Annual Crude Steel Production Surged 5.3% in 2017

China dominated world countries in yearly steel output. The country’s crude steel production surged higher by 5.7% over the previous year to total 831.7 Mt in 2017. Also, China’s share of world crude steel production increased from 49% in 2016 to 49.2% during the previous year.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The annual crude steel production report published by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) suggests 5.3% jump in world crude steel output in 2017 over the previous year. The crude steel production totaled 1.691 billion tonnes during the year, as compared with 1.606 billion tonnes in 2016.

All regions except the CIS reported increased production in 2017. The production by the CIS region comprising of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and associate members Uzbekistan and Ukraine remained more or less flat over the year. The estimated output by the CIS region was 102.1 million tonnes (Mt) in 2017, unchanged from 2016.

Overall, Asian region produced 1.163 billion tonnes in 2017, representing nearly 69% of the global production. The region's output had surged higher by 3% in November too. The other key producers in the region were Japan (104.7 Mt) and India (101.4 Mt). Incidentally, Japanese crude steel production declined marginally by 0.1% during the year to touch the lowest level in eight years. Meantime, South Korean crude steel production climbed higher by 3.7% to 71.1 Mt in 2017.

China dominated world countries in yearly steel output. The country’s crude steel production surged higher by 5.7% over the previous year to total 831.7 Mt in 2017. Also, China’s share of world crude steel production increased from 49% in 2016 to 49.2% during the previous year. However, capacity closures towards the end of 2017 are likely to limit Chinese crude steel output going forward. Analyst polls forecast marginal rise of 0.6% in crude steel production by China in 2018. It must be noted that the country has cut around 240 Mt of capacity since the beginning of 2016.

In North America, crude steel production edged higher by 4.8% year-on-year to total 116 Mt. The US production was up by 4.0% from 2016 at 81.6 Mt. South America recorded a total output of 43.7 Mt, a jump of 8.7% from 2016. Brazilian output surged higher by almost 10% during the year.

ALSO READ: Crude Steel production On The Rise Across All Regions

For the month of December alone, the crude steel production by 66 countries reporting to worldsteel totaled 138.1 Mt, higher by nearly 4% upon comparison with December 2016. The capacity utilization during the month stood at 69.5%. 

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