According to the world Steel Statistics 2022 recently released by the World Steel Association, global crude steel production in 2021 was 1.951 billion tons, up 3.8% year on year. China’s crude steel production reached 1.033 billion tons in 2021, down 3.0% year-on-year, the first year-on-year decline since 2016, and its share of global production fell to 52.9% from 56.7% in 2020.
From the perspective of production path, the global output of converter steel in 2021 will account for 70.8%, and that of eAF steel will account for 28.9%, down 2.4 percentage points and up 2.6 percentage points respectively compared with 2020. The global average ratio of continuous casting in 2021 will be 96.9 percent, the same as in 2020.
In terms of apparent consumption, the world’s apparent consumption of finished steel in 2021 was 1.834 billion tons, up 2.7% year on year. Almost all countries listed in the statistics have increased the apparent consumption of finished steel to varying degrees, while China’s apparent consumption of finished steel decreased from 1.006 billion tons in 2020 to 952 million tons, down 5.4%. China’s apparent steel consumption in 2021 accounted for 51.9% of the global total, down 4.5 percentage points from 2020.