Emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide will be cut by 47-95% if mills cut out sintering and switch to pellets, Li said.
Erik Hedborg, senior iron ore analyst at CRU in London, expects Chinese pellet demand to grow more than 40% by 2023 to roughly 190 million tonnes, from 140 million tonnes in 2018, and keep rising.
China’s current demand for pellets remains well below overseas counterparts, at around 15-16% of all ore compared with 35% in Europe.
“We expect China to follow the rest of the world in terms of pellet rates,” Hedborg said.
