China Retains Top Spot in Global Steel Production Despite Overall Declines

China: China consumed 51.7% of the 1.78 million metric tons of finished Steel products rolled out globally last year, making it the largest end-user of Steel in 2022. China's apparent steel consumption remained the same from the previous year, at 954 million metric tons out of a total of 1.84 billion tons of finished products produced. The impact of China's demand for Steel on global prices is significant, with demand, consumption, and production having far-reaching implications for the Steel industry worldwide.

Over half of the world's Steel consumption in 2022, amounting to 52%, was utilized for construction and infrastructure purposes. This encompassed residential and commercial buildings as well as transportation networks such as roads, bridges, railroads, pipelines, and eco-friendly applications. Additionally, a visual representation in the report highlighted mechanical equipment and the automotive industry at a distant second and third position, accounting for 16% and 12% respectively.

In 2022, the world's second-largest economy emerged as the top producer of crude Steel, with a production of 1.02 billion metric tons, marking a 1.66% year-on-year decrease from approximately 1.04 billion metric tons. On the other hand, the overall global crude Steel production amounted to 1.89 billion metric tons, reflecting a 3.91% decline from last year's 1.96 billion metric tons.

In 2022, China Baowu Group emerged as the top crude Steel producer, pouring nearly 132 million metric tons, an increase of 9.86% from the reported 120 million metric tons poured in 2021. Baowu became the world's largest Steelmaker in 2016, the same year it acquired Wuhan Iron & Steel. Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal, headquartered in Luxembourg, ranked second in 2022 with a production of 69 million metric tons, reflecting a 9.52% increase from the 62.9 million metric tons poured in 2021.

In 2022, six out of the top-ten Steel producers were from China, with the country also having the highest per capita Steel consumption at approximately 646 kilograms. However, there was a decrease of 3.46% in consumption compared to 2021 when it was at 669 kilograms. South Korea was the largest non-Chinese per-capita consumer in 2022 with 988 kilograms, but they too experienced an 8.62% decline from 1,081.2 kilograms. In Europe, Czechia had the highest per capita consumption at 631 kilograms, although this still represented a significant decrease of 15% from 743 kilograms in the previous year. In contrast, Germany, Europe's economic powerhouse, saw its per capita consumption fall by 11% to 379 kilograms from 425.7 kilograms.

According to the European Commission's report on May 15, Czechia's GDP grew by 2.5% in 2022, which is higher than Germany's growth of 1.8%. However, predictions suggest that the GDP in Czechia will decrease to 0.2% in 2023 before rising to 2.6% in 2024. This growth in Czechia can be attributed to both infrastructure development in post-communist economies and reduced Steel prices. In the European Union, per capita Steel use declined by over 10.3% to 310.3 kilograms from 346.1 kilograms. Meanwhile, in the "Other Europe" category, which includes Turkey, the United Kingdom, and other non-EU states, there was a decline of 12.1% to 242.9 kilograms from 276.4 kilograms.

In the United States, there was a minor decrease in per capita apparent Steel use compared to Europe. The decline was slightly less than 3%, with per capita use dropping from 288 to 279.4 kilograms. In North America as a whole, the decline was slightly higher at 3.91%, with per capita use falling from 237.5 to 228.2 kilograms.