The World Steel Association’s recently released “World Steel Statistics for 2021” shows that the global crude steel output in 2020 is 1.878 billion tons, an increase of 0.5% year-on-year, and the compound annual growth rate of crude steel output from 2015 to 2020 is 3.0%.
From the perspective of process, in 2020, the global converter steel production accounted for 73.2%, electric furnace steel accounted for 26.3%, and the global average continuous casting ratio reached 96.9%. In 2020, China’s crude steel output reached 1.053 billion tons, an increase of 5.2% year-on-year, and its output accounted for 56.7%, an increase of 12.2 percentage points from 2010.
In 2020, the global export volume of steel (finished products + semi-finished products) was 400 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7%. The export volume accounted for 22.9% of output, which was the second lowest level only higher than 22.6% in 1975 and a decrease of 2.2 units from 2019 percentage point. The new crown pneumonia epidemic that swept the world in 2020 is the main reason for the decline in global steel exports and the proportion of exports.