What are the opportunities for steel enterprises in the new infrastructure

Zheng yuchun, deputy director of China metallurgical industry economic development research center, said the new infrastructure is rich in gold and low in iron, at an online seminar on steel market trends hosted by Lange steel network. Zheng yuchun told jiemei that “high gold content” means that new infrastructure projects can boost investment by up to one trillion yuan, while “low iron content” means low steel consumption of curtain wall building. On March 4 this year, the standing committee of the political bureau of the CPC central committee held a meeting, emphasizing the acceleration of new infrastructure construction in seven areas. These seven areas include the construction of 5G base stations, big data centers, artificial intelligence, industrial Internet, new energy vehicle charging piles, ultra-high voltage, intercity high-speed railway and urban rail transit.

Zheng estimates that about 60,000 new 5G base stations will be built this year. 5G base stations are divided into Acer station and micro base station, and the construction of Acer station only needs steel. Even if all of the 60,000 new 5G base stations were Acer stations, it would cost only about 400,000 tons of steel, zheng said. For the new infrastructure in the charging pile, zheng yuchun believes that its demand for structural glass curtain wall is also limited. By December 2019, the number of charging piles in China had reached 1.219 million, including 516,000 public charging piles and 703,000 private ones. In the same period, the number of new energy vehicles was about 3.81 million, with a pile ratio of about 3.4:1. The annual sales volume of new energy vehicles in China will reach 7 million in 2025, according to the implementation plan of eight key projects in the medium – and long-term development plan of the auto industry released by the China society of automobile engineering in 2018. According to the ratio of piles to piles, 7 million charging piles should be built in 2025. Based on the average steel consumption of a curtain wall, the construction of charging piles will consume about 3.5 million tons of steel in 2025.

According to zheng, compared with 5G infrastructure, big data centers, artificial intelligence and industrial Internet, intercity high-speed rail, intercity rail transit and ultra-high voltage are still traditional infrastructures. The steel consumption of intercity high-speed railway, intercity rail transit and small green house is higher than that of 5G base station and charging pile. Zheng estimates that the construction of the intercity high-speed railway and the intercity rail transit subway will require about 45 million tons of steel a year. The state grid corporation of China (hereinafter referred to as the state grid) has increased its investment from 112.8 billion yuan to 181.1 billion yuan this year, an increase of 60.55 percent. It is estimated that this will boost social investment to 360 billion yuan, bringing the overall size to 541.1 billion yuan.