It is still a long way to go for the domestic production of automotive steel in China

The automotive industry is one of the largest users of the steel industry. However, due to the lack of production capacity of some high-value-added steel products used by automakers in China, the long-term use of the largest-use automotive sheet materials depends on imports. Baoshan Iron and Steel Company had previously announced that 56 domestic auto manufacturers have long adopted Baosteel brand auto plates to break the long-term high-price monopoly of imported auto plates to monopolize the domestic market.

However, for high-end cold-rolled sheets and other products that are in short supply, more than 60% are still imported.

At present, among the raw materials for automobile manufacturing, the proportion of steel accounts for 60% to 70% of the total consumption. Automobile steel mainly includes automobile girder plates, automobile inner liners, automobile (car) panels, and gear steels for transmission parts. Special Steel.

According to industry experts, in 2006, the domestic automobile steel demand trend was the same as that of the overall industrial steel, ie, the unit consumption continued to decline, the total demand continued to increase, the variety and performance requirements continued to increase, and the contradiction between supply and demand of some special steel products was still relatively large. .

According to reports, in the entire automobile production process, the use of steel plates reaches about 50%, and the use of various types of iron castings accounts for about 20%.

After Baosteel first developed automotive O5 steel plates in the 1990s, domestic steel companies began to develop their strengths in the automotive steel industry. Steel companies such as Shougang and Wuhan Iron and Steel have all come up with their own products. In the past, many imported cars were used. Steel has achieved domestic production. In order to meet the needs of domestic auto companies, Baosteel and Angang have successively formed strategic partnerships with FAW, and Dongfeng Motor Company has also formally established a strategic partnership with Panzhihua Iron & Steel.

Since 1994, research and development, production and market expansion of high-grade O5 automotive panels have been carried out. After more than ten years of hard work, the production level of Baosteel's automotive panels has been ranked first in the international automotive panel manufacturing industry, and the high strength of Baosteel's production. Double-sided galvanized sheet and other products have been provided to Audi, Buick and other high-end cars, breaking the long-term high price of imported auto plates monopolized the domestic market situation.

According to industry insiders, domestic steel products with high difficulty and high added value are under development. Although some trial productions have been successful, due to limited demand and high production costs, they cannot be mass produced.

For example, the cold-rolled sheet for passenger cars (including galvanized sheet) has now been developed to use high-strength, high-strength sheet metal strips, which represent ultra-low carbon, ultra-deep (DEEQ/UEDDQ) IF steel cold plates and plating Zinc plate, bake hardened (BH) high-strength plate, and phosphorus-containing high-strength plate, these three varieties are in trial production, trial stage, the specifications of car plates are generally 0.5~3.0mm, width 600~2000mm. Some specifications on the mainland are still difficult to produce.

For the high value-added galvanized steel sheet of zinc-iron alloy plating required by the automotive industry, only WISCO's galvanizing unit is equipped with zinc-iron alloy diffusion, but only a small amount of production per year. For galvanized sheets with deep-drawing performance and high strength, they cannot be produced due to lack of production methods and raw material supply. Zinc-nickel alloy electroplated zinc plates, as well as thick-plated, single-sided thick-plated electro-galvanized plates cannot be produced.

According to statistics, the automobile body, the chassis (including the suspension system), and the engine three parts account for more than 65% of the total weight of a car. The weight of the outer body and the inner cover, which are almost entirely composed of steel, ranks first. Therefore, reducing the weight of the car body in white has the dual effect of reducing the power consumption of the engine and reducing the total weight of the car, which is an important way to reduce the weight of the car.

Recently, a high-strength plate was used on the Chrysler 300C premium sedan produced by Beijing Bruns. The composition of this plate is different from that of cold-rolled plates. In addition to iron and carbon, which contain ordinary plates, its phosphorus and antimony content is higher than that of ordinary plates. The performance is high. After the material is high in strength, the body thickness of the plate is thinner than that of the ordinary steel plate, which can reduce the weight of the car without affecting the overall safety of the car body.

Of course, the use of high-strength plates also has limitations. For example, it is more brittle than ordinary steel plates and is easy to rebound. Therefore, it is suitable for the outer covers of cars and places where the degree of drawing is not high. This kind of high-strength board is more commonly used in high-end cars. For example, Mercedes, BMW and Audi all use this board in large quantities. However, this type of sheet has high requirements for stamping technology. At present, Beijing Bruns has mastered this technology and applied it to production.

A person from a foreign steel company stated that China’s auto industry has entered a period of rapid growth with cars as the main body, and it is expected that the medium and long-term demand for high-grade automotive steel plates will have greater development. However, from the perspective of the supply of automotive panels, the contradiction between supply and demand in the market is very prominent, and there is a large market gap, which requires large imports from abroad. It is estimated that by 2010, the demand for cold-rolled sheet in China will be 32 million tons, and the domestic production capacity will still not meet the market demand.