According to information from the World Steel Association (WSA), for the first time since 2015, world steel production in 2020 decreased compared to the previous year.
1. Steel production & crude output decreased in US, North American & EU countries
In the past year, the world produced 1864 million tons of steel, 0.9% lower than in 2019.
The crude steel output of the North American region in 2020 plummeted 15.5% to 101.1 million tons due to the decrease in output of all three key producing countries.
Accordingly, the US output decreased by 17.2% to 72.7 million tons, only in the fourth quarter of 2020 it decreased by 11.8%, only reached 6.4 million tons; Canada decreased 14.1% to 11.1 million tons, in December alone produced 1.1 million tons (down 2%); of Mexico is 16.9 million tons in 2020 (down 8.3%), the fourth quarter alone increased 13.9% to 1.6 million tons.
The EU produced 138.8 million tons of crude steel in 2020, down 11.8% from the previous year, of which Germany produced 35.7 million tons (-10%).
2. Meanwhile, ME & Asia countries increased steel production
On the contrary, the Middle East region produced 45.4 million tons of crude steel in 2020, an increase of 2.5% compared to 2019, of which Iran had 29 million tons (up 13.4%).
Also, Asia last year went upstream when producing 1,374.9 million tons of crude steel in 2020, an increase of 1.5% compared to 2019. The reason is that China’s output reached 1,053 million tons, up 5.2% compared to 2019, which increases the country’s share in global crude steel production from 53.3% in 2019 to 56.5% in 2020.
Except for China, production in most other Asian countries decreased. Accordingly, India’s output last year decreased quite sharply, losing 10.6% compared to 2019, to 99.6 million tons. Japan also decreased by 16.2% to 83.2 million tons while South Korea decreased by 6% to 67.1 million tons.
3. Decrease seen also in South America countries
South America produced 38.2 million tons in 2020, down 8.4% from the previous year, of which Brazil had 31 million tons (down 4.9%). Africa produced 17.2 million tons of crude steel in 2020, equivalent to the figure of 2019. Oceania produced 6.1 million tons, down 1.4%.
Source: Cafef
