China's steel casting industry

In the past decade, China's steel casting industry has achieved structural upgrading with green, intelligent, and high-end development as the main line, forming a development path of 'policy guidance technology breakthrough market optimization ecological synergy'. The production has increased from approximately 9.5 million tons in 2015 to 12.6 million tons in 2024, with a market size of 126 billion yuan. The concentration of CR10 has risen to 28%, and Shandong, Hebei, and Jiangsu account for 52% of the national production capacity. At the policy level, the '14th Five Year Plan for the Development of Intelligent Manufacturing' and the 'Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Industrial Sector' have forced transformation, and stricter environmental standards have pushed more than 1800 backward enterprises to clear. Technologically, 3D sand printing, digital twins, and AI assisted process optimization are widely used, and the shared group has built the world's first '3D+heavy-duty steel casting enterprise'. China First Heavy Industries has increased the CNC rate of key processes to 80%, and the first-time pass rate of large and complex parts has increased from 85% to 92%. The green transformation has achieved significant results, with a 45 kilowatt hour reduction in electricity consumption per ton of steel. The intelligent melting system covers 68% of enterprises above designated size, and the annual carbon reduction exceeds 6000 tons. The demand structure is tilted towards high value-added fields such as wind power, nuclear power, and rail transit, and the market size of energy equipment will reach 80 billion yuan by 2024. The export volume reached 2.1 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 9.3%, mainly flowing to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. The EU CBAM has forced companies to accelerate low-carbon certification. The industry is shifting from 'scale expansion' to 'quality and efficiency', with the localization rate of high-end products increasing to 60%, laying the foundation for equipment manufacturing support.