World production steel in 69 countries that provided the World Steel Management Association (WorldSteel), in January 2025 amounted to 151.4 million tons, which is 4.4% less in annual calculus compared to January 2024.
A significant drop in production was noted in the leading manufacturing countries Iran, Germany, South Korea, Japan and China in January compared to the same period of the previous year. India and the USA were the only one of the ten leading manufacturers who showed the growth of unrefined steel production in January in annual calculus, according to WorldSteel.
China and India: diverging trends among leading manufacturers
In China, the largest steel manufacturer in the world, a predicted decrease in production in January 2025 by 5.6% to 81.9 million tons compared to January 2024. The decrease is due to a decrease in domestic demand against the background of the ongoing problems in the real estate sector, a slowdown of investment in infrastructure and tightening environmental norms to reduce carbon emissions.
Steel production in China demonstrates a tendency to decrease since in 2020 it reached a historical maximum of 1.07 billion tons.
The country's steel industry also encounters measures of trade protectionism and anti -dumping investigations.
It was reported that the manufacturers of the reinforcement have moved the unrefined steel production capacities to the production of semi-finished products due to weakening demand and reduction of profit in the fourth quarter of 2024, however, the factories included in the Chinese Association of Cast iron and steel manufacturers (CISA) reported on higher rates of production of steel over the past 11 days of January after the celebration of the New Year in the country of the Lunar calendar. .
The second largest manufacturer in the world of India, on the contrary, increased production by 6.8% to 13.6 million tons, which reflects high internal demand and the ongoing expansion of infrastructure projects and steel capacities.
Nevertheless, at present this South Asian country is faced with the problems of supplies of coking coal
