Iron and steel industry

The global steel industry has been going through major changes since 1970. China has emerged as a major producer and consumer, as has India to a lesser extent. Consolidation has been rapid in Europe.

Global steel production grew enormously in the 20th century from a mere 28 million tonnes at the beginning of the century to 781 million tons at the end. Per-capita steel consumption in the US peaked in 1977, then fell by half before staging a modest recovery to levels well below the peak.

Over the course of the 20th century, production of crude steel has risen at an astounding rate, now fast approaching a production level of 800 million tons per year.

During the 20th century, the consumption of steel increased at an average annual rate of 3.3%. In 1900, the United States was producing 37% of the world's steel. With post war industrial development in Asia that region now (at the start of the 21st century) accounts for almost 40%, with Europe (including the former Soviet Union) producing 37% and North America 16%.

Towards the end of the last century, growth of steel production was in the developing countries such as China, Brazil and India, as well as newly developed South Korea. Steel production and consumption grew steadily in China in the initial years but later it picked up momentum and the closing years of the century saw it racing ahead of the rest of the world. China produced 220.1 million tonnes in 2003, 272.2 million tonnes in 2004 and 349.4 million tons in 2005. That is much above the production in 2005 of Japan at 112.5 million tons, the US at 93.9 million tons and Russia at 66.15 million tons. For details of country-wise steel production see Steel production by country.

Amongst the other newly steel-producing countries, South Korea has stabilised at around 46–48 million tonnes, and Brazil at around 30 plus million tonnes. This brings the focus of the industry to India. Considering a steel consumption of 300 kg per person per year to be a fair level of economic development, India will have to come up to somewhere around 300 million tonnes, if it is to fulfill its ambitions of being a developed country. That, of course, is a long journey from the present production level of around 50 million tonnes but one must consider its past before coming to a conclusion about its potential. India was producing only around a million tonnes of steel at the time of its independence in 1947. By 1991, when the economy was opened up steel production grew to around 14 million tonnes. Thereafter, it doubled in the next 10 years, and then it is doubling again, maybe over a slightly longer span. Steel production in India is expected to reach 124 million tons by 2012 and 500 million tons by 2020 which could make it the second largest steel maker.

...
Wikipedia