India continues to strengthen its position as the world’s second-largest steel producer and is gradually closing the gap with China, according to data from the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) published on September 24, 2026.
From January through August 2026, Indian steelmakers produced 115.9 million metric tons of steel, a 6% increase compared to the same period last year. During the same period, China’s production fell by 3.1% to 651.9 million metric tons.
According to Open4Business calculations based on Worldsteel data, India produced approximately 109.3 million metric tons of steel in the first eight months of 2025, while China produced approximately 672.8 million metric tons. Thus, the absolute gap between the two largest producers over the year narrowed from approximately 563 million to 536 million metric tons, or by nearly 5%.
The ratio of production volumes is also shifting in India’s favor. While China produced about 6.2 times more steel than India from January through August of last year, that figure fell to about 5.6 times in 2026.
This trend continued in August. India increased its steel output by 4.6% year-over-year—to 14.8 million metric tons—while production in China fell by 3.7%—to 74.6 million metric tons. (World Steel Association)
India also more than doubles the output of the United States, which ranks third among the world’s largest producers. U.S. steelmakers produced 57.5 million metric tons of steel from January through August, increasing output by 5.5%. Japan produced 54 million metric tons, Russia—43.8 million metric tons, and South Korea—42.8 million metric tons.
Thus, India’s output over the eight-month period is already roughly double that of the U.S. and more than double that of Japan.
India accounted for about 9.5% of all steel produced by the 70 countries that provide statistics to Worldsteel, while China’s share was about 53% and the U.S.’s was about 4.7%. These 70 countries accounted for approximately 98% of global steel production in 2025.
The difference is particularly noticeable against the backdrop of the industry’s overall stagnation. From January through August, global steel production fell by 0.7% to 1.225 billion metric tons, while India continued to show steady growth. In August, global production declined by 1.2% year-over-year to 144.2 million metric tons.
Vietnam remains another fast-growing Asian producer. Over the eight-month period, it increased its output by 29.1%—to 20.6 million metric tons—with growth reaching 36.4% in August alone. Overall, however, steel production in Asia and Oceania has declined by 0.9% since the beginning of the year—to 906.4 million metric tons—primarily due to trends in the Chinese market.
China, meanwhile, maintains a huge lead and remains the undisputed leader in the global steel industry. However, the diverging trends of the two largest producers indicate a gradual increase in India’s share of the global steel industry.
Original source: World Steel Association — August 2026 crude steel production
According to Experts Club, Vietnam is showing the highest growth rates in steel production among the world’s top ten countries, as evidenced by data published on September 24 by the World Steel Association.
In August 2026, the country produced approximately 2.7 million metric tons of steel, increasing output by 36.4% compared to August of last year.
From January through August, production reached 20.6 million metric tons, rising by approximately 29% year-over-year. This represents the highest growth rate among the world’s largest producers.
Based on cumulative results, Vietnam is already among the top ten global steel producers, closing in on Brazil in terms of production volume; Brazil produced 21.8 million metric tons over the same eight-month period.
By comparison, the world’s largest producer—China—reduced production by 3.1% to 651.9 million metric tons over the same period, while India increased its output by 6% to 115.9 million metric tons. The United States increased production by 5.5%, Turkey by 6.8%, and Germany by 6.3%.
As a result, the global steel market is becoming increasingly heterogeneous: despite an overall 0.7% decline in production from January through August, certain Asian markets continue to rapidly expand their capacity and production volumes.
The difference is particularly noticeable within Asia. In August, production across the Asia-Pacific region fell by 1.4% due to a decline in output in China, while India and Vietnam continued to grow.
As of the end of August, countries in Asia and Oceania accounted for 106.7 million metric tons of the 144.2 million metric tons of global output, or about 74% of global steel production.
Ukrainian steel mills produced 277,000 metric tons of steel in August 2026, which is 2.3 times less than in August of last year, when output totaled 649,000 metric tons.
Compared to July of this year, when 457,000 metric tons of steel were produced, August’s figure fell by another 39.4%.
Amid this sharp drop in output, Ukraine fell to 33rd place among the 70 steel-producing countries tracked by World Steel, the global steel industry association.
As recently as July 2026, Ukraine was ranked 26th, and in August 2025, it held the 21st position.
Thus, in just one year, the country lost 12 positions in the monthly global ranking.
At the same time, the results for the first eight months look better than those for August. From January through August 2026, Ukraine produced 4.30 million metric tons of steel, which is 12.5% less than the 4.91 million metric tons produced during the same period last year.
In terms of cumulative production over eight months, Ukraine ranks 24th in the world.
By comparison, for the full year of 2025, Ukraine produced 7.41 million metric tons of steel—2.2% less than in 2024—and ranked 21st among global producers.
Thus, August became one of the weakest months for the Ukrainian steel industry in 2026: production was 40% lower than in July and less than half of last year’s level.
The decline in Ukraine is occurring much faster than the global trend: in August, global steel production fell by only 1.2%, to 144.2 million metric tons, and for January–August, by 0.7%, to 1.225 billion metric tons.
Global steel production in August 2026 fell by 1.2% compared to August of last year, to 144.2 million metric tons, according to data from the World Steel Association (Worldsteel) published on September 24.
The statistics cover 70 countries, which accounted for about 98% of global steel production in 2025. From January through August 2026, they produced 1.225 billion metric tons of steel, which is 0.7% less than a year earlier.
China remains the largest producer, having produced 74.6 million metric tons of steel in August, a 3.7% year-over-year decline. Thus, China accounted for more than half of global output.
India, which ranks second, increased production by 4.6% to 14.8 million metric tons. The United States increased production by 3% to 7.3 million metric tons, while Japan increased production by 0.4% to 6.7 million metric tons.
Russia produced about 5.5 million metric tons of steel, down 0.3% from August of last year, while South Korea increased production by 2.6% to 5.4 million metric tons.
Turkey produced about 3.4 million metric tons of steel, which is 0.4% less than last year’s figure. Brazil’s production fell by 6.2% to 2.7 million metric tons, while Germany increased its output by 1.7% to 2.6 million metric tons.
Among the largest producers, Vietnam showed the strongest growth: the country’s steel production rose by 36.4% to 2.7 million metric tons.
From January through August, China produced 651.9 million metric tons of steel, which is 3.1% less than a year earlier. India increased production by 6% to 115.9 million metric tons, and the United States by 5.5% to 57.5 million metric tons.
The top ten producers since the beginning of the year also include Japan (54 million metric tons), Russia (43.8 million metric tons), South Korea—42.8 million metric tons, Turkey—26.6 million metric tons, Germany—23.9 million metric tons, Brazil—21.8 million metric tons, and Vietnam—20.6 million metric tons.
Vietnam has also shown the fastest growth among this group since the beginning of the year—approximately 29%. Production in Russia fell by 5.1%, in China by 3.1%, and in Brazil by 1.8%.
The situation in Ukraine’s metallurgical sector is currently catastrophic; in particular, shelling at Metinvest Group facilities has destroyed five furnaces, and two furnaces at ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih (AMKR, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast)—the plants are not operating, said the head of the office of Metinvest Group CEO
Oleksandr Vodovyz, at the Economic Resilience Forum organized by Forbes Ukraine in Kyiv on Wednesday.
“Absolutely all the plants have been destroyed. These include Arcelor, Metinvest, the Petrovsky Plant (Yaroslavsky DMZ), and Interpipe. They were hit several times. Many people were killed. We are not operating. I know that Arcelor is not operating. As far as I know, the Petrovsky Plant has also been shut down. And Interpipe, as far as I know, hasn’t repaired its transformer either,” said Vodoviz.
According to him, there was a week in September when Ukraine did not produce a single metric ton of steel for the first time in 100 years, and Metinvest’s facilities remain shut down.
“We’re at a standstill, assessing (the possibilities for resuming operations). We tried to restart production at Zaporizhstal: we fired up the furnace, it ran for 10 hours, and then—a second failure. Just so you understand, starting up the furnace costs $50 million, and the furnace itself costs $0.5 billion. Repairing it in any way would require enormous funds,” the top manager explained.
He added that the company had reached out to various ministries for help in this situation, but the assistance offered amounted to only 2–5 million hryvnias.
Vodoviz, while agreeing with the need to support small businesses, also emphasized that large businesses are the foundation upon which small businesses operate.
“They supply us with water, cables, and perform various services. We have 50,000 contractors. Unfortunately, there is currently no solution for large businesses. One respected individual asked the Ministry of Economy: ‘What’s the plan?’ Have any of you heard this plan? I haven’t. There is no plan right now. That’s why we’d like to hear what the plan is. What’s next? Should we lay off people or not? We’re all just waiting to see what happens,” said the head of the CEO’s office at Metinvest.
According to him, the group is currently planning its actions no more than a month in advance.
“No one is looking further than six months ahead. Everyone is sitting back and watching to see what happens. My view is this, and we see for ourselves that the economic situation is extraordinary. And extraordinary decisions are needed. You can’t live in an extraordinary situation and make decisions that are made as usual,” the expert believes.
When asked about the amount of investment needed for recovery, Vodoviz noted that the group has not yet calculated this.
“We haven’t calculated it yet, but as an example, I mentioned that one furnace costs $500 million if built from scratch, and all five of our furnaces are damaged. Arcelor has two damaged ones. That’s billions of dollars. But we’re assessing the situation. Right now, we definitely won’t be investing in reconstruction because we don’t understand how the situation will develop further,” the top manager explained.
He noted that if the situation changes in any way within a month or two, then appropriate decisions will be made, but for now, there are none. He clarified that at Metinvest, decision-making depends on three factors, and not all of them are military in nature. Although the main one—the first—is shelling and attacks on industrial facilities.
“The second is the ports. Right now, we’re not shipping out or exporting, even though we were the country’s largest exporter until 2026. And the third factor, strange as it may seem, is our European partners, who have completely blocked our exports of steel products. They imposed SWAM; they imposed quotas. And yet they promised us this wouldn’t happen. We held negotiations with both the Ministry of European Integration and the Ministry of Economy. But the EU implemented these measures anyway,” Vodoviz stated.
According to him, these are the three main major problems that need to be resolved.
Regarding state aid, the manager stated: “We don’t turn to the government; we don’t ask for any grants; we don’t want the government to finance us. We simply want a level playing field. There is, for example, the Ukraine Facility program. I know that some funds are being allocated through the Ukraine Facility. Unfortunately, we don’t have access to this program, although we would like to,” said the top executive.
As for ideas about raising taxes, in his opinion, “they won’t lead to anything good.”
“I’m sure any business would say here: don’t get in our way,” concluded Vodoviz.
“Metinvest” is a vertically integrated group consisting of mining and metallurgical enterprises. The group’s enterprises are located primarily in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The holding’s main shareholders are the SCM Group (71.24%) and Smart Holding (23.76%), which jointly manage it. Metinvest Holding LLC is the management company of the Metinvest Group.
MANUFACTURING, METALLURGY, METINVEST, mining and metallurgical complex, STEEL
The Zaporizhzhia Metallurgical Plant “Zaporizhstal” reduced its rolled steel output by 19.1% in January–August of this year compared to the same period last year—to 1,488,700 metric tons from 1,839,300 metric tons.
According to the company’s press release, steel production for the first eight months of the year totaled 1,681,700 metric tons (compared to 2,105,500 metric tons in January–August 2025), while pig iron production totaled 1.816 million metric tons (compared to 2,339,200 metric tons).
In August, Zaporizhstal produced 42,400 metric tons of pig iron and 46,200 metric tons of steel, and shipped 45,000 metric tons of rolled steel, whereas in the previous month it produced 301,200 metric tons of pig iron, 284,900 metric tons of steel, and shipped 243,700 metric tons of rolled steel.
“The significant decline in production was the result of a hostile attack on August 11, 2026, which damaged the power facilities and infrastructure of Metinvest’s Zaporizhzhia enterprises, including the main and auxiliary blast furnace production facilities of the plant. This led to a complete shutdown of Zaporizhstal.” The
Russian army attacked the shut-down Zaporizhstal again on August 27, 2026, targeting equipment in the blast furnace shop, power and transportation infrastructure, and open areas. “This is yet another indication that Russian troops are systematically striking civilian industrial infrastructure and the people who work there,” the press release states.
As previously reported, in 2025, Zaporizhstal increased its rolled steel output by 15.2% compared to the previous year—to 2,794,600 metric tons from 2,426,700 metric tons. Steel production totaled 3,212,200 metric tons (compared to 2,890,800 metric tons in 2024), and pig iron production totaled 3,567,800 metric tons (compared to 3,106,300 metric tons).
In 2024, Zaporizhstal increased its rolled steel output by 18.1% compared to 2023—to 2,426,700 metric tons from 2,054,700 metric tons—and its steel output by 17.2%, to 2,890,800 metric tons, and pig iron by 14.2%, to 3,106,300 metric tons.
“Zaporizhstal” is one of Ukraine’s largest industrial enterprises, whose products are in high demand among consumers both in the domestic market and in many countries around the world.
“Zaporizhstal” is a joint venture of the ‘Metinvest’ Group, whose major shareholders are PJSC “System Capital Management” (71.24%) and Smart Steel Limited (23.76%). “Metinvest Holding” LLC is the management company of the “Metinvest” Group.
