In 2020, global crude steel production reached 1.864 billion tons, just 0.9% less than in 2019. This is evidenced by data from the World Steel Association, Worldsteel, published on Tuesday evening.
Asian countries smelted, in particular, 1 billion 375 million tons of steel, which exceeds the result of 2019 by 1.5%. The share of China in this volume is 56.5% (in 2019 - 53.3%) or 1 billion 053 million tons, an annualized growth of 5.2%. Indian metallurgists produced 99.6 million tons of steel in 2020, which is 10.6% less than a year earlier. Japan smelted 83.2 million tonnes of steel, down 16.2%.
In the EU, production amounted to 138.8 million tons, in Germany - 35.7 million tons. Volume reduction by 2019 - 11.8% and 10%, respectively.
The CIS countries smelted 101.756 million tons of steel in 2020, an annualized growth of 1.5%. According to the association, the share of the Russian Federation accounted for 73.4 million tons of steel production, which is 2.6% more than in 2019. Ukraine smelted 20.6 million tons of steel, reducing the figure by 1.1%.
North America produced 101.1 million tons of steel last year, including 72.7 million tons in the United States. Decrease in indicators year-on-year - 15.5% and 17.2%, respectively.
The countries of the Middle East have increased steel production by 2.5% to 45.4 million tons. Metallurgists of South America reduced volumes by 8.4% to 38.2 million tons, Brazilian, in particular, by 4.9% to 31 million tons.
In December 2020, an increase in steel production was recorded by December 2019 in most countries, except for Japan, the USA and the Russian Federation.
