World crude steel production in 2019 reached 1 billion 869.9 million tonnes, up 3.4% on 2018. Alloy production has declined in all regions of the world with the exception of Asia and the Middle East, according to the World Steel Association.
Asian countries smelted 1 billion 341.6 million tons of steel in 2019, an increase of 5.7% compared to 2018. China's steel production in 2019 reached 996.3 million tonnes, an 8.3% increase over 2018. China's share of global steel production increased from 50.9% in 2018 to 53.3% in 2019. India's steel production in 2019 was 111.2 million tonnes, up 1.8% from 2018. Japan produced 99.3 million tonnes of steel in 2019, 4.8% less than in 2018. South Korea produced 71.4 million tonnes of steel in 2019, down 1.4% from 2018.
EU countries produced 159.4 million tonnes of crude steel in 2019, down 4.9% on 2018. Germany produced 39.7 million tonnes of steel in 2019, down 6.5% from 2018. Italy produced 23.2 million tonnes in 2019, down 5.2% from 2018. France produced 14.5 million tonnes of steel, 6.1% less than in 2018. Spain smelted 13.6 million tonnes of steel in 2019, 5.2% less than in 2018.
North American steel production in 2019 was 120.0 Mt, down 0.8% from 2018. The United States produced 87.9 million tonnes of steel, up 1.5% on 2018.
In the CIS, 100.4 million tons of steel were smelted, showing a slight decrease in production volumes by 0.5%. Russia produced 71.6 million tons of steel in 2019, up 0.7% from 2018. Ukraine produced 20.8 million tons of steel in 2019, which is 1.2% less than in 2018.
In 2019, the Middle East produced 45.3 million tonnes of steel, up 19.2% on 2018. In Iran, steel production amounted to 31.9 million tons, which is 30% more than in 2018. Worldsteel noted that the figures for Iran were collected on a new basis, which is different from the database for 2018, so the increase in production as a percentage may not be as high.
Annual steel production in South America in 2019 was 41.2 million tonnes, down 8.4% from 2018. Brazil produced 32.2 million tonnes of steel in 2019, down 9.0% from 2018.
Turkey's steel production in 2019 was 33.7 million tonnes, down 9.6% from 2018.
Africa produced 17.0 million tonnes of steel in 2019, down 2.3% from 2018.
Oceania produced 6.1 million tonnes, down 2.9% from 2018.
The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) is one of the largest and fastest growing industry associations in the world. which includes members in all major steel-producing countries. Worldsteel represents steel producers, national and regional steel industry associations and research institutes. Its members represent about 85% of the world's steel production.
