India’s Steel Production Declines by More Than 10%

Bucking the global trend, China and Russia produced more steel in 2020 than in 2019. Among the top five nations, production declined in India, Japan and the United States by up to 17.2%. According to World Steel Association (W

BY Realty Plus
Published - Saturday, 30 Jan, 2021

India’s Steel Production Declines by More Than 10%

Bucking the global trend, China and Russia produced more steel in 2020 than in 2019. Among the top five nations, production declined in India, Japan and the United States by up to 17.2%. According to World Steel Association (WSA), crude steel production fell globally by 0.9% in 2020 to 1,864 million tonne (MT) over the previous year; but China bettered its production to 1,053 MT, up by 5.2% over 2019. China’s share of global crude steel production increased from 53.3% in 2019 to 56.5% in 2020. Russia’s production also improved by 2.6% to 70.4 MT. Toppling the US, Russia also managed to improve its ranking by one notch to the fourth position among world’s top five steel producing nations. Though India retained its second spot, its production fell by 10.6% in 2020 to 99.6 MT from 111.4 MT a year earlier. India’s share in the global output shrunk to 5.3% in 2020 from 5.9% a year ago. Japan also retained its third spot, but its production fell by 16.2% to 83.2 MT. The US, the worst hit in the pandemic, produced 72.7 MT crude steel in 2020, down 17.2% over 2019. Overall, Asia produced 1,374.9 MT crude steel in 2020, an increase of 1.5% compared to 2019; but production declined 11.8% in the European Union to 138.8 MT. Production in North America was also down 15.5% to 101.1 MT; the decline in South America was milder at 8.4%. Production in Africa remained unchanged at 17.2 MT.