Iron is an important metal material that is crucial to social and national economic development. In order to understand iron's material flow, energy flow, and value flow in China, a composite flow framework is here established. Based on this framework, the concept of price is introduced, and China is taken as an example to study the composite flow of iron in 2018. The results showed the following. First, as iron moved down the industrial chain, its material flow decreased gradually, while the price continued to rise. Second, the annual loss of raw materials from iron processing was 150-200 million tons, and scrap iron had great potential for secondary utilization. Third, China had a trade deficit in terms of importing raw materials and exporting products, but it also had a trade surplus in trade volume. Finally, China imported iron-containing goods at high prices but exported iron-containing goods at low prices. This was due to the lack of high-end science and technology, which made China less competitive in the international market.
Keywords: Composite flow; Energy flow; Iron; Material flow analysis; Recycling economy; Value flow.
© 2022. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature.