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The Circular Economy is a new approach focusing on increasing material efficiency, minimizing waste, and circulating resource. This paper is about an analysis of circular economy and production management strategies in the metallurgical industries of the European Union (EU) and China. The metallurgical sector, one of the main industries, faces some problems related to environment, sustainable development, decreasing efficiency, and resource reduction. This article examines the different approaches taken by the EU and China to solve these challenges. The analysis shows different models. China uses a top-down, government-led approach that prioritizes resource security and large-scale industrial restructuring. China is adopting circular economy principles under its 14th Five-Year Plan, but faces issues such as massive overcapacity and high greenhouse gas emissions, and needs to improve its production management procedure through smart manufacturing and increased scrap utilization. On the other hand, the EU uses rules, regulations and market-based framework guided by supranational policies and legislation such as carbon pricing. The circular economy approach in the European Union is designed to achieve high recycling rates and quality waste management and emphasizes a move to lower-carbon technologies such as electric arc furnaces (EAFs) that aim to reduce CO2. The results show that while both EU and China are moving towards more sustainable future, their act in different political and economic manners. The conclusion is both approaches have their own advantages and face their own barriers. Moreover, greater international cooperation and knowledge sharing are necessary for metallurgical industry to achieve a sustainable and circular future.
Keywords: Metallurgical industry, circular economy, production management, European Union, China© This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.