Global steel production dropped by nearly 3 per cent to 1,622.8 million tonnes (MT) last year, registering its first fall since 2009. According to industry body World Steel Association (WSA), the last decline in global steel output was witnessed in 2009, when production fell by 8 per cent to 1,238.8 MT from 1,343.4 MT in 2008. Since then it has continuously risen till 2014.
Global steel production stood at 1,433.4 MT in 2010, 1,538 MT in 2011, 1,560.1 MT in 2012, 1,650.4 MT in 2013 and 1,670.2 MT in 2014, the data released by WSA showed. "World crude steel production reached 1,622.8 MT for the year 2015, down by 2.8 per cent compared to 2014. Crude steel production decreased in all regions except Oceania in 2015," WSA said.
Market insiders said the decline is on account of steel firms cutting down on production to rationalise their costs as the industry faces the twin menace of falling demand and decreasing prices. Prices of some steel products plummeted to 10 year-lows in 2015, they added. Annual production of crude steel in Asia was 1,113.8 MT in 2015, a decrease of 2.3 per cent compared to 2014.
Crude steel output in China -- the world's largest steel maker -- fell by 2.3 per cent to 803.8 MT in 2015 compared to the year-ago period. However, its share of world crude steel production increased from 49.3 per cent in 2014 to 49.5 per cent in 2015. Japan produced 105.2 MT in 2015, down by 5 per cent compared to 2014, while output in India grew by 2.6 per cent to 89.6 MT during the same period.
South Korea produced 69.7 MT of crude steel in 2015, a decrease of 2.6 per cent compared to 2014. In 2015, the European Union produced 166.2 MT of steel, a decline of 1.8 per cent against 2014, whereas the output in North America decreased by 8.6 per cent to 110.7 MT during the same period. The US produced 78.9 MT of crude steel last year, down by 10.5 per cent compared to 2014.
Production in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), which includes Russia, showed a decrease of 4.3 per cent in 2015 with an output producing 101.5 MT of crude steel. Annual crude steel production for South America was 43.9 MT in 2015, a decrease of 2.5 per cent on 2014. Brazil produced 33.2 MT in 2015, down by 1.9 per cent from 2014.
In December 2015, the world steel production for the 66 countries reporting stood at 126.7 MT, a fall of 5.7 per cent compared to the year-ago period, WSA said. Crude steel capacity utilisation ratio for December 2015 was 64.6 per cent lower by 4.9 percentage points than December 2014. The average capacity utilisation in 2015 was 69.7 per cent compared to 73.4 per cent in 2014, it added.
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