Elevator wire ropes and steel bars will be produced in accordance with national standards

Building collapses and residential elevator accidents caused by disasters continue to occur. At the same time, steel bars are widely used in various fields such as houses, bridges, railways, roads, tunnels, etc. as the skeleton material of concrete structures. However, there are no mandatory standards for the production of these steels. For a long time, manufacturers have only produced according to the lower limit of the recommended standards.

"There was a survey that nearly 40% of the construction steel standards in rural areas of several provinces in China were unqualified." The head of the China Steel Bar Standardization Committee told the reporter of China Business News, "The previous standards were not mandatory, and now the country requires steel to meet higher standards."

The reporter learned that the production of 6 types of steel related to national economy and people's livelihood will enter the era of mandatory standards.

On July 5, Zhang Haideng, deputy director of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the "Six Key Products of Rebar and Wire Rope Mandatory National Standards Promotion Meeting": "Mandatory national standards are related to the safety of people's lives and property, national security and ecological security. They are the technical bottom line for market access and have mandatory and binding effects. Protecting people's life safety and health can be done at all costs."

Reporters learned that elevator wire ropes are also required to meet the standards before they can be sold in the market.

1% profit life and death line

In 2024, the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other 7 departments, issued the "Action Plan for Improving Traction Equipment Updates and Consumer Goods Replacement with Standards", implemented a new round of standard improvement actions, and included 6 national standards such as elevator wire ropes and hot-rolled ribbed steel bars in the list of important standard development tasks.

Zhang Haideng said: "Now it has been transformed from a recommended national standard to a mandatory national standard, and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has organized the National Steel Standardization Technical Committee to carry out the revision work. These six national standards involve buildings, elevators, ropeways, mines and other fields. The transformation into mandatory national standards is more conducive to the role of mandatory standards as a "bottom line", which fully reflects the "people-oriented" safety concept."

Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation (National Standardization Administration) issued GB 1499.1-2024 "Steel for Reinforced Concrete Part 1: Hot-rolled Plain Round Steel Bars", GB 1499.2-2024 "Steel for Reinforced Concrete Part 2: Hot-rolled Ribbed Steel Bars", GB 13788-2024 "Cold-rolled Ribbed Steel Bars", GB 8903-2024 "Wire Ropes for Elevators", GB 26722-2024 "Wire Ropes for Ropeways", and GB 33955-2024 "Wire Ropes for Mine Hoisting".

An expert who participated in the formulation of the standard told a reporter from China Business News: "When encountering landslides and earthquakes, our houses collapsed on a large scale, and even exploded. We believe that in addition to strengthening management, some measures must be taken to improve the level of safety in production and the safety of people's homes from the standard level."

Previously, some steel standards involved in construction were recommended standards and did not have legal mandatory nature, so companies could treat production standards flexibly.

The reporter learned that the recommended standards adopted previously had an implementation deviation of plus or minus 3%. "In order to reduce costs, everyone will always choose minus 3% and will not choose plus 3%. The gap between the positive and negative is 6%, so now the range has been further tightened and narrowed, which provides a guarantee for safe production. I think there is an obvious driving effect of safety guarantee." The aforementioned expert added.

"Because every one percentage point increase in the product standard may be the life and death line of steel costs, some small and medium-sized enterprises are producing according to the minimum limit of the recommended standard." The aforementioned expert said, "Now, we have raised and clarified the standards, and companies that violate the rules will no longer have a chance to take advantage of it."

The expert also revealed to reporters: "During the process of standard formulation, the leaders of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology proposed to implement the deviation plus or minus 1%, and this issue caused heated discussions."

Because the real estate market is not good, some threaded steel bar manufacturers are already at the boundary of life and death.

In the future, increasing product profits "is to improve product quality, increase customer stickiness, and improve product grades to ensure corporate profits, rather than just reducing costs." He explained: "And mandatory standards must be used, otherwise people are unwilling to implement high standards."

Increase the diameter of elevator wire rope

Zhang Longqiang, secretary of the Party Committee and president of the Metallurgical Industry Information Standards Research Institute, told the reporter of China Business News: "The steel industry is an important basic raw material industry in my country and has played a major role in supporting the development of the national economy. The six mandatory national standards issued this time involve steel bars and wire rope products, which are important steel products."

He introduced that in 2023, my country's steel bar production will reach 226 million tons, accounting for 22.1% of crude steel production. Steel bar products are not only large in quantity and wide in scope, but also related to the national economy and people's livelihood. Wire rope is a basic industrial material in national economic construction and is widely used in important fields such as coal, cableway, elevator, petroleum, chemical industry, construction, aviation, and shipbuilding. By the end of 2023, there will be more than 200 wire rope production companies with an output of about 3 million tons.

In recent years, elevator falls have occurred from time to time.

He said: "Among them, wire ropes for mine hoisting, wire ropes for elevators, and wire ropes for cableways are representative products of important-purpose wire ropes. Due to the particularity and extensiveness of application scenarios, they play a key role in ensuring the smooth operation of engineering equipment and personal safety."

At present, the number of elevators in China has exceeded 10 million, and the annual demand for elevator wire ropes is about 300,000 tons (240,000 tons newly added and 60,000 tons maintained and replaced). It has the world's largest market and the largest elevator wire rope manufacturing base.

It is understood that in 2021, the State Administration for Market Regulation once conducted a random inspection of wire ropes, and the unqualified rate was 10.2%. This time, 187 batches of wire rope products produced by 135 enterprises in 13 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) were randomly inspected, and 19 batches of products were found to be unqualified.

Ren Cuiying, deputy secretary-general of the Wire Rope Standardization Committee, told reporters that the newly released mandatory standards have added three new wire rope structures, including 6×24MFC-FC and 6×37M-FC, for elevator wire ropes. The upper limit of the diameter of the suspension wire rope has been expanded from 22mm to 25mm, and the diameter deviation category of the steel core wire rope has been increased.

Driving the replacement of old equipment with new ones

In March this year, the State Council issued the "Action Plan for Promoting Large-Scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Replacement", which clearly proposed to adhere to the guidance of standards and orderly improvement, and to accelerate the formulation and revision of standards in the fields of environmental protection and safety in combination with the actual development of the industry.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology also hopes that the implementation of the new standards will actively promote the renewal and technical transformation of old equipment such as production equipment, energy-consuming equipment, and power transmission and distribution equipment, and continuously improve the level of technical equipment, digitalization, and greening of enterprises.

Zhang Haideng said: "In the early stage, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Field", organized local governments to report projects, and recommended the first batch of projects to financial institutions. It will continue to recommend projects in the future, encouraging steel companies to actively apply for projects and strive for financial support." He introduced that at present, the country is vigorously promoting large-scale equipment renewal and consumer goods replacement actions, and has introduced a series of fiscal and tax support policies. Steel companies should fully seize the policy "opportunity period" and continue to work hard on "improving quality, increasing varieties, and creating brands" to provide more competitive and high-quality products that meet consumer needs. It is understood that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and other relevant departments, has successively issued the "Guiding Opinions on Accelerating the Transformation and Upgrading of Traditional Manufacturing" and the "Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Renewal in the Industrial Field". In terms of equipment renewal, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology stated: "Focus on key industries, adhere to market-oriented promotion and standardization leadership, implement advanced equipment and software integrated update and upgrade actions, and eliminate a batch of inefficient and old equipment."