Water Resource

Water Resource Management

Corresponding UN SDGs

Taiwan's SDGs (T-SDGs) : Core Objective 6, 8, 11

Benefit Highlights in 2024

  • Participated in the CDP water project and obtained the management level (A-).
  • The recycling rate of processed water reached 98.5%.
  • CSC introduced the urban sewage reclaimed water project which recovered 24,228 million liters of reclaimed water from Fengshan Creek and Linhai Industrial Park in 2024.
  • Compared to the introduction of reclaimed water, the intensity of new water is reduced by 58.7%.
  • Effluent monitoring data are far more superior to effluent standards.

Policy or Commitment

CSC is located in Kaohsiung City. If CSC only relies on a single source of tap water, a cut or restriction in water supply will cause huge losses to the company and have a severe impact on production and even its equipment. Hence, CSC began keeping a beady eye on water issues many years ago. The company commissioned the Tainan Hydraulics Laboratory at NCKU to study its water use planning and strategy in 2011 and confirmed the water use strategy of diversifying its water resources in 2012. In an ongoing effort to move on from its reliance on a single source of tap water, CSC is currently working hard towards the development of new water resources aimed at mitigating the risk of water cuts or water rationing. Considering CSC's advantage arising from the fact that it is located in two areas under the urban sewage treatment and reclamation projects initiated by the Water Resources Agency, reclaimed water derived from urban sewage has been selected as the second source of water for the company's steel mills. CSC established a Utilities Department under the Production Division to effectively carry out water resource management and risk response. The department is responsible for handling water resource related affairs. Risk assessment of water resources and the formulation and implementation of strategies to respond to such risks are mainly supervised by the vice president of the production department, and are included in the company's risk management procedures and reported to the Board of Directors every six months. Water management scope: covering all the company’s Hsiao Kang factory operations. No violation of water pollution related laws and regulations in 2024.

While proactively developing a diverse range of water sources, CSC has not only built its own industrial-scale reverse osmosis (RO) water purification plant to recycle industrial wastewater produced at its plants, but also become the first in Taiwan to use reclaimed water in large quantities in 2018 in line with the government's Fengshan Creek Reclaimed Water Policy as the Company uses 40.5 million liters of reclaimed water every day, accounting 33% of its overall water consumption. On December 9, 2021, CSC began receiving 20 million liters of reclaimed water each day from Linhai Reclaimed Water Plant, thus reaching a new milestone in the company's development of water resources as reclaimed water now constitutes up to 50% of its overall water consumption. In May 2024, CSC cooperate with the Kaohsiung City Government and implement Hofa Industrial Park reclaimed water fulfillment project. Fengshan Creek Reclaimed Water Plant expanded reclaimed water supply by 9.7 million liters additionally. Since then, reclaimed water constitutes up to 60% of CSC overall water consumption. CSC's water supply diversification policy can not only boost water supply stability at the company, but also increases the water company's flexibility to supply water for household use. On top of that, CSC has also planned ahead with the seawater desalination solution as it is now studying the feasibility of low-cost desalinated seawater as a water source on an ongoing basis.





CSC's Water use status and Recovery rate

Year
Unit：Million liters		 2021 2022 2023 2024
Production Process
Water Recirculation 		2,849,595 2,821,318 2,802,252 2,735,849
Processing Water
Recycling Rate(I)(%) 		98.4% 98.5% 98.5% 98.5%
New Water Withdrawal 27,842 21,562 18,623 17,978
Urban Reclaimed
Water(II)
Usage 		16,205 21,514 22,339 24,228
Water Discharge 14,202 16,234 14,527 16,789
Water Consumption(III) 29,845 26,842 26,435 25,417
  • NoteI: Processing water recycling rate = production process water recirculation ÷ total water use in process x100%.
  • NoteII: The Fengshan Creek Reclaimed Water was implemented in 2018, and the supply of reclaimed water reached 41 million liters per day.
  • NoteIII: Water Consumption=Total Water Withdrawal-Water Discharge, the Total Water Withdrawal=New Water Withdrawal+ Urban Reclaimed Water Usage.
  • NoteIV: For the target setting of water consumption, the average value of the previous three years (2021~2023) is used as the benchmark, and a 5% reduction is used as the goal. Therefore, the water consumption target value is set to 26.3 Mio. m3 in 2024, but in fact due to The steel market conditions will continue to be poor in 2024, resulting in the actual water consumption in 2024 being 25.4 Mio. m3, which is still lower than the set target value of 26.3 Mio. m3.

CSC Water Intensity

Year 2021 2022 2023 2024
Water Intensity(I)(t/tCS) Target value 4.60 4.60 4.90 4.90
Actual Value 4.32 4.86 5.04 5.10(III)
New Water Intensity (t/tCS) Target value 3.50 2.50 2.50 2.10
Actual value 2.65(II) 2.31 2.16 2.03
  • Note I: Calculation of water intensity = (new water + reclaimed water-sold steam) ÷ annual output of crude steel. Calculation of new water intensity = (new water-sold steam) ÷ annual output of crude steel.
  • Note II: In Octobert 2021, the reclaimed water from Linhai Industrial Park was introduced.
  • Note III: Due to poor market conditions, adjustments to production volume is expected to increase water consumption per unit crude steel.

Water Efficiency Management Programs

Aspect CSC Practice
Water use assessment to identify opportunities for water efficiency improvements CSC periodically conducts a comprehensive assessment of water usage across all operations to identify opportunities for water efficiency improvements. This includes examining processes, equipment, and facilities to pinpoint areas of inefficiency. During the water use assessment in 2018, CSC found that the salinity of water significantly affected the production efficiency of the pure water system. The salinization of water further led to the decline of steam productivity in the Power Plant and hindered the production of the company. Therefore, CSC initiated programs to monitor and manage the conductivity of raw water intake, continually improving water use efficiency. With proper management of water salinity, the amount of water intake could decrease from 270,000 to 130,000 tonnes, saving 1.725 million TWD per month.
Actions to reduce water consumption CSC implements measures to reduce water consumption, such as upgrading equipment to more water-efficient models, optimizing processes to minimize water usage, and fixing leaks promptly. For example in recent years, ，we have executed several water saving projects :
  • The G/H columns of the second water field of the power plant were updated to a high-efficiency water collection process.
  • The air blower was updated to a high-efficiency rotor to reduce cooling water consumption.
  • Reduced the drain time for backwashing water.
  • The water saving system of the converter (along with the converter heat recycling and transformation) can reduce the water loading of the closed indirect cooling water and external water spray due to heat reduction of the water system, thereby achieving the purpose of saving water and will save about 409.2 million liters per year.
  • Rooftop rainwater harvesting of the plant: Rooftop rainwater collection and recovery facilities are widely installed in the plant. Rainwater harvesting in 2024 was about 785.8million liters, which was used as complementary supply for recycling water during process of production.
  • The full reclaimed water (RCW) supply was completed in 2019, and CSC became the first enterprise to use great amount of RCW in Taiwan. CSC introduced the RCW into its third cold-rolled (TCR) pure water (DMW) system and use its better water quality characteristics.
Actions to improve wastewater quality In 2020~2024, CSC has undertaken several projects to enhance the ammonia nitrogen wastewater treatment system throughout the entire plant. These initiatives include the construction of a coking wastewater temporary storage pool, the expansion of a coking wastewater COD removal pool, and the addition of an industrial wastewater biological filter tank. These projects have improved the stability of discharged water quality, consequently reducing the risk of water pollution.
Establishment of targets to reduce water use CSC’s goals to comply with government goals: reducing freshwater consumption, introducing reclaimed water at different stages, gradually reducing the tap water usage, and diversified water sources.
    (Base year=2017)
  • Goal 1: Cooperate with the Kaohsiung City Government and implement Hofa Industrial Park reclaimed water - reduce 57.0% of water consumption by 2025.
  • Goal 2: Improving the recovery rate of industrial wastewater purification plant – reduce 58.4% of water consumption in 2026 to 2030.
  • Goal 3: Diversify water sources and evaluate wastewater recycling - reduce 60.4% of water consumption by 2030.

In 2024, we had achieved Reclaimed water usage accounts for 57.4% of overall water usage, which means that the proportion of tap water consumption in the overall water consumption has dropped to 42.6%.

Application of water recycling Despite the continuous expansion of the relevant production lines since 2003, water management and recycling have been promoted. With the integration of regional energy in Linhai Industrial Zone, the process water recovery rate has reached 98.5% in 2024. In recent years, we have implemented several water recycling projects:
  • Setting up an industrial wastewater purification plant: Remove most suspended particulates and ions in the water through ultrafiltration (UF) and reverse osmosis (RO) membranes, and then pass the ion exchange system to meet the demineralization standard for high-pressure boilers.
  • In the second container of the converter, a 6-inch pipe diameter is added for the indirect cooling water to bypass the filter in order to reduce direct water discharge. A total of 432 million liters of water is saved annually.
  • Recovery and reuse of RO concentrated water in wastewater purification plant: About 3 to 5 million liters of water are recovered daily for blast furnace water quenching.
Awareness training provided to employees on water efficiency management programs CSC provides comprehensive training programs to employees on water efficiency management practices to raise awareness. This includes educating them on the importance of water conservation, identifying opportunities for improvement, and understanding the role they play in achieving water efficiency goals. If there is a large-scale water conservation plan, further education and training will be provided specifically on the required operations. For example, at the end of May 2019, the pure water efficiency management plan was completed and the education and training of employees were completed. In conjunction with the two pure water pipes next to the pure water tank, bypass pipes and 4 pneumatic control valve switches were added. The third cold-rolled pure water system can be switched through pipeline modifications to conserve and use water efficiently.

Water Risk Management

To identify, evaluate, and mitigate water-related risks to ensure sustainable water management within the organization, CSC implements the following comprehensive water risk management programs covering its operation, value chain (including supply chain and product users) and nature environment.

Aspect CSC Practice
Dependency-related water risk assessment By systematically assessing dependency-related water risks, CSC understands its vulnerabilities and develops strategies to mitigate potential water-related challenges. CSC takes actions to identify water uses, quantify water dependency, assess water source vulnerability, analyze alternative water sources, and evaluate supply chain dependencies. Together with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), CSC established a Water Resource Platform and developed a System Dynamic Model. This model enables CSC to evaluate water availability under different scenarios, ensuring a smooth acquisition of the 45,000 to 50,000 CMD of water needed for production.
Impact-related water risk assessment CSC assesses the potential impacts of water-related issues on the entity and its stakeholders. Considering different scenarios of climate change, such as severe drought or flooding, CSC evaluates the financial and operational impacts of water-related issues. By recycling sewage, desalinating seawater, and building new pipelines, CSC investigates the availability and feasibility of alternative water sources to diversify its water supply.
Assessment of future water quantities available Water quantities risk caused by climate change is strongly considered in the risk assessment. The primary water source of CSC is was evaluated by the National Science and Technology Center for Disaster Reduction (NCDR) and IPCC A1B climate change scenario. The evaluation revealed that the runoff will increase by 14.3% and decreases by 28.6% in high and low flow period, respectively, in 2020 to 2039. Moreover, a system dynamic model, which incorporated with the previously evaluation results, was created to quantify the water risk. The model shows low water shortage risk if 60,500 CMD sewage reclaimed water is used.
Assessment of future water quality-related risks We log in through Taiwan Water Company’s and Reclaimed Water Supplier Blue Whale's websites to assess water-related quality information, such as withdrawal amounts and online detection values. Using the provided data, CSC can predict future water quality and quantity.
Assessment of impacts on local stakeholders CSC's water primarily comes from industrial sources and recycled water, without conflicting with the domestic water supply. The industrial water is sourced from Fengshan Reservoir, which accounted for 40% of the reservoir's water supply prior to the introduction of reclaimed water, potentially impacting local water usage. To mitigate these impacts, CSC diversifies its water resources and actively cooperates with the government in developing urban polluted water recycling policies.
Assessment of future potential regulatory changes at a local level CSC’s Environmental Protection Office actively participates in various policy briefings held by government agencies, communicate with them based on CSC's current situation, and coordinate the implementation of both parties' consensus.
Expanding the scope of risk assessment Besides evaluating the water risks of CSC’s operations, we also include the entire value chain (suppliers and downstream customers) in the risk assessment. CSC effectively requests relevant risk and management information from domestic suppliers when necessary. Additionally, we actively strive to gather risk and management information from foreign suppliers through their official websites or corporate news releases. For downstream customers of CSC, including CHUN YUAN STEEL, CSC engages in customer visits to collaborate with value chain partners, aiming to enhance their understanding of water-related issues and support the implementation of water-saving measures. Our primary goal is to educate customers and partners about the significance of water resource protection, fostering greater awareness of its importance. Additionally, we share our innovative water-saving solutions and technologies with customers and partners, assisting them in developing suitable measures to reduce water consumption and minimize wastage.