The International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI) has announced that world crude steel output reached 1,343.5 million metric tons (mmt) for the year 2007. This is an increase of 7.5% on 2006. The total represents the highest level of crude steel output in history and it is the fifth consecutive year that world crude steel production grew by more than 7%.
While the overall output remains high, 2007 has seen a small slowdown in the growth rate, year-on-year growth peaking at the end of the first quarter. This slowdown in growth was seen in nearly all the major producing countries and regions including China, EU, CIS and the US. The exception was in the Middle East where production growth accelerated during the second half of the year.
China’s steel production in 2007 reached 489 mmt, a 15.7% increase on 2006. This represents a growth reduction from the 18.8% achieved in 2006, 26.8% in 2005 and 26.1% in 2004. The slowdown in 2007 was most apparent during the last quarter, with an 8.6% growth rate. However, China remains the driving force behind the still strong world production figures. Without China world crude steel production would have only grown at 3.3%.
Other BRIC countries also maintained relatively high growth, with India and Brazil recording 7.3% and 9.3% increases respectively. In Russia production growth was flat from the end of the second quarter leading to an annual growth figure of 2%. The BRIC share of world production has been growing rapidly since 2000. It has grown from 31% of total in 2001 to 48.2% in 2007.
Steel production in the EU (27) from the second quarter remained stable, with year-end figures of 210.3 mmt, a 1.7% growth over 2006.
In the US steel production showed negative growth in the first three quarters but showed a turnaround in the fourth quarter with three consecutive months of growth. Total crude steel production for the US was 97.2 mmt, a 1.4% reduction on 2006 figures.
Figure 2: Share of world crude steel production: 2001,
2006, 2007
In 2007, the top three steel producing countries remained China (489.0 mmt), Japan (120.2 mmt), and the US (97.2 mmt).
Table 1: Top 10 steel-producing countries
|
Country |
Rank |
2007 |
2006 |
%
07/06 |
|
China |
1 |
489.0 |
422.7 |
15.7 |
|
Japan |
2 |
120.2 |
116.2 |
3.4 |
|
United States |
3 |
97.2 |
98.6 |
-1.4 |
|
Russia |
4 |
72.2 |
70.8 |
2.0 |
|
India |
5 |
53.1 |
49.5 |
7.3 |
|
South Korea |
6 |
51.4 |
48.5 |
6.0 |
|
Germany |
7 |
48.5 |
47.2 |
2.8 |
|
Ukraine |
8 |
42.8 |
40.9 |
4.7 |
|
Brazil |
9 |
33.8 |
30.9 |
9.3 |
|
Italy |
10 |
32.0 |
31.6 |
1.2 |
Source: IISI
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