World Crude Steel Production Falls 1.2%

World production of crude steel fell 1.2% between 2007 and 2008, with production weighing in at 1.33 billion metric tonnes last year, according to a report released by the World Steel Association.

Despite the slight downturn, the organization notes that 2008 was the second consecutive year production of steel has reached more than 1.3 billion tonnes, with production in 2007 reaching an all-time high of 1.35 billion tonnes.

The industry saw an acceleration of negative growth start in the final quarter of 2008, with a 24.3% decrease in December compared with production in 2007.

The biggest growth regions for steel production were Asia and the Middle East; China led the pack with 502 million tonnes, a 2.6% increase.

China is the first country to ever produce more than 500 million tonnes of steel in one year, having more than doubled its output in six years from 222 million tonnes.

According to the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), severe snowstorms last January and strains in power supply interrupted transportation and slowed steel output from the country. However, China still produced 38% of the world’s crude steel.

Asia produced 770 million tonnes of crude steel, 58% of world steel production last year, up 1.9% from 2007.

South Korea produced 53.5 million tonnes, a 3.8% increase, and India produced 55.1 million tonnes, a 3.7% rise. Japan saw a 1.2% decrease from 2007 production levels, with output reaching 118 million tonnes last year.

The Middle East saw a 1.2% increase, manufacturing 16.6 million tonnes in 2008.

According to the World Steel Association, North American steel production declined by 5.5% to only 125.4 million tonnes, a low it hasn’t seen since 2003.

The United States produced 91.5 million tonnes, a 5.5% decrease from 2007, comparable with 2002’s steel output of 91.6 million tonnes. The decline has worried American steelmakers, prompting the American Iron and Steel Institute (AISI) to call on Congress to “to eliminate policies that put U. S. manufacturers at a competitive disadvantage to their foreign competitors,” during a congressional steel caucus in early February.

Canada ranked 16 on the list of steel producers, having manufactured 15.1 million tonnes in 2008, down 2.8% from the previous year.

The 27-nation European Union produced 199 million tonnes of steel, a 5.3% reduction from 2007. The largest steel producers in the EU, Germany, Italy and France, recorded declines of 5.6%, 3.4% and 7.1%, respectively.

In the Commonwealth of Independent States, steel production fell 10.1 million tonnes, or 8.1%, to 114.1 million tonnes from 124.2 million tonnes in 2007. Russia produced 69 million tonnes of crude steel, a 5.4% reduction. Ukraine’s steel production fell a record 13.1%, with output levels of 37 million tonnes in 2008.

South America saw a 1.4% decrease in production to 47.6 million tonnes — 29.6 million tonnes of which from Brazil.

Members of the World Steel Association produce about 85% of the world’s steel. The organization represents 180 steel producers worldwide, including 18 of the 20 largest steel companies.

TABLE 1: Top 10 steel-producing countries
Country	Rank	2008	2007	% change
China	1	502.0	489.2	2.6
Japan	2	118.7	120.2	-1.2
United States	3	91.5	98.2	-6.8
Russia	4	68.5	72.4	-5.4
India	5	55.1	53.1	3.7
South Korea	6	53.5	51.5	3.8
Germany	7	45.8	48.6	-5.6
Ukraine	8	37.1	42.8	-13.4
Brazil	9	33.7	33.8	-0.2
Italy	10	30.5	31.5	-3.4