Cold-formed steel industry development status and future

Cold-formed steel refers to finished steel products with various cross-sectional shapes bent in a cold state using a steel plate or strip. In some cases, the amount of steel used in cold-formed steel structures is equivalent to the amount of steel used in reinforced concrete structures under the same conditions, and it is an economic section steel. In recent years, the cold-formed forming industry has developed rapidly. It has evolved from a small category of deep processing of steel to an important ladder for the upgrading of deep processed steel products. In 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched the cooperation plan for the advancement of the iron and steel industry and the downstream industry and requested the strengthening of horizontal links between industries and professions, especially in some industries that have a major impact on the national economy, such as steel and construction, Relations and cooperation between steel and automobile, steel and home appliances, non-ferrous metals and IT industries. This paper has been published three times consecutively today by Prof. Han Jingtao, Professor of the Beijing University of Science and Technology and Chairman of the China Cold-formed Steel Branch of the China Steel Structure Association, a paper entitled “The Status Quo and Future of China's Cold-Formed Steel Industry Development”. Stay tuned! - Editor's Note The rapid development of human civilization and science and technology has brought about a rapid increase in people’s material living standards. At the same time, the depletion and depletion of natural resources and the increase in environmental pollution have constrained this progress. Cold-formed steel as a new type of structural material that is environmentally friendly and energy-saving has been widely accepted by people and is the main method for deep processing of flat steel products. Cold-formed forming refers to a technique for obtaining various open, closed, and wide-deformed profiled metal profiles by continuous roll bending of metal plates or strips. The cold-formed steel produced by the cold-formed forming technology can be used as an important economic section high-efficiency steel by changing the shape of the cross-section of the section and carrying relatively large external loads with a relatively small amount of steel. Cold-formed steels have opened up new ways of improving material utilization by optimizing the cross-section shape rather than relying solely on increasing the amount of materials and improving the properties of materials. This is of great significance for saving energy and resources, especially for such a development in our country. For countries concerned, it is particularly important to pay attention to the development and promotion of high-efficiency steel sections with cold-formed sections.

With the development of lightweight structure and high-strength steel technology, the advantages of cold-formed steel products have been fully utilized, and they have gained the attention of the steel industry and the favor of the user industry. In recent years, cold-formed steel has gained rapid development in various fields such as construction, automobile industry, and rail transportation, and it is reported that cold-formed steel for the construction industry in the United States has accounted for more than 70% of its total steel consumption.

Second, China's cold-formed steel industry development status The application of cold-formed steel has more than 100 years of history, in 1838, Russia, the United States, Britain and other countries have used a press or cold drawing machine to produce single cold-formed steel; 1910, the United States Invented the continuous roll forming process and built the world's first cold-formed steel unit, and the world has since entered the stage of large-scale industrial production of cold-formed steel.

China's cold-formed steel production began in the 1930s. Small workshops in Shanghai began to use stamping and drawing methods to produce cold-formed steel for decoration. In October 1958, China's first specialized cold-formed steel unit was put into production at the Shanghang Steel No. 10 Plant, which mainly served the agricultural machinery manufacturing industry. In early 1960, due to the needs of foreign aid projects, the Ministry of Metallurgical Industry deployed 5 cold-formed steel production workshops in Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin, Anshan, and Chongqing to produce a number of cold-formed steel products. Due to the influence of “**”, the original deployment was disrupted, and the three units in Tianjin, Anshan, and Chongqing were successively shut down or converted, and Beijing and Shanghai were also in semi-discontinued state. The annual production was less than 10,000 tons. In the 1980s, with the deepening of reform and opening up, China’s cold-formed steel production increased steadily, equipment production capacity continued to expand, and the number of varieties increased. Cold-formed steel production expanded from Anshan, Shanghai, and Chongqing to East China, North China, and Northeast China. The scope of service has also expanded to trucks, passenger cars, building doors and windows, highway guardrails, shelves, electrical appliances and other industries, but all of them are limited to small and medium-sized generating units, with a small variety of specifications, reaching 15 million tons/year, with more than 3,000 products and steel grades. From a single ordinary carbon steel to stainless steel, high-strength steel, fire-resistant steel, weathering steel, composite steel development. In the past decade, the annual growth rate of cold-formed steel production in China has approached 30%. At present, China's cold-formed steel production enterprises are concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Bohai Rim. The products are mainly used in road construction, steel structures, automobile manufacturing, containers, railway vehicles, steel formwork and scaffolding, bridges, electrical cabinets, suspension conveyors, cable trays, shelves, elevator guideways, keel steel, etc., covering the national economy 95 The vast majority of industries. The cold-formed steel industry has now developed into an important national economy with an output value of several hundred billion yuan and millions of employees.

III. Problems in the development of cold-formed steel industry in China 1. Low variety and low output In 2011, China’s crude steel production reached 750 million tons, but cold-formed steel production accounted for less than 2% of steel production, while developed countries cold-formed steel It accounts for 10% to 20% of steel production. The cold-formed steel industry in China is obviously lacking in product development and market development. Some potential application areas have not yet been developed, such as steel structures, steel sheet piles, and transmission towers, and the homogeneity tends to be serious. According to the 2008 survey conducted by the China Iron and Steel Association, the seven steel-concentrated industries including construction, machinery, automobiles, agricultural vehicles, shipbuilding, railways, and containers have a very low percentage of cold-formed steel, and their application level is less than the average level of developed countries. 20%. Taking the construction industry with steel consumption accounting for 56.1% of China's steel output as an example, it can be seen. In the steel structure manufacturing industry in the construction industry, the amount of cold-formed steel used in 2010 was about 1.56 million tons, accounting for 6% of the total steel used in steel structures, and a far cry from the international average of 15%, let alone The United States has 70% of the level. It shows that the industrial base of cold-formed steel in China is weak, and there is a big gap compared with developed countries, which seriously restricts the healthy development of cold-formed steel industry.

2. Serious homogeneity and insufficient development of high-quality products There are few varieties of cold-formed steel products in China, and they cannot fully meet market needs. Once a company develops a certain product and its benefits are relatively good, some companies in the industry will go all-in, compete with each other, wage a price war, and desperately reduce production costs, thereby significantly reducing product quality. However, some of the products that are technically difficult and require high strength, high elongation, and excellent overall performance lack enthusiasm for research and development. The disadvantages of cold-formed steel enterprises in terms of capital, talent, technology, and equipment also determine the product quality. The cold-formed steel products of domestic SMEs are mainly low-end building profiles such as C-section steel, Z-section steel, square moment tube, and color steel tile. They have high technical content, and are suitable for high-precision, high-grade steel grades and high-grade grades for professional fields. Ultra-thin, ultra-thin, ultra-small and cold steel products, many companies can not manufacture.

3. Severe shortage of cold-formed steel standards Industrial developed countries have relatively complete standards for cold-formed steel products. Because they have many years of history and experience in cold-formed steel production, and have undergone many revisions, their product standards are relatively complete, and the technical indicators are also more advanced. Because of the unbalanced development of cold-formed steel production technology, there are also differences in standards among countries. In general, the British standards for cold-formed cold-formed steels are the most stringent; Germany's closed-end (hollow) cold-formed steels have the highest level of standard technology; and Japan's cold-formed steels have a smaller classification. Cold-formed steel has many applications in China, but its product standards and specifications are not perfect, and the number of standards is severely deficient, which greatly restricts the production and promotion of cold-formed steel products.

4. The development of special steels for cold-formed steels is seriously lagging behind. There are also major problems with raw materials. For example, steels have dimensional tolerances, large head and tail tolerances, severe sickle bending, and unstable materials. The same steel grades have different plant performance characteristics, and phosphorus and impurity levels are much higher than in foreign countries. In particular, the development of specialized steel grades cannot meet the requirements of users. For example, the special steel for structural rectangular tubes is not available in China, but the high-strength, high-plastic grained steel and pure steel still have quality gaps.

5. At the present stage of weak basic research and inability of independent innovation, China's technological innovation is still mainly at the stage of absorption, imitation, and integration. There are few original innovations and independent innovations. There is not enough emphasis on basic research and technological research. Domestic cold-formed steel equipment is simple, technical equipment is backward, and unit equipment is not matched. It is difficult for existing production equipment to produce high-quality and special-demand products. There are many special conditions for cold-formed steel compared with ordinary steel structures, such as the cold-bending effect, local buckling and super-buckling of plates, and material requirements. Therefore, there are still many technical problems in this type of structure that need further study. China's cold-formed steel industry has utilized many foreign technical experiences in technical equipment, but it has no own brand, no scientific and technological innovation, and no complete product system. Many new technology achievements are still in the incubation stage and lack experience, and they need to be improved and improved.

6. Severe geographical distribution The three coastal economic zones in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Bohai Bay have concentrated 80% of China's cold-formed steel production enterprises. Half of the 32 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government are blank, especially west of the Beijing-Guangzhou line. Many provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government do not even have one cold bending machine. The Northeast is China's old industrial base and one of the birthplaces of welded pipes and cold-formed steels in China. However, the development speed of cold-formed steels lags far behind coastal areas. To build steel structures, many provinces and cities are only a few miles away to Jiangsu. Province, Shandong Province, Hebei Province to purchase cold-formed steel.

Fourth, the basic function of the cold-formed steel industry branch due to historical reasons, China's cold-formed steel enterprises with non-public economic components of SMEs for the majority, even in large-scale central enterprises in the cold-formed steel production plants are also generally known as "non-steel Industry", the number of vocal decibels is low. The importance of the cold-formed steel industry as a strategic emerging industry has not yet been widely recognized by the relevant government management departments and the society. The downstream users have a serious lack of information on the cold-formed steel industry, which has greatly constrained the health of the cold-formed steel industry. Smooth development. The Cold-formed Steel Section of the China Steel Structure Association should serve as a bridge and link between the government, cold-formed steel enterprises, and the market. It should serve as a social intermediary organization for industry service, consulting, communication, supervision, impartiality, self-discipline, and coordination. The major role is to promote the healthy and rapid development of the cold-formed steel industry.

The interpretation of the basic functions of trade associations by the National Institute of Nationalities Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences should be the most appropriate. They are summed up in the following eight items: First, the representative function: represents the common interests of all enterprises in the industry; second, the communication function: as a bridge between the government and the enterprise, To communicate the common requirements of the government to the government and assist the government in formulating and implementing industry development plans, industrial policies, administrative regulations, and related laws. The third is to coordinate the functions: to formulate and implement regulations and various standards, and to coordinate the management of the same industry. Fourth, supervising functions: Strictly supervise industry product and service quality, competitive means, and business style, maintain industry reputation, encourage fair competition, and crack down on illegal and irregular behaviors; Fifth, fair function: entrusted by the government to conduct qualification review, Issuance of licenses, such as market access qualification certification, issuance of certificate of origin, quality inspection verification, production license, import and export license, etc.; 6 is a statistical function: statistics, analysis and publication of results of the industry's basic situation; Functions: Conduct basic surveys on the development of domestic industry at home and abroad, Study issues facing the industry, proposals, publications, corporate and government for reference; Eight is a narrow service functions, such as information services, education and training services, consulting services, exhibitions, organize conferences and so on. The core work of the Cold-formed Steel Branch of the China Steel Structure Association should serve the above-mentioned eight articles for the cold-formed section steel enterprises.

V. Several important tasks of the cold-formed steel industry branch According to the above understanding of the basic functions of the industry associations, we will focus on gradually improving the basic functions of the clubs, so as to lay the foundation for the healthy development of the industry, and the recent important work Have:

1. Compile and publish the "Twelfth Five-Year Development Plan for Chinese Cold-formed Steel Sector"

China's cold-formed steel industry has become an important industry with an output value of several hundred billion yuan, more than one million employees, and products basically covering all areas of the national economy. Strengthen communication with government departments, strengthen the society's awareness of the cold-formed steel industry, and improve the function of the industry sub-committees to serve the enterprises. The formulation of the “12th Five-Year Development Plan for China's cold-formed steel industry” is an important manifestation. As a guidance document for China's cold-formed steel industry to enter into benign and sustainable development in the past five years or more, it provides scientific decision-making basis for higher-level government agencies to formulate macroeconomic policies and implement effective management. Cooperate with relevant national ministries and commissions in the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" development plan to meet the demand for cold-formed steel products, the development and application of new high-strength materials, the promotion and application of lightweight structures, the energy-saving and energy-consumption of delivery vehicles, and the completion of energy-saving and emission-reduction issues for various industrial sectors. For more cold-formed steel enterprises to strive for energy-saving emission reduction, research and innovation and other funding and policy support. Over the past year, through the participation of more than 10 key enterprises in the cold-formed steel industry and the unremitting efforts of more than 50 people, the first “China Cold Rolled Steel Section Development Plan” was finally completed. Although this or that deficiency may still exist, this “development plan” provides important guidance for the development of the industry, provides a basis for the government to support the development of cold-formed steel companies, and also serves as a basis for social and user industry awareness. Cold-formed steel industry provides a channel.