Posted on 25 Dec 2025
Baosteel Zhanjiang Iron and Steel Co Ltd has commissioned what it says is China's first million-tonne near-zero-carbon steel production facility at its Zhanjiang plant in south China's Guangdong province, the company has announced.
The facility began commercial production on December 23 and has a rated capacity of 1.8 million tonnes/year of zero-carbon materials.
It integrates China's first million-tonne hydrogen-based shaft furnace – which started operation in December 2023 – with a newly built electric-arc furnace and continuous casting facilities, which began constructing in April 2024. The total investment cost is estimated at about Yuan 4.5 billion ($641.34 million), as reported.
The facility incorporates China Baowu's innovative hydrogen metallurgy and electric smelting process (HyRESP) technology and marks the realization of a fully integrated short-processed production route for high-grade flat steel products with zero-carbon emissions, it said.
The hydrogen-based shaft furnace uses hydrogen instead of carbon as the reducing agent for smelting, greatly easing reliance on traditional fossil fuels. High hydrogen smelting environment has now been successfully validated, the company said, with the direct reduced iron (DRI) produced achieving the targeted metallization rate.
After commissioning, the line will use hydrogen-based DRI and scrap steel as raw materials to produce low-carbon emission slabs, which will be rolled further into low- and near-zero-carbon steel products.
Compared to the conventional 'blast furnace + basic oxygen furnace' route, the project is projected to achieve a 50-80% reduction in carbon emissions, enabling a cut of over 3.14 million tonnes of carbon CO2 annually, equivalent to the carbon absorbed by 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
"The project serves as a model for the low-carbon transition of steel enterprises and greatly contributes to the high-quality development of the steel industry," said Wang Hongwu, the company's steelmaking project leader in the release.
Source:Mysteel Global
