South American steel output rises modestly in 2018

The Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel) has calculated that global crude steel output rose by 4.6 percent in 2018 compared with the year before. Steel output in South America in 2018 rose by just 1.3 percent compared with 2017, while Mexican output increased by just 0.9 percent.

Globally, steel production slightly surpassed 1.8 billion metric tons in 2018, an increase of 4.6 percent compared with production of about 1.73 billion metric tons in 2017.

China’s share of global crude steel production increased to 51.3 percent in 2018, rising from 50.3 percent in 2017. The country’s production surpassed 928 million metric tons for the year, growing by 6.6 percent relative to 2017’s figure, according to Worldsteel.

Worldsteel says annual crude steel production for South America totaled 44.3 million metric tons in 2018, representing a 1.3 percent rise in output compared with the 43.7 million metric tons produced in 2017. Brazil remains the continent’s largest steelmaking nation, having produced 34.7 million metric tons in 2018, up by 1.1 percent compared with 2017.

Steelmakers in Argentina enjoyed the steepest rise in output for the year, with the 5.16 million tons produced there in 2018, representing an 11.6 percent increase over 2017 output.

Producers in Mexico eked out a small increase in output in 2018, a year marked by tariffs imposed by the neighboring United States. The 20.1 million metric tons produced in Mexico nonetheless represented an increase over the 19.9 million metric tons of output the prior year.

Among countries in the Americas showing decreases in output were Canada (-4 percent), Colombia (-2.7 percent) and Chile (-1.1 percent). In troubled Venezuela, steel output declined a dramatic 70.9 percent, with 129,000 metric tons of steel produced there in 2018 compared with 444,000 metric tons in 2017.

In terms of nations that consume ferrous scrap exported from North America, Turkey’s output for 2018 was 37.3 million metric tons, declining by 0.6 percent compared with the year before. Worldsteel says India’s 2018 crude steel production of 106.5 million metric tons (up by 4.9 percent compared with 2017) helped that nation replace Japan as the world’s second largest steel producing country.

In other parts of Asia, South Korea produced 72.5 million metric tons of crude steel in 2018, an increase of 2 percent compared with 2017, while Taiwan’s output of 23.2 million metric tons represented a 3.5 percent increase compared with the prior year.

Worldsteel says the U.S. accounted for 86.7 million tons of North America’s 2018 crude steel output of 120.5 million metric tons. That U.S. output represented a 6.2 percent increase compared with 2017, while output in North America overall rose by 4.1 percent.