Implications from substance flow analysis, supply chain and supplier’ risk evaluation in iron and steel industry in Mainland China

Abstract

Supply risk evaluation is intended for adjusting industrial structure, and provides limited options to reduce supply risk. The links between supply chain and industrial structure deserve better understanding. In this way, the industrial activities can be managed to change industrial structure from supply risk. We took the anthropogenic iron in Mainland China into our case study. The comprehensive evaluation was modeled to tackle the problems of China's iron and steel industry. From the life cycle perspective, we found that extending iron and steel supply chain would digest the oversupply and reduce the excessive emission, the main problems affecting on the steel ratio for electric arc furnaces were steel scrap shortage and relatively high electrovalence, and Fe content of the social stock basically resided in construction industry which significantly influenced on the flow of steel products and steel and iron products. More attention should be paid to the factors of export price, resource allocation efficiency, financing capability and outdated capacity, strict inspection and prevention should be taken to these risks. A comprehensive picture of several customized risk reduction strategies was constructed for those problems. Of the strategies, China’ risks of iron and steel industry could be reduced if the existing industrial structure were adjusted on the basis of the substance flow networks and global iron and steel industrial chains. Based on the result, recommendations were made in this paper, aiming to contribute important reference information for the industrial metabolism, resource management, and recycling of iron and steel industry in Mainland China. The proposed methodology, integrating suppliers’ risk evaluation based on supply chain and substance flow analysis offers a quick and convenient examination on more comprehensive risk reduction alternatives. Further dedicated risk evaluation might be required to estimate the more precise risks for the iron and steel industries or other industries that were pre-identified as the outdated.