Middle East steel production declined 2.4 percent in 2015

The increase in crude steel production in the UAE was unable to compensate for the decline in steel production in other countries in the region, so the output for 2015 decreased slightly.

Crude steel production in the Middle East declined 2.4 percent in 2015. Output during the year was 27.371 million tonnes compared to 28.031 million tonnes during 2014.

Crude steel production in the Middle East region fell sharply by 8.5 percent in December 2015 on an annualized basis, according to the latest data released by the World Steel Association. Steel production in the region was 2.164 million tonnes in December last year, up from 2.365 million tonnes in the same month a year earlier.

Iran's total crude steel production in December was 1.300 million tons, down 4.6 percent from December 2014's 1.362 million tons. Qatar produced 197,000 tons of crude steel, a sharp 18.6 percent decrease in yield from 242,000 tons in December 2014. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's steel output dropped significantly over the previous year to 405,000 tonnes. The UAE's total crude steel production in December was 262,000 tonnes, up 22.6 percent from the 214,000 tonnes produced in December 2014.

The total volume of steel production for the whole of 2015, in thousand tons, compared to 2014, in percent: Iran - 16110 (-1.4); Qatar - 2593 (-14.1); Saudi Arabia - 5662 (-10.0); UAE - 3006 (+25.8).