Technological Innovation Leads the Global Steel Industry into a Low-Carbon and Intelligent New Era in 2025

At the end of 2025, the selection and release of achievements related to the “Top Ten Technologies in the World Steel Industry 2025″ became the focus of the industry. Breakthrough technologies in fields such as low-carbon metallurgy, high-end material R&D, and smart factory construction were included in the list. For example, Ansteel’s world’s first green electricity and green hydrogen fluidized bed hydrogen metallurgy pilot line was connected. Shougang Cold Rolling was selected as a global “Lighthouse Factory”. These technologies have solved the traditional problems of high emissions and high energy consumption in the steel industry. They have also promoted the industry’s transformation towards green low-carbon, high-end quality, and intelligent efficiency. They have injected strong momentum into the high-quality development of the global steel industry.

Low-carbon metallurgy technology has become a core highlight of this year’s top ten technologies. It is leading the industry’s decarbonization revolution. Ansteel Group built the world’s first green electricity and green hydrogen fluidized bed hydrogen metallurgy pilot line. The line has achieved full-process connection. It stably produces green near-zero-carbon direct reduced iron products with a metallization rate of 95%. The carbon dioxide emission per ton of iron is significantly lower than that of traditional processes. The localization rate of key equipment reaches 100%. This completely frees the industry from reliance on foreign technologies. Similarly, CISDI’s independently built 10,000-ton hydrogen-based shaft furnace demonstration line has also achieved success. It can adapt to various gas sources and medium-low grade ores. The metallization rate of vanadium-titanium ore oxidized pellets DRI is stably above 85%. Its carbon dioxide emission is more than 60% lower than that of blast furnace processes. It provides an independently controllable technical route for deep decarbonization of the steel industry. Internationally, BHP Billiton and POSCO are cooperating to promote the HyREX hydrogen-based reduction ironmaking technology. They plan to build a 300,000-ton demonstration plant. The goal is to achieve near-zero emissions. This shows the trend of collaborative development of global low-carbon metallurgy technologies.

Breakthroughs in high-end material R&D technologies support the upgrading of downstream high-end equipment. Among the achievements related to this year’s top ten technologies, the extra-thick straight arc slab continuous casting technology won the Special Prize of the Metallurgical Science and Technology Award. The world’s first 450mm straight arc extra-thick slab continuous caster has been put into large-scale application. It solves the problems of low efficiency and high energy consumption in extra-thick plate production. Its products are widely used in major projects such as the Baihetan Hydropower Station and the “Haoji No. 2” offshore platform. Baoshan Iron & Steel developed the fifth-generation platform-based pure electric body-in-white solution. It integrates 7 ultra-high-strength steel application technologies. It can reduce the vehicle weight by 10%-20%. It meets the latest safety collision standards. Its 0.10mm ultra-thin non-oriented silicon steel breaks through performance bottlenecks. Its iron loss value is lower than 9 watts per kilogram. It has become an ideal material for new energy vehicle drive motors. Ansteel developed 100mm thick high-strength and tough locomotive steel. It can withstand low temperatures of minus 50 degrees Celsius. It provides key material support for rail transit equipment in alpine regions.

Intelligent manufacturing technologies have been fully implemented. They are reconstructing a new ecology of steel production. Shougang Cold Rolling successfully was selected as a global “Lighthouse Factory”. It relies on the in-depth application of technologies such as cloud-edge collaboration architecture, AI, 5G, and machine vision. It has become the 7th enterprise in the global steel industry to receive this honor. By deploying 67 Industry 4.0 digital application cases, Shougang Cold Rolling has increased production line efficiency by 21.2 percentage points. It has reduced product defect rates by 35 percentage points. It has increased high-end product sales by 36 percentage points. This shows the significant role of intelligent technologies in improving production efficiency and product quality. Metso Outotec’s CircoredTM hydrogen-based fluidized bed direct reduction technology also integrates intelligent control elements. It preheats reduction and gas circulation systems through electric heaters. It achieves near-zero carbon emission operation. At the same time, it accurately controls production parameters through digital systems. It accumulates data for large-scale commercial application.

The implementation of the Top Ten Technologies in the World Steel Industry 2025 demonstrates the diverse paths and synergistic effects of technological innovation in the industry. Low-carbon technologies solve environmental constraints. High-end materials meet strategic needs. Intelligent technologies improve production efficiency. These three aspects support and integrate with each other. They promote the transformation of the steel industry from a traditional heavy industry to a high-tech industry. In the future, with the large-scale promotion and continuous iteration of these technologies, as well as the collaborative innovation of the global industry, the steel industry will further break through resource and environmental bottlenecks. It will play a more important role in supporting new energy, high-end equipment, infrastructure construction and other fields. It will write a new chapter in green and intelligent development.