The advantages of composite material products also lie in their wide range of applications.

Luoyang Tongxin Composite Materials Co., Ltd. Has Achieved Significant Breakthroughs in the Field of New Energy Battery Materials.

The Seminar on New Energy Battery Materials and Applications Was Successfully Held.

The seminar on new energy battery materials and their applications was successfully held. Copper-aluminum composites and steel-aluminum composites—the spring is here!

Luoyang Tongxin Composite Materials Technology Co., Ltd. wishes everyone a happy New Year and a prosperous Year of the Dragon!

Wishing all our employees and customers a prosperous Year of the Dragon and a happy New Year! May we join hands and move forward together in the new year, jointly creating a bright and promising future!

Applications of stainless steel coils in several major industries

From the perspective of application industries for stainless steel coils, the automotive industry is currently the fastest-growing sector for their use. Over the past decade, Japan’s consumption of stainless steel coils for automotive applications has risen from an average of 10 kg to 30 kg, while in the United States it has exceeded 40 kg. Public transportation vehicles such as large buses, subways, and high-speed railways have also widely adopted stainless steel coils. China’s home appliance industry represents a significant potential market for stainless steel coil applications. Additionally, demand for stainless steel coils will continue to rise annually in sectors including water treatment, construction and infrastructure, environmental protection, and industrial facilities. I. Vehicle and Automotive Industry This is currently the fastest-growing sector for stainless steel coil applications. Using high-strength stainless steel coils to manufacture vehicle bodies can significantly reduce vehicle weight and enhance structural strength. Employing stainless steel coils for vehicle panels and decorative components can lower maintenance costs. Moreover, due to their resistance to chloride-ion corrosion and heat resistance, stainless steel coils are increasingly used in automotive exhaust systems. Currently, countries such as Japan, the United States, and Sweden have extensively adopted stainless steel coils in vehicles. Japan began promoting their use in the 1980s, and today, 60% of its railway vehicles are made with stainless steel coils. The passenger car industry is actively developing new applications for stainless steel coils. II. Water Industry The issue of water contamination during storage and transportation has received growing attention. Extensive practical experience has shown that stainless steel coils are an excellent material choice for various water-related processes, including water preparation, storage, conveyance, purification, regeneration, and desalination. Their advantages include corrosion resistance, earthquake resistance, water conservation, hygienic properties (free from rust and copper-green discoloration), light weight (reducing weight by one-third), low maintenance requirements, long service life (up to 40 years), low life-cycle cost (LCC), and being a recyclable, environmentally friendly material. According to reports, in Tokyo, Japan, the proportion of pipelines made from stainless steel coils has reached 76%, reducing the pipeline leakage rate from the original 14.7% to the current 7.5%. After the major earthquake in Osaka, Japan, stainless steel coil storage tanks remained completely undamaged. Japan has developed corrugated pipe fittings that reduce the construction costs of stainless steel coil water pipelines by 20%, total costs by 3%, and maintenance costs by three-quarters. III. Construction Industry This is one of the earliest sectors to adopt stainless steel coils. In architectural decoration, stainless steel coils are now mainly used for cladding exterior walls, interior spaces, and exterior columns of high-rise buildings, as well as for handrails, flooring, elevator wall panels, doors and windows, curtain walls, and other interior and exterior decorative elements. Stainless steel coils treated with surface finishing, coloring, or plating have solved issues such as fingerprints easily left on the surface, further expanding the scope of their application. Japan has developed various stainless steel coil roofing materials, including high- and medium-chromium ferritic grades with better corrosion resistance and different types of coated sheets. Sweden’s super-clean brushed-surface stainless steel coils and France’s UGITOP surface panels developed by Ugine provide new options for the construction industry. IV. Home Appliance Industry In the home appliance industry, stainless steel coils are heavily used in components such as washing machine drums, water heater inner tanks, microwave oven casings (both internal and external), refrigerator liners, and most commonly, ferritic stainless steel coils. Western Europe has a relatively high proportion of stainless steel coils used in household appliances; in Asia, aside from Japan, which is close to European levels, usage is generally lower. In 1999, Japan’s home appliance industry consumed 28% ferritic and martensitic stainless steel coils, while austenitic coils accounted for 12%. China’s domestically produced microwaves, refrigerators, air conditioners, and televisions are already competitive export products worldwide, making the domestic home appliance industry a significant potential market for stainless steel coil applications. It is estimated that over the next 5–10 years, China’s demand for stainless steel coils in the home appliance industry will reach 100,000–150,000 tons. V. Environmental Protection Industry Industrial waste gas, waste disposal, and wastewater treatment equipment all require stainless steel coils for manufacturing. During flue gas desulfurization, to resist corrosion from sulfur dioxide, chloride ions, and iron ions, duplex stainless steel coils and high-grade austenitic stainless steel coils are needed for absorption towers, coolers, pumps, valves, and flues. Waste incinerators and wastewater treatment facilities also require high-performance stainless steel coil materials. VI. Industrial Facilities In developed countries, the proportion of stainless steel coils used in industrial facilities typically reaches 15%–20%; currently, the domestic adoption rate remains quite low. This is partly because stainless steel coil materials are not systematically counted in imported industrial equipment sets, and partly because domestic materials have yet to be widely adopted. Industries such as chemical engineering, petrochemicals, synthetic fibers, papermaking, food processing, pharmaceuticals, and energy (nuclear power, thermal power, fuel cells) all require stainless steel coils. Furthermore, many existing imported devices are entering their maintenance periods. With the development of specialized grades of domestically produced stainless steel coils, the use of stainless steel coils in domestic industrial facilities will increase year by year in the future.

The Impact of Nickel on Stainless Steel Smelting Costs

In stainless steel smelting, the sources of nickel metal currently fall into three main categories: nickel pig iron, pure nickel, and scrap stainless steel. Steel mills adopt different mix ratios based on price fluctuations of various raw materials at different times to maximize profits. This article will focus on comparing the production costs associated with different raw material mix ratios for stainless steel under current market conditions. I. Comparison of Costs Between High-Nickel Pig Iron and Nickel Plates Compared to pure nickel, high-nickel pig iron’s primary advantage lies in its ability to provide steelmaking pig iron. Currently, the price of steelmaking pig iron stands at 2,530 yuan per ton. Taking high-nickel pig iron with a 12% nickel content as an example, its price in the Jiangsu region is 1,380 yuan per nickel. For high-nickel pig iron, each nickel point yields steelmaking pig iron worth 181 yuan. In other words, as long as the quoted price of high-nickel pig iron remains within 181 yuan per nickel above that of nickel plates, high-nickel pig iron still maintains a cost advantage. At present, the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton, with a price difference of 116 yuan per nickel between the two. Since this difference is less than 181 yuan per nickel, high-nickel pig iron continues to hold a cost advantage over nickel plates when used as a raw material for stainless steel smelting. II. Comparison of Costs Between Scrap Stainless Steel and High-Nickel Pig Iron Compared to high-nickel pig iron, scrap stainless steel not only contains nickel but also chromium. The main composition of scrap stainless steel is as follows: 8% nickel by mass, 17% chromium by mass, 73% iron by mass, and 2% other elements by mass. Regarding the nickel content in scrap steel, taking Tai Steel’s June tender price of 13,900 yuan per ton for scrap steel as an example, the value of 8% nickel iron in scrap steel works out to 11,120 yuan. Thus, the price of a single nickel point in scrap steel nickel iron is 1,390 yuan per nickel, roughly equivalent to the current price of 1,380 yuan per nickel for high-nickel pig iron with 12% nickel content in the Jiangsu region. Given China’s scarcity of stainless steel scrap resources, coupled with the high energy consumption of smelting entirely from scrap steel and the presence of harmful elements in low-quality scrap steel that can contaminate the molten steel, the all-scrapped-stainless-steel production model generally lacks sufficient cost competitiveness to be widely adopted. According to data from the 51bxg Industry Research Center, in stainless steel smelting, the proportion of scrap stainless steel used has already approached the upper limit at 60%; meanwhile, the average utilization rate of scrap stainless steel across society hovers around 18%. III. Low-Nickel Pig Iron Plus Pure Nickel Model For the low-nickel pig iron plus pure nickel model, if we assume that a mixture of low-nickel pig iron (1.6%) and pure nickel is configured to match the composition of high-nickel pig iron (12%), then 0.8943 tons of low-nickel pig iron and 0.1057 tons of pure nickel would be required. Currently, the price of low-nickel pig iron in the Shandong market is 3,400 yuan per ton, while the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton. Therefore, using this comparison method, the cost of producing high-nickel pig iron at 12% nickel content comes to 16,401.1 yuan, or approximately 1,366.8 yuan per nickel. By contrast, the current price of high-nickel pig iron at 12% nickel content is 1,380 yuan per nickel, so the cost advantage is not particularly obvious. IV. Medium-Nickel Pig Iron Plus Pure Nickel Model For the medium-nickel pig iron plus pure nickel production model, assuming a mixture of “medium-nickel pig iron (5%) + pure nickel” configured to match the composition of high-nickel pig iron (12%), then 0.926 tons of medium-nickel pig iron and 0.074 tons of pure nickel would be needed. Currently, the tax-inclusive price of medium-nickel pig iron is 1,340 yuan per nickel, and the spot price of nickel on the Yangtze River is 126,400 yuan per ton. Under this mix ratio, the cost of producing high-nickel pig iron at 12% nickel content comes to 15,557.8 yuan, or about 1,296.5 yuan per nickel. Compared to the high-nickel pig iron production model, the medium-nickel pig iron plus pure nickel model offers a significant advantage, with a cost reduction of 84 yuan per nickel point. The analysis of these various stainless steel production raw material mix ratios not only provides valuable guidance for steel mills in controlling production costs but also enables them to forecast future trends in raw material price movements by observing the differences in price spreads and the speed of price changes across different periods.

Congratulations to Luoyang Tongxin Composite Materials Technology Co., Ltd. on the official launch of its website!

Luoyang Tongxin Composite Materials Technology Co., Ltd. was founded in 1997 and was reorganized and renamed Luoyang Tongxin Composite Materials Technology Co., Ltd. in 2016. The company is a technology-based enterprise engaged in the research, production, and sales of metal composite materials—including aluminum-based, steel-based, copper-based, and nickel-based composites—as well as aluminum-based multilayer metal composites and hot-dip alloy composite materials.