Amid pandemic, China’s share of global crude steel production increased to 56.5%, India’s steel output slips 10% : Worldsteel

Bhubaneswar : Global steel production dropped by 0.9% to 1864 million tonnes (Mt) for the year 2020(Jan-Dec) mainly due to significant drop in production in leading steel producing countries like India, Japan and South Korea.

According to the data releases by the World Steel Association, China, the world’s dominant steel producing country, has reported 5.2% rise in steel production to 1053 Mt. With this, China’s share of global crude steel production increased from 53.3% in 2019 to 56.5% in 2020.

Except China, world’s other leading steel producing countries have witnessed significant drop in production due to COVID-19 related disruptions and weak demand. India’s crude steel production for 2020 was 99.6 Mt, down by 10.6% on 2019. Japan produced 83.2 Mt in 2020, down 16.2% on 2019. South Korea produced 67.1 Mt, down 6.0% on 2019. Overall, Asia produced 1,374.9 Mt of of crude steel in 2020, an increase of 1.5% compared to 2019.

“The EU produced 138.8 Mt of crude steel in 2020, a decrease of 11.8% compared to 2019. Germany produced 35.7 Mt of crude steel in 2020, down 10.0% on 2019. In the CIS, production was 102.0 Mt in 2020, up by 1.5% on 2019. Russia is estimated to have produced 73.4 Mt in 2020, up 2.6% on 2019. Ukraine produced 20.6 Mt in 2020, down 1.1% on 2019. Crude steel production in North America was 101.1 Mt in 2020, down 15.5% on 2019. The United States produced 72.7 Mt in 2020, down 17.2% on 2019. The Middle East produced 45.4 Mt of crude steel in 2020, an increase of 2.5% on 2019. Iran is estimated to have produced 29.0 Mt in 2020, up 13.4% on 2019” said Worldsteel.