China in November increased steelmaking by 2.5% YoY against the same month last year – up to 78.4 million tons, according to the State Statistics Office of the country. Meanwhile, relative to October, production decreased by 4.3%.
In January-November, steel output decreased by 2.7% YoY and amounted to 929.19 million tons.
The production of pig iron in China last month amounted to 67.5 million tons, which is 4.1% more than a year earlier, but 3.9% lower than in October. The country produced 782.8 million tons of pig iron in the eleven-month period, down 3.5% from the volume for the same period in 2023.
China has been the world’s biggest steel producer for years.
According to Worldsteel, in October-2024, half of the top ten countries, except Japan, USA, rf, South Korea and Iran, recorded steelmaking growth by October-2023.
The top ten steel-producing countries at the end of October are as follows: China (81.880 million tons, up 2.9% on October-2023), India (12.456 million tons, plus 1.7%), Japan (6.925 million tons, minus 7.8%), USA (6.551 million tons, minus 2%), Russia (5.6 million tons, minus 15.2%), South Korea (4.487 million tons, down 18.3%), Germany (3.217 million tons, plus 14.7%), Brazil (3.075 million tons, plus 16.2%), Turkey (2.998 million tons, plus 0.7%) and Iran (2.960 million tons, minus 1.9%).
Overall, in October this year, steelmaking rose 0.4% year-on-year to 151.193 million tons.
For the first 10 months of 2024, the top ten steel-producing countries are as follows: China (850.730 million tons, down 3%), India (122.982 million tons, up 5.6%), Japan (70.214 million tons, down 3.7%), USA (66.666 million tons, “minus” 1.9%), Russia (59.435 million tons, “minus” 6.8%), South Korea (52.330 million tons, minus 6.4%), Germany (31.581 million tons, plus 5%), Turkey (30.905 million tons, plus 12.4%), Brazil (28.394 million tons, up 6%) and Iran (24.956 million tons, plus 0.6%).
Overall, 71 countries produced 1 billion 546.586 million tons of steel in January-October, down 1.6% from the same period in 2023.
In January-August of the current year Zaporizhzhstal Iron and Steel Works increased the shipment of rolled products by 26.1% compared to the same period last year – up to 1 million 240.4 thousand tons.
According to the company’s information on Monday, steelmaking for this period increased by 35.5% to 1 million 499.4 thousand tons, pig iron – by 17.5% to 1 million 665.7 thousand tons.
In August 2023, Zaporizhstal produced 257.9 thousand tons of pig iron, 239.7 thousand tons of steel, shipped 200.4 thousand tons of rolled products, while in the previous month – 262 thousand tons of pig iron, 240.7 thousand tons of steel, shipped 196.1 thousand tons of rolled products.
“The increase in the production level in August 2023 compared to the same period last year is due to the withdrawal of blast furnace No. 2 from the hot conservation mode and debugging of the operation mode of three blast furnaces,” the press release explains.
It is reminded that due to the aggravation of military operations in the region since the beginning of March 2022 Metinvest Group transferred part of Zaporizhstal equipment to the hot conservation mode. At the end of March of the same year, the mill partially resumed operation of the cold rolling shop for production and shipment of cold-rolled coils to European consumers. A month after the forced shutdown, the mill brought the equipment out of mothballing and partially resumed production. Since April 2022, the mill has been operating at an average of 50% capacity.
As reported, “Zaporizhstal” in 2022 reduced the output of rolled products by 60.4% compared to 2021 – to 1 million 304.3 thousand tons, steel by 61.7% – to 1 million 491.3 thousand tons, pig iron – by 54.3%, to 2 million 9.9 thousand tons.
“Zaporizhstal” is one of the largest industrial enterprises of Ukraine, whose products are widely demanded by consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries of the world. The specialization of the plant is high quality steel g/k coil, g/k sheet, cold rolled sheet, x/k coil from carbon and low-alloy steels, as well as steel strip, black tin plate, bent profile.
The main consumers of the products are welded pipe manufacturers, automobile, transport and agricultural machine building enterprises, manufacturers of household appliances.
“Zaporizhstal is in the process of integration into Metinvest Group, the main shareholders of which are System Capital Management PJSC (71.24%) and Smart Holding Group of Companies (23.76%).
Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of Metinvest Group.
