India replaces Japan to become second top steel producer in world

New Delhi, January 28

India has replaced Japan as the world’s second-largest steel producing country, while China is the largest producer of crude steel accounting for more than 51 per cent of production, according to World Steel Association (worldsteel).

The global steel body in its latest report noted that China’s crude steel output jumped 6.6 per cent to 928.3 million tonnes (MT) in 2018 from 870.9 MT in 2017. China’s share increased from 50.3 per cent in 2017 to 51.3 per cent in 2018.

“India’s crude steel production in 2018 was at 106.5 MT, up by 4.9 per cent from 101.5 MT in 2017, meaning India has replaced Japan as the world’s second largest steel producing country. Japan produced 104.3 MT in 2018, down 0.3 per cent compared to 2017,” worldsteel said.

Global crude steel production reached 1,808.6 MT for the year 2018 from 1,729.8 MT in 2017, a rise of 4.6 per cent, it said.

Others in the top 10 steel-producing countries include the United States, at the fourth position as the country produced 86.7 MT of crude steel in 2018, South Korea (72.5 MT, 5th place), Russia (71.7 MT, 6th), Germany (42.4 MT, 7th), Turkey (37.3 MT, 8th), Brazil (34.7 MT, 9th) and Iran (25 MT, 10th).

Among other countries, Italy produced 24.5 MT of crude steel in 2018, France (15.4 MT) and Spain (14.3 MT), Ukraine (21.1 MT).

World Steel Association (worldsteel) is one of the industry associations in the world. Its members represent around 85 per cent of the world’s steel production, including over 160 steel producers with nine of the 10 largest steel companies, national and regional steel industry associations, and steel research institutes. PTI