According to the data released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel) on January 21, global crude steel output in 2010 amounted to 1.414 billion metric tons, increasing by 15 percent year on year and constituting a new record for global crude steel production.
All the major steel-producing countries and regions showed double-digit growth in 2010. The EU and North America had higher growth rates due to the lower base effect from 2009, while Asia and the CIS recorded relatively lower growth.
In 2010, the crude steel outputs of Asia, EU, North America and CIS were 881.2 million mt, 172.9 million mt, 111.8 million mt and 108.4 million mt respectively. Accordingly, the crude steel outputs of Asia, EU, North America and CIS increased by 11.8 percent, 24.5 percent, 35.7 percent and 11.2 percent respectively.
In the year in question, among Asian countries, China's crude steel production totaled 626.7 million metric tons, with an increase of 9.3 percent, while Japan produced 109.6 million metric tons of crude steel, up 25.2 percent, both compared to 2009. South Korea showed an increase of 20.3 percent year on year, producing 58.5 million metric tons of crude steel in 2010. India, on the other hand, produced 66.8 million metric tons of crude steel in 2010, up 6.4 percent year on year.
Looking at Europe, Germany's crude steel production for 2010 was 43.8 million mt, recording an increase of 34.1 percent over 2009. Turkey produced 29 million mt of crude steel in the year in question, increasing by 14.6 percent compared to the previous year.
Huge increase in US output
The US produced 80.6 million mt of crude steel in 2010, 38.5 percent higher on year-on-year basis, while Brazil produced 32.8 milion mt of crude steel, with a 23.8 percent increase.
Russia produced 67 million metric tons of crude steel last year, up 11.7 percent year on year.
In December 2010, world crude steel production for the 66 countries reporting to worldsteel was 116.2 million mt, recording an increase of 7.8 percent compared to December 2009. The crude steel capacity utilization ratio of the 66 countries in December 2010 declined slightly to 73.8 percent compared to 75.2 percent in November 2010. Compared to December 2009, the utilization ratio in December 2010 was 1.1 percentage point higher.
