Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) has published data that shows a 3.4% year-on-year increase in global steel production to 1870Mt in 2019 from 1810Mt in 2018. The figure belies a general decline in production in most regions: excluding China, total production fell by 1.6% year-on-year to 874Mt from 888Mt in 2018. China’s growth was 8.3%, to 996Mt from 920Mt, corresponding to an increase in its share of global production to 53% from 51%. Growth in the Middle East outstripped this at 19% year-on-year, increasing to 45.3Mt in 2019 from 38.0Mt one year previously. The Middle East now controls 2.4% of global steel production, compared to 2.1% in 2018. India and the US also experienced production growths of 1.8% and 1.5% respectively. The WSA expects the steel industry’s performance to have a staying effect on granulated blast furnace slag (GBFS) prices for cement producers in these regions.
