World Crude Steel Up 1.2% Mostly Due to China

Written by: Sandy Williams

World Steel Association figures showed an increase of 1.2 percent in world crude steel output for 2012 at 1.5 billion tonnes (metric tons). Most of that increase came from China which accounted for 46.3 percent of total world output leaving production by the rest of the world relatively flat. Steel output in China increased to 716.5 million tonnes in 2012 according to the National Bureau of Statistics, a 3.1 percent increase over 2011. Total 2012 production, omitting China, was 831 million tonnes, a decrease of -0.36 percent from 2011 production levels.