The role of ferrosilicon in the cast iron industry

Ferrosilicon is used as an inoculant and nodularizer in the cast iron industry. Cast iron is an important metal material in modern industry. It is cheaper than steel, easy to melt and smelt, has excellent casting properties and much better shock resistance than steel. In particular, ductile iron, its mechanical properties are at or close to those of steel. Adding a certain amount of ferrosilicon to cast iron can prevent the formation of carbides in iron and promote the precipitation and spheroidization of graphite. Therefore, in the production of ductile iron, ferrosilicon is an important inoculant (helping to precipitate graphite) and spheroidizing agent. .

Since 2016, China Steel has made all-out efforts to reduce production capacity. In 2016 alone, China Iron and Steel completed the production capacity reduction of 65 million tons, and then completed the production capacity reduction of 55 million tons in 2017. Ton. This means that if the target of 30 million tons is completed in 2018, the total capacity reduction in the steel industry will reach nearly 300 million tons. In the past two years, crude steel production capacity has been reduced by more than 20%, and the capacity utilization rate has also increased from about 70% in 2015 to 80% in 2017, basically entering a reasonable range. "

According to the previous data from the Metallurgical Industry Planning and Research Institute, due to the domestic macroeconomic situation and the development of the main downstream steel industry was significantly better than expected, the actual total steel consumption in China in 2017 was 725 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%, which was 8.32% higher than that of my country's crude steel output in the same year. Compared with 100 million tons, it is basically in balance. But it is worth noting that since 2018, the impulsive phenomenon of steel companies to expand production capacity is obvious. According to data from the China Iron and Steel Association, the country produced 212 million tons of crude steel in the first quarter of this year, a year-on-year increase of 5.4%. The average daily output of crude steel was 2.3572 million tons, the highest value in the same period in history.