hand-tearable steel. This steel is thinner than A4 paper, with a thickness of only 0.02mm, and can be torn apart with a gentle pull. What is the importance of this steel? First, this steel has excellent flexibility and extremely low weight, so it is often used in important high-tech fields such as aerospace and deep-sea exploration. Even in the world's most advanced countries for hand-tearable steel production, Germany and Japan, the thickness of hand-tearable steel they manufacture is 0.05mm.

It is worth mentioning that a considerable portion of China's huge steel output is crude steel, especiallyspecialty steelaccounts for a relatively low proportion. Previously, what was imported was often more expensive special steel. The production capacity of China's steel industry is quite huge, but many high-end specialty steels can only be imported. In the global market share of high-end specialty steel, Japan accounts for 33% of the global market.

Although China has vast territory and abundant resources, its iron ore content is relatively low and difficult to mine. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as early as 2019, China's iron ore output was 844.356 million tons, far from meeting the production needs of the steel industry. The cost of mining iron ore domestically in China may even be higher than the port price of imported iron ore, so Chinese steel enterprises have to import iron ore from abroad. Most of China's iron ore relies on imports. For example, among imported iron ore, 60% comes from Australia and 20% from Brazil.

Second, India (Steel production: 100.3 million tons)

Commentary: India is the world's second largest steel producer. For example, in the first four months of 2021, India's steel output was approximately 38.2 million tons, with a year-on-year growth rate of 26.9%, making it the only major steel-producing country with a growth rate exceeding 20%. India's largest steel company, JSW Steel, once planned to build two steel plants in Odisha and Jharkhand, each with an annual capacity of 10 million tons, aiming to achieve a total crude steel capacity of over 40 million tons by 2030. Undoubtedly, building these two plants is part of JSW's response to India's "steel dream." It is worth mentioning that India's "steel dream" dates back to Prime Minister Modi's steel revitalization plan proposed in 2015. At that time, Modi demonstrated his determination at a rally of 50,000 steelworkers: steel output should surpass China, and one day, India would use its own steel to build aircraft carriers. On June 1, 2015, then Indian Federal Minister of Steel and Mines, Narendra Singh Tomar, proposed investing 2.94 trillion rupees (equivalent to 46.1 billion US dollars) over the next decade to boost the country's steel production capacity, with a plan to increase annual crude steel capacity to around 300 million tons by 2025. It is also noteworthy that the steel industry accounts for about 6.2% of India's total greenhouse gas emissions. Emissions from Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) steel operations are growing at a cumulative annual rate of 7%, planned to increase from 318 million tons in 2016 to 415 million tons in 2020. India once accounted for about 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with nearly 79% of domestic emissions coming from the energy and manufacturing sectors. Under the Paris Climate Agreement, India voluntarily committed to reducing carbon emission intensity per unit of GDP to about 33%-35% of 2005 levels by 2030. To reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the steel industry, India's steel sector has submitted its Intended Nationally Determined Contribution (INDC), setting carbon dioxide emission targets per ton of crude steel by 2030: 2.2-2.4 tons for the blast furnace-basic oxygen furnace (BF-BOF) route, and 2.6-2.7 tons for the direct reduced iron-electric arc furnace (DRI-EAF) route. Tata Steel is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Tata Group and a pillar industry company in India, founded in 1907, with its headquarters in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand. Currently, it has an annual capacity of 27 million tons, making it the world's sixth largest steel company. Tata Steel operates in 45 countries worldwide, with manufacturing centers in the UK, Netherlands, India, Singapore, Vietnam, Thailand, and China. In China, Tata Steel has invested in two steel plants in Wuxi and Xiamen, and a refractory material plant for steel production in Liaoning. As early as February 2007, Tata Steel successfully acquired Corus, the second largest steel company in Europe, for $11.3 billion, setting a record for the largest overseas acquisition by an Indian company to date, and propelling Tata Steel to become the world's sixth largest steel company. Tata Steel is considered one of the lowest-cost steel producers in the world. Facing cost pressures from rising global iron ore prices and high energy prices, Muthuraman stated that a key reason Tata Steel can be one of the lowest-cost manufacturers globally is that it owns its iron ore resources in India and also has high production efficiency.

3. Japan (Steel output: 83.2 million tons)

Comment: Japan's steel smelting technology is globally recognized as leading. Japan's steel technology, including steelmaking techniques, is world-leading, surpassing even developed countries in Europe and America. Another aspect of Japan's leadership is reflected in the patent field; it can be said that almost no blast furnace or steel plant in the world is built without using Japanese licenses. As a country that does not produce iron ore domestically, it is highly admirable that its steel output and quality are both globally leading.

Japan's metallurgical technology has reached world-class standards. Especially in key technical fields such as bottom blowing technology, slag splashing protection, and furnace refining, Japan not only holds relevant technical patents but also fully applies them to industrial production, injecting a strong boost into the resurgence of the steel industry. Japan still maintains numerous records in the steel industry and metallurgical technology. For example, the JSW factory in Japan is the only factory in the world capable of producing nuclear power plant pressure vessels, accounting for 80% of the global market share. Meanwhile, Kobe Steel, though only the third-largest steel company in Japan, ranks among the Fortune Global 500. The steel produced by Kobe Steel is widely used in many industrial fields such as machinery and engineering, and even some developed countries in Europe and America import from Japan. What makes the Japanese even more proud is that the most authoritative steel metallurgy journal, ISIJ, is also based in Japan.

It is worth mentioning that in Japan's history, steel research institutions also undertook a considerable portion of the development and manufacturing tasks for military steel. For example, Yawata Steel Works conducted research on steel plates for hulls, bulletproof steel plates, and high-tension steel plates for hulls; Japan Steel Works focused on the research and development of cast and forged steel for shipbuilding. Other examples include Nippon Kokan's research on high-tension steel plates, Sumitomo Metal's development of alloy steels such as cast and forged steel and magnet steel, and Kobe Steel's research and development of marine steel and special military steel.

Japan is home to one of the world's five most renowned steel companies. The five major steel companies in Japan are: Nippon Steel, JFE, Sumitomo Metals, Tokyo Steel, and Kobe Steel.

Nippon Steel: Full name Nippon Steel Corporation, one of the most globally competitive steel companies. In terms of research and development capabilities, management level, as well as product quality and technological content, it is a leader in the steel industry. Particularly in the fields of galvanized steel sheets and automotive steel sheets, its technology ranks first globally and first in Japan. For example, the main steel structure projects of domestic skyscrapers rely entirely on Japan. The main steel of the famous Shenzhen Diwang Building was all supplied by Nippon Steel.

Sumitomo Metals: A famous monopoly enterprise in Japan's steel industry, with a large group of subsidiaries, most of which are related to steel. It has a number of branch factories and offices in Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Brazil, the United States, and some countries and regions in Southeast Asia. Its main products include steel pipes, steel plates, bar steel, castings and forgings, utility poles, train wheel rims, and engineering machinery. The wheels of high-speed trains in many countries are manufactured by Sumitomo Metals.

JSW Japan Steel Works: A globally leading comprehensive manufacturing company producing special steel and industrial machinery. Its special application steel and plastic machinery hold an important position in the world market. It was once the only factory in the world capable of manufacturing pressure vessels for nuclear power plants. Approximately 130 nuclear reactors worldwide use JSW's pressure vessels and supporting equipment, accounting for 80% of the global market share. Nuclear power plants around the world rely on JSW's pressure vessels.

Kobe Steel: As early as 2007, Kobe Steel produced the world's strongest aluminum alloy, which has a wide range of uses. This aluminum alloy has a tensile length 10% longer than that of Lockheed Martin's aluminum-lithium alloy, making it the strongest in the world. This new material can be used in racing cars and space shuttles.

Tokyo Steel: Tokyo Steel is a pioneer in the global steel cable industry.