The World Steel Association (worldsteel) says that global crude steel output was 1,808.6 million tonnes from its 64 reporting countries in 2018, up 4.6% year-on-year. Crude steel production increased in all regions in the year except in the European Union, which has seen a slight contraction, worldsteel says. 

Since 2010, global crude steel production has continued to rise annually, with the sole exception of 2015, when global output fell, due to the slow down of activity of both the Chinese and the global sector.

Despite the fact that the growth last year was at a slightly slower rate than 2017 levels (+6.3% y-o-y), it is still worth noticing that the 4.6% recovery level registered is well above those registered in 2014 and 2016.

In 2018 China produced 928.3mt, an increase of 5.7% on 2017 and representing 51.3% of global output, up by 1% compared to its share recorded in 2017.

Asian output last year was 1,271.1mt, up by 5.6% on-year.

India has replaced Japan as the world’s second-largest steel-producing country. Crude steel production in Japan in 2018 fell by -0.3% on-year to 104.3mt whilst that of India was an estimated 106.5mt, up by 4.9% from that in 2017. South Korean production grew by 2.0% y-on-y during the year to 72.5mt.