Economy
October 1, 2019
Global Steel Production: China’s Domination Increases
Written by Peter Wright
From June through August, global steel production increased by 3.1 percent, but excluding China, growth declined by 2.1 percent with the result that China’s share reached another all-time high of 55.9 percent.
We have a new perspective this month on global capacity. About a year ago, the World Steel Association stopped reporting global capacity utilization for antitrust reasons. This responsibility was handed over to the OECD, which has now released its estimates of capacity by nation for 2018 and annually back to 2000. The OECD publishes a single annual global number that we have now incorporated into our data for the last 18 years. We have included the U.S. and China capacity and capacity utilization in this update. At the end of this piece is the latest statement from the OECD on global steel capacity.
