World Steel Production Slumps in December
January 31, 2023
World crude steel production fell 10.8% to 140.7 million tonnes in December compared to the same month the previous year, according to a release from the World Steel Association (worldsteel).
For the top five steel-producing nations, China produced 77.9 million tonnes in December, down 9.8% from a year earlier; India, up 0.8% to 10.6 million tonnes; Japan, down 13.1% to 6.9 million tonnes; the US, down 8.3% to 6.5 million tonnes; and Russia, down 11.3% to 5.5 million tonnes.
Worldsteel noted that Russia’s output is only estimated.
Total world crude steel production was 1,878.5 million tonnes in 2022, off 4.2% from 2021, worldsteel said.
For FY2022, China led the world with 1,013 million tonnes produced, down 2.1% from 2021. Turkey notched a large decline, falling 12.9% to 35.1 million tonnes in the FY comparison. The US produced 80.7 million tonnes in 2022, down 5.9% from 2021.
Considering the three largest steelmaking regions, Asia and Oceania production fell 9.2% to 104.9 million tonnes in December compared to December 2021, and declined 2.3% to 1,351.3 million tonnes in 2022 vs. 2021; European Union production fell 16.7% to 9.2 million tonnes in December vs. the same year-ago period, and dropped 10.5% to 136.7 million tonnes in the full-year comparsion; and North America dropped 9.9% to 8.8 million tonnes in December 2022 vs. December 2021, and slipped 5.5% to 111.4 million tonnes for the full year.
In Russia and other CIS + Ukraine region, affected by the war in Ukraine, December production fell 28.4% to 6.2 million tonnes vs. December 2021, and dropped 20.2% to 85.2 million tonnes in FY2022 vs. FY2021.
By Ethan Bernard, ethan@steelmarketupdate.com