Niobium is widely used in iron and steel industry, electronics industry, chemical industry, aerospace industry and mechanical industry due to its high melting point, corrosion resistance and strong thermal conductivity. In recent years, with the progress of science and technology, niobium has also played a prominent role in the fields of superconductivity, magnetism, high temperature and other high and new technologies.
Worldwide, niobium is mainly used in iron and steel smelting. The corrosion resistance, strength, tensile strength and cold processing ability of niobium steel treated by adding niobium element are greatly enhanced. Data show that the world's annual niobium steel production is about 30 million tons, some steel countries of niobium steel production accounted for 20% of the total.
Baosteel, angang, wisco and other enterprises in China have developed and produced niobium steel products of various specifications. In 1991, baotou steel group developed and produced U76NbRE steel grade by using its own characteristic resources and relying on the die casting process route, and applied it to the rail production, known as niobium rare earth rail. In 1997, niobium rare earth heavy rail through the metallurgical ministry and the ministry of railways jointly organized identification, and panzhihua steel U75V rail with independent intellectual property rights of China's heavy rail varieties "shuanghua".
It can be predicted that with the transformation and upgrading of China's iron and steel industry, it is an inevitable trend to increase the number of high-grade steel products, so the demand for iron and steel metallurgy niobium will be increasingly large.
