Economy
January 31, 2020
Global Steel Production Through December
Written by Peter Wright
China increased steel production by three million metric tons in December.
Figure 1 shows annualized monthly global steel production on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis and capacity utilization since January 2000. Based on OECD data (see below), capacity utilization in December on a three-month moving average (3MMA) basis was 80.9 percent, down from 86.3 percent in June. On a tons-per-day basis, production in December was 4.907 million metric tons, down from June’s all-time high of 5.322 million metric tons.
