The World Steel Association recently released the latest ranking of the world’s 40 major steel producing countries in 2022. China ranked first with crude steel production of 1.013 million tons (down 2.1% year on year), followed by India (124.7 million tons, up 5.5% year on year) and Japan (89.2 million tons, down 7.4% year on year). The United States (80.7 million tons, down 5.9 percent year on year) was fourth, and Russia (71.5 million tons, down 7.2 percent year on year) was fifth. Global crude steel production in 2022 was 1,878.5 million tons, down 4.2 percent year on year.
According to the rankings, 30 of the world’s top 40 steel-producing countries in 2022 saw their crude steel production decline year-on-year. Among them, in 2022, Ukraine crude steel production decreased 70.7% year-on-year to 6.3 million tons, the largest percentage decline. Spain (-19.2% y/y to 11.5 million tons), France (-13.1% y/y to 12.1 million tons), Italy (-11.6% y/y to 21.6 million tons), the United Kingdom (-15.6% y/y to 6.1 million tons), Vietnam (-13.1% y/y, 20 million tonnes), South Africa (down 12.3 per cent year on year to 4.4 million tonnes), and the Czech Republic (down 11.0 per cent year on year to 4.3 million tonnes) saw crude steel production drop by more than 10 per cent year on year.
In addition, in 2022, 10 countries — India, Iran, Indonesia, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Pakistan, Argentina, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates — showed a year-on-year increase in crude steel production. Among them, Pakistan’s crude steel production increased 10.9% year on year to 6 million tons; Malaysia followed with a 10.0% year-on-year increase in crude steel production to 10 million tonnes; Iran grew 8.0% to 30.6 million tons; The United Arab Emirates grew 7.1% year on year to 3.2 million tonnes; Indonesia grew 5.2% year on year to 15.6 million tons; Argentina, up 4.5 percent year on year to 5.1 million tons; Saudi Arabia grew 3.9 percent year on year to 9.1 million tons; Belgium grew 0.4 percent year-on-year to 6.9 million tons; Algeria grew 0.2 percent year-on-year to 3.5 million tons.