Alloy steel continues to reshape the global materials industry landscape

In many areas of industrial production, alloy steel, with its customizable and superior properties, has become an essential material for high-end equipment manufacturing, aerospace, and other industries. Unlike ordinary carbon steel, which relies solely on iron and carbon elements, alloy steel is an iron-carbon alloy formed by adding one or more alloying elements such as silicon, manganese, and chromium to carbon steel.

This “precise formula” modification allows steel to overcome its inherent limitations in strength and toughness, becoming a key material for industrial upgrading. Historically, Faraday’s research on alloying elements in the early 19th century laid the foundation for the development of alloy steel.

Alloy steel has a clear classification logic and can be precisely divided according to different standards. Based on the total content of alloying elements, it is divided into low-alloy steel (<5%), medium-alloy steel (5%–10%), and high-alloy steel (>10%); based on quality, it can be divided into high-quality and special alloy steel.

Today, alloy steel has been deeply integrated into production and daily life. In daily travel, key components such as automobile chassis and gearbox gears often use alloy structural steel to ensure driving safety and lifespan; in infrastructure projects, the high-strength steel bars in large bridges and tunnels are often made of low-alloy steel.

In the field of high-end manufacturing, alloy steel is even the cornerstone of “national strategic equipment.” In October 2025, Daye Special Steel announced the development of steel for tunnel boring machine main shaft bearings and icebreaker shaft systems, filling a domestic technological gap and breaking foreign monopolies.

The main shaft bearing steel, used to create the world’s largest integral main bearing, completely ended my country’s reliance on imports of ultra-large tunnel boring machine main bearings and significantly reduced infrastructure costs.

Industry dynamics in 2025 highlighted the importance and vitality of the alloy steel industry. Besides breakthroughs in high-end technology, green transformation and adjustments in the international trade landscape became key industry themes.

In April, Dali Steel’s 450,000-ton-per-year alloy steel project began trial production, utilizing electric arc furnace short-process technology and recycled steel scrap. This resulted in a significant reduction in energy consumption per ton of steel, significantly reduced emissions, and a solid waste utilization rate exceeding 98%, becoming a model of green circular economy.

From basic industries to high-end manufacturing, alloy steel is ubiquitous. With technological breakthroughs, the development of cutting-edge varieties such as ultra-long-life bearing steel will further expand its application boundaries.

This “customizable, high-performance” material will continue to be a core support for industrial upgrading in the future, continuously reshaping the global materials industry landscape.