Economy
January 25, 2019
Global Steel Production Slows in December
Written by Peter Wright
Global steel production slowed in December, but this was purely a seasonal effect.
Global steel production in December was at an annual rate of 1.765 billion metric tons. Capacity is calculated to be 2.4 billion tons and capacity utilization in December was 74.0 percent, according to the latest Steel Market Update analysis of World Steel Association data. In three months through December, China grew by 9.4 percent year-over-year as the rest of the world grew by 5.3 percent. In 2018, China increased its share of global steel production, which in December was 51.8 percent.
