The Research On Circular Economy Efficiency And Quality Of Iron And Steel Industry In China

At present our country is in the late industrialization, economic development mainly depends on investment model characterized a lot of resources consumption. In this kind of development mode, the resources dried up quickly, severe environmental pollution and ecological imbalance would push the social capacity close to the limit. In addition, these problems force China’s economic development enter into a trap of "high input, high consumption, high pollution". So the sustainable development of economy in our country must abandon the developing mode of high energy consumption. Instead, the further development should adopt the circular economy development model named "low investment, low energy consumption, low pollution".As the pillar industry for the Chinese economy, the level of development of steel industry indirectly reflects the development of national economy. Meanwhile, it is also a typical "high-polluting, high-energy-consuming and resource-dependent" industry. The long-term extensive economic growth mode has brought a series of problems such as the serious shortage of resources, worsening ecological environment. So, circular economy turns out to be the only solution to sustainable development of iron and steel industry. The scientific and accurate evaluation system is the premise and foundation of the development of circular economy of iron and steel industry.Circular economy efficiency is a suitable index to measure the development of the circular economy. Now many scholars have studied the circular economy of the steel industry. Their research mainly focused on the necessity as well as the choice of mode of circular economy, instead of the measure of circular economy development.Adoption of circular economy in steel industry requires an overall estimate and measure of circular economy development. Therefore, this thesis defined the conception of circular economy efficiency. To be specific, the circular economy efficiency means the ecological efficiency which takes account of recycling and reuse of resources.This thesis established the evaluation indicator system for circular economy efficiency by using DEA analysis method. It adopted ratios instead of gross index which is widely used in the existing literature. The DEA analysis showed that the main reason of circular economy’s inefficiency on China’s steel industry lies in the pure technical inefficiency. In order to measure the development of circular economy on China’s steel industry, this thesis defined the conception and connotation of circular economy quality, and what’s more, it established the quality evaluation indicator system for circular economy. Generally speaking, the circular economy quality means the final effect of circular economy on steel industry under the perspective of "reducing, reusing and recycling".The quality evaluation indicator system for circular economy was designed based on guideline "3R". It reflects the effect on the aspects of "reducing, reusing, recycling and harmless" when steel industry carrying out the circular economy.According to the fuzzy evaluation on the circular economy quality of steel industry, the author reached a conclusion that the circular economy quality of China’s steel industry presented uptrend basically from2008to2012, especially in2010.Based on the evaluation result of circular economy efficiency and quality of China’s steel industry,40sample enterprises were divided into6types. Specifically, the6types are "high efficiency and high-quality, high efficiency and low-quality, medium efficiency and high-quality, medium efficiency and low-quality, low efficiency and high-quality, and the worst one, low efficiency and low-quality". Obviously, the first type is the target and orientation of others.The2-D matrix of efficiency-quality can directly reflect the development of circular economy on China’s steel industry. In addition, it indicates the path to upgrade the circular economy for different types of enterprises.At last, the author analyzed the influencing factors on circular economy efficiency and quality of China’s steel industry with the panel data model. The above analysis has concluded that both the enterprise technology and the scale of enterprise can prompt circular economy quality. Expand the scale of the enterprise can effectively improve the circular economy quality, especially. While the enterprise technology shows a negative effect on circular economy efficiency. The effect of the scale of enterprise on the circular economy efficiency failed the test. There is no evident scale economy in circular economy on China’s steel industry. In the meanwhile, the thesis established the quality evaluation indicator system for circular economy. The authors argue that further improving the circular economic development environment is essential to develop the circular economy of China’s steel industry.The creative point of this thesis is that it defined the conception of circular economy efficiency and quality, and what’s more, it established a new evaluation indicator system which is different from the existing literature. The author conducted a comprehensive analysis of circular economy across two dimensions: efficiency and quality. In particular, efficiency lays particular emphasis on efficiency of input and output when steel industry implementing circular economy. In contrast, quality focus on the operation effects of circular economy which embodies the connotation of circular economy quality. A comprehensive understanding of circular economy’s status quo in China’s steel industry can provide the theoretical foundation as well as the objective basis to enhance the development level of circular economy.