Songyang strengthens services and supervision to empower the transformation of the stainless steel pipe industry
When it comes to Songyang County, Lishui City, Zhejiang Province, people's first impression is Songyang tea and tens of thousands of acres of tea gardens stretching across the mountains. Today, Songyang has another title of "Capital of Stainless Steel Seamless Pipe".
According to reports, the stainless steel pipe industry took root in Songyang as early as 2004. After 20 years of development, it has become one of the leading local industries. The annual output of stainless steel seamless pipes has accounted for one-third of the country's market share. However, as industrial production capacity continues to rise, the problem of sewage discharge and waste in the stainless steel pipe industry has become increasingly prominent. In February 2021, in the second round of feedback from the central ecological and environmental protection inspector, the issue of "relaxing supervision of total nitrogen emissions in the stainless steel industry" was pointed out in Songyang County.
Systems and services come first and set the "wind vane" for industry development
In order to help the high-quality and high-level development of characteristic industries, Songyang County insists on promoting the "green, low-carbon, and intelligent" transformation and upgrading of the stainless steel pipe industry, and puts industrial development on a standardized track. For example, documents such as the "Implementation Plan for the Transformation and Upgrading of the Stainless Steel Pipe Industry in Songyang County (2022-2025)" have been successively issued to clarify the implementation steps of industrial transformation and upgrading, propose the main tasks and safeguard measures to be completed, and continuously improve the top-level design of industrial development.
"In addition to the general policy direction, we also continue to refine the formulation of industry standards. Last year, three pollution prevention and control guidelines for the stainless steel industry were formulated based on actual innovation." Ye Mengmei, director of the Songyang Branch of the Ecological Environment Bureau of Lishui City, said,"Provide guidance in project design, construction and operation in the direction of rolling and drawing workshops, acid pickling sites, and groundwater early warning and monitoring systems to help enterprises avoid detours and effectively improve pollution prevention and control capabilities."
As the largest stainless steel pipe industry cluster center in Songyang County, Zhejiang Songyang Economic Development Zone is the "pioneer" for the implementation of relevant enterprise-assistance policies and the "main position" for the transformation and upgrading of the stainless steel pipe industry chain. Songyang County has established a special class for the stainless steel pipe industry chain with the main leaders of the county government as the "chain leader" to coordinate operations across departments and fields to provide services for the transformation and upgrading of enterprises in the jurisdiction.
"The staff not only guided us hands-on in preparing the materials needed in the project approval process, but also helped us handle various procedures, which made us feel great convenience." Yan Yanyun, president of Shangshang Desheng Group Co., Ltd., said,"The efficiency of the government departments gives us more confidence in building the project."
It is understood that Shangshang Desheng Group Co., Ltd. is the leader in Songyang's stainless steel industry. Its "Future Factory" project plans to invest a total of about 1 billion yuan, mainly building a highly intelligent automated production line in Songyang. Since the project was signed, various industry-related departments in Songyang have optimized the approval process, and it took only 18 days for the project to start construction.
Remediation and transformation go hand in hand, and read the "tightening curse" of environmental protection supervision
"The development history of the stainless steel pipe industry is also a tough history of Songyang's pollution prevention and control work." Ye Mengmei said,"In order to firmly adhere to the ecological bottom line, Songyang has implemented a series of important environmental protection transformation measures in recent years, and the level of comprehensive environmental protection management in related industries has been significantly improved."
In response to the second round of feedback from the central ecological and environmental protection inspector pointed out that "the stainless steel industry relaxed the supervision of total nitrogen emissions", Songyang County has invested a total of about 74 million yuan to upgrade and renovate the three stainless steel wastewater treatment plants in the county's centralized production area of stainless steel pipes. Ye Mengmei introduced that the "biological denitrification" technology and process used in the transformation and upgrading process is the first in the domestic industry. Its treatment scale and influent concentration dimensions have obvious advantages over other processes.
According to reports, Songyang has fully completed the renovation and upgrading of three stainless steel wastewater treatment plants, and the effluent water quality has met the indirect emission standard requirements of the "Iron and Steel Industry Water Pollutants Emission Standards"(GB13456-2012)(total nitrogen is less than 35mg/L), total nitrogen emissions have dropped significantly.
At the same time, Songyang focuses on the source management of stainless steel wastewater and is the first in the city to draw an "environmental supervision map" for the stainless steel industry. It strives to weave a dense supervision network from the production end and continuously tightens the "mouth" of corporate environmental supervision.
"Each 'environmental supervision map' is tailor-made based on the company's current situation and regulatory requirements, just like a company's 'satellite positioning map'." Introduction from the staff of the Ecological Environmental Protection Administrative Law Enforcement Team of Songyang County. "The basic information of the company, the layout of production processes, the allocation of environmental management facilities, the verification of pollutant categories in each link, and the optimal inspection route are all available."
On weekdays, corporate environmental protection officers can follow the instructions and carry out daily inspections of enterprises to eliminate some possible "key minor problems" in the bud. If complaints, reports and emergencies occur, law enforcement officers can also follow the supervision map to find out the source of the problem in a timely manner, and urge enterprises to implement rectifications.
On the basis of the "Environmental Supervision Map", the Songyang Ecological Environment Department has also established and promoted a new grid supervision model of "one factory, one policy, one map, one member", such as setting up environmental protection directors and environmental protection managers in each enterprise, Full-time cleaners and other positions to effectively implement corporate environmental management responsibilities.
"The implementation of dedicated personnel within the enterprise breaks down the communication barriers between the environmental protection department, grid supervision department and enterprises." Ye Mengmei said,"At the same time, intelligent applications such as the full-process intelligent management system for stainless steel pickling wastewater treatment have been put on shelves one after another, realizing a comprehensive supervision layout of 'online + offline' and strengthening the environmental supervision situation."
Breakthroughs and "intelligent manufacturing" form a "shortcut key" for green transformation
Walking into Zhejiang Yida Special Steel Co., Ltd., a whole visual display screen is installed on the wall, and the data of raw material warehouse, production schedule, production warehouse, sales schedule and other sectors are clear at a glance. Information collection, multi-terminal sharing, and realizing visualization, dynamics and refinement of the production process are important contents of enterprise digital reform.
Starting from 2022, Songyang County will launch the "Hundred Enterprises Transformation" action, using three companies including Zhejiang Yida Special Steel Co., Ltd. as pilots to promote the digital transformation of enterprises. At present, 48 stainless steel pipe enterprises above designated size in the county have carried out digital transformation, and the overall production efficiency of the stainless steel pipe industry has increased by nearly 20%.
Taking advantage of the east wind of digital transformation, stainless steel pipe enterprises in Songyang County have begun to completely eliminate backward production capacity, and various production processes have been updated and iterated. A "green closed loop" has gradually formed within the industrial chain. The efficiency of resource recycling has been greatly improved, and the value added per unit of industry has also decreased year by year.
Taking Zhejiang Songyang Economic Development Zone as an example, stainless steel pipe companies in the park have basically achieved a cooling water recycling rate of 100%, a recycling rate of heavy metals such as nickel and chromium of 85%, and a coal-to-gas completion rate of 100%... It has laid a solid foundation for the county's key industries to reduce pollution and carbon emissions.
In November 2023, Songyang Laboratory of the National Special Metal Structural Materials Quality Inspection and Testing Center, the first metal structural materials quality inspection center in Lishui City, was commissioned in the county. The center can provide testing and certification services for stainless steel pipes and meet the product testing needs of stainless steel pipe companies at their doorstep. "Before, they had to be sent to Hangzhou, Wenzhou or other places for testing, and the testing cycle was about a week. Now the time can be shortened to three days, and surrounding areas can come to us for testing." said Jin Shuo, director of the Songyang Laboratory of the National Special Metal Structural Materials Quality Inspection and Testing Center.
"R & D-production-testing, this complete industrial ecological chain is gradually taking shape. In 2023, the annual industrial chain output value of Songyang stainless steel pipe industry will reach 11.66 billion yuan, with an output value growth rate of 9.8%." Ye Mengmei said,"In the next step, Songyang will continue to increase pollution control in county-specific industries to ensure that the ecological beauty is maintained while increasing GDP."
