Steel production in Asia increased by 6% in 2018

Leading producer - China increased production from 870.86 million tons in 2017 by 6.6% to 928.26 million tons in 2018.

Steel production in the Asian region reported growth of 5.6% in 2018, mainly driven by increased production in China. The region ended the year on a strong note, reporting 6.1% YoY monthly revenue growth in December 18.

According to the latest figures released by the World Steel Association (worldsteel), regional production in 2018 was 1.258 billion tonnes. This compares to the production of 1.191 billion tonnes in 2017. The region accounted for over 70% of global crude steel production during the year.

Leading producer - China increased production from 870.86 million tons in 2017 by 6.6% to 928.26 million tons in 2018. India became the second largest steel producer in the region with a total production of 106.46 million tonnes. Production in the country increased by 4.9% over the previous year. In third place was Japan, whose production volume decreased slightly by 0.3% compared to the previous year, amounting to 104.33 million tons in 2018. The three largest manufacturers accounted for more than 90% of all regional production during the year.

In December 18, the Asian region produced 103.71 million tonnes of crude steel, up 6.1% from December 17 production of 97.79 million tonnes. Production in Vietnam increased significantly during the month by almost 48%. In contrast, production in Pakistan fell sharply by 24%. The top three in the region are China (76.12 million tonnes), India (9.01 million tonnes) and Japan (8.47 million tonnes).