India has been growing at a brisk pace in terms of producing steel and in the process, it has replaced Japan as the second largest steel producing country in the world. China stands firm on top as the world’s largest producer of crude steel accounting for more than 51% of production as per the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
The global steel body in its latest report observed that China’s crude steel output hiked 6.6 per cent to 928.3 million tonnes (MT) in 2018 from 870.9 MT in 2017. China’s share enlarged from 50.3 per cent in 2017 to 51.3 per cent in 2018.
“India’s crude steel production in 2018 was at 106.5 MT. up by 4.9 per cent from 101.5 MT in 2017. meaning India has replaced Japan as the world’s second-largest steel producing country. Japan produced 104.3 MT in 2018. down 0.3 per cent compared to 2017,” world steel said.
Global crude steel production reached 1,808.6 MT for 2018 from 1,729.8 MT in the year 2017, a rise of 4.6 per cent, it said. While other countries in the top 10 steel producing countries include the United States, at the 4th position as it produced 867 MT of crude steel in 2018, South Korea takes the 5th spot as it produced 72.5 MT, Russia at 6th with 71.7 MT, Germany at 7th with 42.4 MT, Turkey (37.3 MT, 8th) followed by Brazil (34.7 MT, 9th) and Iran (25 MT, 10th).
Among other countries globally, Italy produced 24.5 MT of crude steel in the year 2018 whereas France (15.4 MT), Spain (14.3 MT) and Ukraine (21.1 MT) follow next on the list.
For your information, the World Steel Association is one of the industry associations in the world. Its members represent around 85% of the world’s steel production including over 160 steel producers with 9 of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes.
(With inputs from PTI)
