With the increasingly strict environmental protection policies, the hot-rolled pickling industry is accelerating green transformation, and the application of environmental protection technologies such as acid recovery and wastewater treatment has become the focus of industry development. It is reported that the industry plans to invest 12 billion yuan in the renovation of acid regeneration systems, aiming to achieve an acid recovery rate of more than 98% and significantly reduce pollutant emissions.
At present, new acid regeneration technologies have been applied in many leading enterprises. A large steel enterprise's closed-loop acid regeneration system has an acid recovery rate of 99%, reducing the pickling cost per ton of steel by 18%-22%, while achieving zero wastewater discharge. In addition, the penetration rate of chromium-free passivation technology has gradually increased from 35% in 2023 to 48% in 2025, and is expected to exceed 60% by 2030, further improving the environmental performance of products.

At the policy level, the clean production standards under the carbon peak goal continue to be upgraded. The industry will accelerate the elimination of backward pickling capacity, and it is expected to complete 30% of capacity replacement by 2025, promoting the industry concentration CR10 to rise to 55%-60%. In terms of regional layout, constrained by environmental protection policies, the capacity proportion of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region has gradually decreased from 28% in 2022 to 25% in 2025; while the northwest and southwest regions have benefited from the "industrial westward migration" strategy, their capacity proportion will increase from 8% to 12%, and the regional industrial cluster effect will gradually emerge.