The steel industry, which has called for years of overcapacity and elimination of backwardness, is expected to achieve rapid development in the sub-field of high-performance steel. In the "Twelfth Five-Year Plan" for the Development of New Materials Industry (hereinafter referred to as the "Plan"), which has been drafted, high-performance steel has also become one of the six categories of new materials that have received key support.
The high performance steel described in the Planning mainly refers to high quality special steel, which is high performance and special high quality steel aimed at meeting the needs of equipment manufacturing and major projects.
According to the requirements of the plan, in the future, it is necessary to focus on the development of large forgings for nuclear power, extra-thick steel plates, heat exchange tubes, steel for reactor internals and their supporting welding materials, accelerate the development of steel for ultra-supercritical boilers, special corrosion-resistant oil well management, shipbuilding plates, high-strength steel bars and steel plates for building bridges, and achieve autonomy. Actively develop nickel-saving high-performance stainless steel, high-strength automobile plate, high-standard bearing steel, gear steel, tooling steel, superalloy and corrosion-resistant alloy materials.
Chuxueliang, an analyst of CIC Securities, is particularly optimistic about the special steel sub-industry and high-end pipes in his latest research report, because from the perspective of foreign development, after the end of the rapid construction period of urbanization, the general steel market will be saturated, and the demand for special steel will rise rapidly, which will last for about ten years.
According to the reporter, compared with the scattered ordinary steel industry, the concentration of the domestic special steel industry is still relatively high. The market share of the top ten special steel enterprises has exceeded 50%. Four special steel groups have been formed, including Northeast Special Steel Group, Baosteel Group, CITIC Pacific Special Steel and Xining Special Steel (600117, stock bar).
For example, Fushun Special Steel (600399, share bar) (600399. SH), a subsidiary of Northeast Special Steel Group, is the most important production, research and trial production base of supporting materials for China's defense and military industry, providing a large number of key new steel materials for China's defense projects, with a domestic market share of 40%, 35% and 40% respectively in mold steel, automotive gear steel and high-temperature alloy bearing steel.
Baosteel Group also set up a special steel business unit under Baosteel (600019, Sharebar) (600019. SH), which mainly produces special steel and structural steel for automobile, aerospace and shipbuilding. CITIC Pacific currently has a total capacity of 9 million tons of special steel, and the market share of spring steel, bearing steel and gear steel is about 40%.
However, Chuxueliang pointed out that at present, the proportion of domestic special steel production only accounts for about 5% of the total steel production, far lower than the world average level of 15% - 20%, and the proportion of low-end and medium-end products reaches 80%. High-end products with high gross profit rate, such as tooling steel and high-speed steel, also mainly rely on imports.
Therefore, the Plan drafted this time also further requires the construction of high-quality special steel bases, including the construction of comprehensive production bases of high-quality special steel in East China with Baosteel and Xingcheng Special Steel as the core. Rely on Ansteel, Northeast Special Steel and other enterprises to build a high-quality special steel base in Northeast China. Give full play to the advantages of enterprises such as Wuhan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd., Taiyuan Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. and Tianjin Steel Pipe Co., Ltd. to build a number of specialized production bases.
Li Xinchuang, Executive Deputy Secretary-General of China Iron and Steel Industry Association and President of China Metallurgical Industry Planning Institute, pointed out that at present, the gap between China's high-performance steel and foreign countries is not only reflected in technology, but also in the stability of product performance, the competitiveness of cost, and the overall gap in the later service system, "Some high-end products cannot be produced yet, and they may not be able to be produced in batches. The performance of batch production is also unstable, and they cannot help customers better promote and apply".
