Steel is currently the most widely used metal in the world as well as the most recycled material. Just last year, the year that witnessed the most frightening and restrictive moment of the pandemic, the world collectively produced 1.8 billion metric tons of steel.
The secret of efficiency
Steel is formed mainly from iron ore, and its alloys contain less than 2% carbon, 1% manganese and other elements, and although the difference seems limited, steel can give humans a metal 1,000 times stronger than iron.
However, this is not the strength of steel, but rather its unlimited recyclability without losing quality. Regardless of purity or use, steel products can be recycled, to produce new steel products (containing 30% of recycled material). ).
Thanks to the magnetic properties of alloy steel, this metal can easily recover, and almost 100% of the common products of steelmaking can be used in other work or to generate electricity.
Biggest Producers
World Steel Union data reveal how China has dominated this vital industry over the past 50 years, with production doubling many times to reach dizzying levels since the late 1960s, when its supplies barely exceeded 10 million metric tons.
Europe was the dominant producer in this industry before the awakening of the Chinese dragon, with its production in the late 1960s reaching about 165 million metric tons, followed by the United States of America with 115 million metric tons, then the Soviet Union with 102 million metric tons, and then Japan with 62 million metric tons .
While the production of these major countries did not have any dramatic changes, some of which decreased and others increased by remarkable rates, the epic change was in Chinese production, without which, the world might have faced a supply crisis, and the following is a look at the largest global producers according to year data 2020.
1 . China 1053
2 . India 99.6
3 . Japan 83.2
4 . Russia 73.4
5 . America 72.7
6 . Korea.C 67.1
7 . Turkey 35.8
8 . Germany 35.7
9 . Brazil 31.0
10 . Iran 29.0
These figures refer to production in 2020 (in million metric tons). The International Steel Federation data was based on an estimate of production in Russia and Iran, as official data are not yet available.
Historical changes
As evidenced by the data, Chinese production has nearly jumped to 75 times the level it was in the late 1960s, with the Asian nation becoming the world’s number one supplier of the metal that drives growth everywhere.
The report also revealed that during the year of the epidemic, world steel production declined by less than 1% on an annual basis, knowing that some countries were affected more than others, for example, while the production of America, Japan and Europe decreased by 17%, 16% and 9% Respectively, China’s production grew by 5%.
It seems that the industry did not even pay attention to the epidemic. By comparison, during the global financial crisis, specifically in 2009, global production fell by 8% year on year.
However, because China’s performance has been impressive along the way, the country’s steel supply has increased by 13%, while production has fallen sharply in regions such as America by 35%, Europe by 27%, and Japan by 26%.
Among the most notable transformations that this industry also experienced, was the decline in production and employment in the United States by 50% between 1974 and 1984, at which time the Soviet Union’s share of the world market expanded, until it became the largest producer of crude steel.
In 2017, China’s steel production reached 870 million metric tons, exceeding for the first time the world’s total combined production, which was then 865 million metric tons.
On the other hand, the combined production of the Middle East countries in 2020 amounted to about 45.4 million metric tons, while the production of African countries was about 17.2 million metric tons.