In February, global steel production decreased by 3.4% (to 144.7 million tons). The top ten largest producers saw a decline in volumes, except for India (+6.3%) and South Korea (+0.7%).
Top 10 steel producing countries in February 2025:
China – 78.92 million tons (-3.3%)
India – 12.66 million tons (+6.3%)
Japan – 6.4 million tons (-8.5%)
USA – 6.03 million tons (-7%)
Russia – 5.8 million tons (-3.4%)
South Korea – 5.15 million tons (+0.7%)
Turkey – 2.92 million tons (-5.6%)
Brazil – 2.72 million tons (-1.6%)
Germany – 2.7 million tons (-13.5%)
Italy – 1.81 million tons (-0.6%)
Overall, in January-February 2025, global steel production amounted to 301.96 million tons, down 2.2% compared to the same period in 2024.
The full dynamics of steel production by the top twenty countries of the world is available on the Experts Club YouTube channel – https://youtube.com/shorts/VgUU9MEMosE?si=BMOo_LS734dXysdj
In February 2025, Ukrainian steelmakers produced 572 thousand tons of steel, up 7.5% from February 2024. However, volumes decreased by 6.4% compared to January.
According to Worldsteel, Ukraine ranked 21st among 69 steel-producing countries. In the first two months of 2025, the country increased production by 9.9% to 1.183 million tons.
The full dynamics of steel production by the world’s top twenty countries is available on the Experts Club YouTube channel – https://youtube.com/shorts/VgUU9MEMosE?si=BMOo_LS734dXysdj
In January-February, China reduced steel production by 1.5% year-on-year to 166.3 million tons, according to the country’s State Statistics Office.
Pig iron production decreased by 0.5% to 140.75 million tons.
The State Statistics Office traditionally publishes economic indicators for January and February together to avoid data distortion due to long holidays to mark the Lunar New Year, which can fall in both January and February.
In January-February, China exported 16.97 million tons of steel, up 6.7% year-on-year, according to the State Customs Administration.
As reported, in 2024, steel production in China decreased by 1.7% to 1.005 billion tons.
Experts club presents the 2024 ranking of all steel-producing countries in the world. The ranking is compiled by the World Steel Association (Worldsteel), which updates data for all steel-producing countries on a monthly basis. Below is the production data in million tons, with percentage of production in 2023 in parentheses.
Global steel production continued to perform strongly in 2024, despite fluctuations in demand and the impact of economic factors. China remained the undisputed market leader, producing 1,005.1 million tons of steel, accounting for more than half of the global total. India, which took second place, continues to increase production, reaching 149.6 million tons, while Japan rounds out the top three with 84 million tons, followed by the United States and Russia.
Metinvest Group’s KAMETSTAL plant in Dnipro Metallurgical Plant (Kamianske, Dnipro region) has mastered a new steel casting technology using continuous casting machine No. 1 to increase the output of high-quality billets.
According to the press release, in 2024, KAMETSTAL’s BOF Shop expanded the range of high-quality billets and increased the production of CCMs using this technology. This year, steelmakers are facing new challenges to improve the efficiency of stop casting.
It is explained that the main feature of this technology is to cover the steel jet with a dipping cup in the gap between the tundish and the crystallizer of the continuous casting machine. In this way, the hot metal is protected from the negative effects of secondary oxidation, which gives the billet improved quality to meet the requirements of consumers in both the European and domestic markets. This technology makes it possible to produce metal with higher requirements for chemical composition and macrostructure, and the margin profit from it is higher than from conventional billets.
Last year, as part of the program for the development of new products, Section CCM No. 1 successfully mastered the production of continuously cast billets with a cross section of 200×200 mm with increased requirements for chemical composition and macrostructure from 40X, 45X1 and 45 steels, which are used to produce 130 mm diameter wheels.
“Successful mastering of the required quality parameters made it possible to transfer the production of such a billet from CCM #2 to the first machine and make the products more efficient. In 2024, 2,940 tons of new billets were cast and shipped to Ukrainian and European customers, as well as for the internal needs of Kametstal’s rollers,” the plant’s information states.
It adds that the key tasks currently being addressed by the team of specialists involved in the program, in addition to expanding the product line, include testing the automatic start-up of the machine’s jets during stop casting. Starting CCMs in the AutoStart mode means, first of all, improving the quality of the cast metal by minimizing the influence of the human factor on this process.
“Kametstal was established on the basis of PJSC Dneprovsky Coke and Chemical Plant (DKKhZ) and the Centralized Steel Mill of PJSC Dneprovsky Metallurgical Plant (DMK).
According to the 2020 report of Metinvest Group’s parent company, Metinvest B.V. (Netherlands) owned 100% of the shares in DCCP.
Apparent steel consumption (including total steel production, imports and exports) in the European Union in 2024, according to preliminary estimates by Eurofer, fell by 2.3% to 127 million tons.
This is worse than the association’s previously published expectations, according to which the decline could be 1.8%. In 2023, steel consumption in the EU fell by 5.8% to 130 million tons.
According to Eurofer’s report, in 2025, the recovery in apparent steel consumption will be slower than the association had previously predicted – the growth is expected to be 2.2% against 3.8% previously expected, provided that the situation in the industry develops positively and global tensions ease, which is currently unpredictable.
Consumption may reach about 130 million tons in 2025 and 133 million tons in 2026.
The overall dynamics of steel demand in the European region remains highly uncertain. No improvement in apparent steel consumption is expected until the first quarter of 2025, and consumption volumes will remain well below pre-pandemic levels, the association notes.
In the third quarter of 2024, apparent steel consumption continued to decline (-0.9% after -1.4% in the previous quarter) and amounted to 30.4 million tons.
Data for the fourth quarter will be published later. Real steel consumption in 2024, according to preliminary data, decreased by 3.8% in the EU, and in 2025 it is expected to recover moderately by 1%, while previously it was forecast to grow by only 0.6%. In 2026, real steel consumption could grow by another 1.9%.
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