Where is the world's steel produced?

If you stop for a moment to think, you'll notice that many, many of the objects that surround us are made up entirely or partly by steel. This iron and carbon alloy is one of the most widespread materials in everyday life: it is present in the structure of our homes, in our cars, but also in our phones, in our computers and in many other everyday objects in the form of screws, springs, bolts, etc.

But where is all this steel produced?
The World Steel Association, one of the largest industry associations in the world, has recently released an article which provides a complete overview of the steel industry activities across the world:
- crude steel production;
- apparent steel use;
- global steel trade flows;
- production and trade.
The table below shows in detail the top 50 steel-producing countries and the variation in the production compared to the 2016 figures (million tonnes, crude steel production).

Country 2017  2016 Rank Tonnage Rank Tonnage China 1 831.7 1 807.6 Japan 2 104.7 2 104.8 India 3 101.4 3 95.5 United States 4 81.6 4 78.5 Russia 5 71.3 5 70.5 South Korea 6 71.0 6 68.6 Germany 7 43.4 7 42.1 Turkey 8 37.5 8 33.2 Brazil 9 34.4 9 31.3 Italy 10 24.1 11 23.4 Taiwan, China 11 22.4 12 21.8 Ukraine 12 21.3 10 24.2 Iran 13 21.2 14 17.9 Mexico 14 19.9 13 18.8 France 15 15.5 15 14.4 Spain 16 14.5 16 13.6 Canada 17 13.6 17 12.6 Vietnam 18 11.5 19 7.8 Poland 19 10.3 18 9.0 Austria 20 8.1 22 7.4 Belgium 21 7.8 20 7.7 United Kingdom 22 7.5 21 7.6 Egypt 23 6.9 28 5.0 Netherlands 24 6.8 23 6.9 South Africa 25 6.3 24 6.1 Australia 26 5.3 27 5.3 Slovak Republic 27 5.0 29 4.8 Pakistan 28 5.0 36 3.6 Saudi Arabia 29 4.8 25 5.5 Indonesia (e) 30 4.8 30 4.7 Sweden 31 4.7 31 4.6 Argentina 32 4.6 33 4.1 Czech Republic 33 4.6 26 5.3 Thailand 34 4.5 35 3.8 Kazakhstan 35 4.5 32 4.3 Finland 36 4.0 34 4.1 Romania 37 3.4 37 3.3 United Arab Emirates 38 3.3 38 3.1 Malaysia (e) 39 2.8 39 2.8 Qatar 40 2.6 40 2.5 Byelorussia 41 2.4 41 2.2 Luxembourg 42 2.2 42 2.2 Portugal 43 2.1 43 2.0 Oman (e) 44 2.0 44 2.0 Hungary 45 1.9 46 1.3 Serbia 46 1.5 49 1.2 Switzerland (e) 47 1.5 45 1.5 Greece 48 1.4 51 1.2 Colombia 49 1.3 47 1.3 North Korea (e) 50 1.3 48 1.3 Others   13.4   12.9 World   1 689.4   1 627.0  
The first nine positions are unchanged with China always being the biggest steel producer around the world with a 49.2% percentage of the 1689 tonnes of crude steel globally produced in 2017.
Two countries showed a significant grow in 2017: Egypt which has gained 5 positions in the ranking (from 28 to 23) and Pakistan that climbed from position number 36 to 28. Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia both reduced their production dropping down in the ranking respectively of 7 and 4 positions. Italy has gained one position, now entering the top ten producers worldwide unseating Ukraine.



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