Promoting the low-carbon and intelligent development of the metallurgical industry and establishing a low-carbon metallurgical industry system are crucial for ensuring national metal resource and energy security, strengthening the manufacturing sector, and supporting carbon reduction and ecological construction in China. Based on a global perspective, the metallurgical industry of China is still at a stage of low-end manufacturing. Therefore, it is necessary to conduct the top-level design to boost China's strength in metallurgical development, integrating the independent control of metal resources, intelligent manufacturing, environmental protection, and national security maintenance as an organic whole. This study summarizes the frontiers and development trends of metallurgical engineering science and technology worldwide, analyzes the development vision of metallurgical engineering science and technology in China, and proposes medium- and long-term strategic measures for China's metallurgical engineering technology development toward 2040, involving general development ideas, key strategic tasks, and main technology development directions. Furthermore, the following countermeasures are proposed: (1) developing disruptive technologies in the metallurgical field in advance, (2) integrating the industrial and innovation chains of the metallurgical industry, (3) building a sophisticated talent system, (4) improving the policy and standards systems, and (5) constructing driving forces for core technology development.