From January to July 2023, the total water consumption of key steel enterprises under statistical monitoring reached 55.175 billion cubic meters, an increase of 2.89% year-on-year. Among them: the total intake of fresh water decreased by 19.5286 million cubic meters compared to the same period last year, representing a year-on-year decline of 1.98%; while the volume of recycled water increased by 1.567 billion cubic meters compared to the same period last year, up 2.98% year-on-year. The water reuse rate was 98.24%, an increase of 0.09 percentage points over the previous year; and the fresh water consumption per ton of steel was 2.35 cubic meters per ton, down 2.60% year-on-year.

The total volume of externally discharged wastewater decreased by 24,278,000 cubic meters compared to the same period last year, representing a year-on-year decline of 14.29%. Among the externally discharged wastewater, the emissions of chemical oxygen demand, ammonia nitrogen, total cyanide, suspended solids, and petroleum hydrocarbons fell by 20.23%, 8.03%, 31.43%, 7.52%, and 11.33%, respectively, compared to the previous year.

The total volume of waste gas emissions increased by 5.67% year-on-year. Among the externally discharged waste gases, emissions of sulfur dioxide and particulate matter decreased by 12.88% and 13.51%, respectively, compared to the previous year. The sulfur dioxide emission per ton of steel was 0.21 kilograms, down 8.06% year-on-year; the smoke and dust emission per ton of steel was 0.25 kilograms, down 18.72% year-on-year; and the nitrogen oxide emission per ton of steel was 0.40 kilograms, down 14.26% year-on-year.

The output of steel slag reached 50.8804 million tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 0.58%. The output of blast furnace slag totaled 134.5987 million tons, up 2.52% over the previous year. The output of iron-containing dust and sludge amounted to 20.7610 million tons, an increase of 4.49% compared to the previous year. The utilization rate of steel slag was 98.39%, up 0.35 percentage points from the same period last year; the utilization rate of blast furnace slag was 99.24%, an increase of 0.19 percentage points over the same period last year; and the utilization rate of iron-containing dust and sludge was 99.57%, up 0.02 percentage points from the same period last year.

The production of blast-furnace gas totaled 562.399 billion cubic meters, up 0.14% year-on-year. The production of converter gas reached 50.296 billion cubic meters, an increase of 4.0% over the previous year. The production of coke-oven gas amounted to 34.755 billion cubic meters, up 0.89% year-on-year. The utilization rate of blast-furnace gas was 98.55%, an increase of 0.30 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The utilization rate of converter gas was 98.66%, up 0.16 percentage points from the same period last year; the utilization rate of coke-oven gas was 98.69%, down 0.15 percentage points from the same period last year.