Global steel output down slightly in 2024

Global crude steel production in December 2024 rose by 5.6 percent compared with the same month in 2023 but was down by about 1.6 percent compared with the prior month, according to the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel).

In the 71 nations that report figures to Worldsteel, some 144.5 million metric tons (MMT) of steel was made last month. While that represents an increase from December 2023, it is down by 2.3 MMT compared with November 2024.

For the entire year of 2024, the world’s steelmakers produced about 1.84 billion metric tons of steel. That figure represents a 0.9 percent decrease from the roughly 1.85 billion metric tons made in 2023.

In China, where more than 54 percent of the world’s steel was made last year, output fell by 1.7 percent, from 1.019 billion metric tons made in 2023 1.005 billion metric tons produced to last year.

Steel output in 2024 compared with the previous year also fell in Russia (-7.0 percent); South Korea (-4.7 percent); Japan (-3.4 percent); and the United States (-2.4 percent).

Major steel producing nations in which production increased in 2024 include two high-tonnage importers of recycled steel—Turkey (+9.4 percent) and India (+6.3 percent). That roster of nations also includes: Brazil (+5.3 percent); Germany (+5.2 percent); and Iran.

Turkey, which makes more than 70 percent of its steel via the recycled-content electric arc furnace (EAF) method, has long been in a leading importer of ferrous scrap shipped from Europe and North America.

More recently, India has imported larger volumes of scrap as its overall steelmaking capacity has been rising. In a short-term outlook report issued by Worldsteel last October, the organization and its Economics Committee chair Martin Theuringer predicted India will remain on a steelmaking growth track.

“India is expected to maintain its strong momentum, with robust growth in steel demand projected for both 2024 and 2025,” wrote Theuringer in the report.

In the same outlook report, Theuringer added, “We are cautiously optimistic that global steel demand will enter a phase of broad-based moderate growth in 2025. The key determinants of the global steel demand outlook for 2025-2026 will be the progress made in the stabilization of China’s real estate sector, effectiveness of interest rate adjustments in spurring private consumption and business investment, and the trajectory of infrastructure spending dedicated to decarbonization and digital transformation across major global economies.”