Displaying items by tag: China

US: The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that the US sold 17Mt of ferrous slags in 2021, a rise of 31% year-on-year from the estimate in 2020. Blast furnace slag represented about 49% of the volume sold and accounted for 87% of the total value ofslag, most of which was granulated. Steel slag produced from oxygen and electric arc furnaces accounted forthe remainder of sales. Slag was processed by 28 companies servicing active iron and steel facilities or reprocessing old slag piles at about 124 processing plants, including some iron and steel plants with more than one slag-processing facility, in 33 States, including facilities that import and grind unground slag to sell as ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS).

A further 2.2Mt was imported, a slight decline from 2020. From 2017 to 2020 the USGS reports that 42% of imported slag came from Japan, 18% from Brazil, 11% from China and 10% from Italy.

The USGS noted that during 2021, domestic GGBFS remained in limited supply because granulation cooling was known to be available at only two active US blast furnaces while, elsewhere, only one domestic plant produced pelletised slag in limited supply. Grinding of granulated blast furnace slag was only performed domestically by cement companies. However, following Covid-19 related decrease in availability in 2020, supply of steel slag increased in 2021.

World: World Steel Association data shows that crude steel production grew by 14.4% to 1Bt in the first half of 2021. Production in Africa and South America rebounded the fastest although these areas are amongst the smallest production regions. China produced 563Mt of crude steel in the reporting period, a rise of 11.8%, much more than Africa and South America combined. India, the next biggest manufacturer, produced 57.9Mt, a rise of 31.3%.

World: Global steel production was 1.86Bnt in 2020, down by 1% year-on-year from 1.88Bn in 2019. The decrease is the first since 2015. The sharpest declines were recorded in the US (17%), Japan (16%), the EU (12%) and India (11%). Chinese steel production rose for a sixth consecutive year to 1.05Bnt, up by 5% from 1.00Bnt. The rest of the world produced 811Mt, down by 8% from 879Mt. China’s share of world steel production rose to 57% from 53%.

Belgium: The World Steel Association says that global steel production in the first half of 2020 was 873Mt, down by 6% year-on-year from 929Mt. Global June 2020 steel production also fell, by 7% year-on-year to 148Mt from 159Mt in June 2019 and by 0.7% month-on-month from 149Mt in May 2020. China produced 91.6Mt in June 2020, up by 4.5% from 87.7Mt, corresponding to 62% of global steel production for the month. The sharpest falls occurred in the US, by 35% to 4.7Mt from 7.2Mt, and in France, by 35% to 800,000t from 1.23Mt.

Belgium: The World Steel Association (WSA) forecasts that total global steel consumption in 2020 will be 1.65Bnt, down by 6.4% year-on-year from 1.77Bnt in 2019, due to the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on steel-intensive industries. The WSA estimated that demand will decline by 17% in developed countries, with the steepest falls in Japan, South Korea and the US, and by 18% in India. China’s steel consumption is expected to rise by 1% due to increased infrastructure spending and a swift post-coronavirus recovery. Construction, a mostly seasonal sector, had already reached full productivity in April 2020.

The WSA expects steel demand to increase by 3.8% year-on-year in 2021 to 1.72Bnt globally. The sharpest recovery is expected to be in developing countries, where the WSA says that total demand will increase by 9.2%, following a fall of 11.6% in 2020.

Belgium: The World Steel Association (Worldsteel) published its Short Range Outlook (SRO) for 2019 and 2020 on 14 October 2019. It estimates global steel demand growth of 3.9% to 1.78Bnt/yr in 2019, slowing to 1.7% in 2020, with a demand of 1.80Bnt/yr. China leads the field with an estimated 7.8% growth to 900Mt/yr in 2019. Worldsteel named high rates of investment in property as a cause, and forecasted a slowdown to 1.0% in 2020, yielding a demand of 909Mt/yr, as a result of China’s continued economic deceleration.

World: Crude steel production grew by 4.9% year-on-year to 925Mt in the first half of 2019 from 882Mt in the same period in 2018. Data from the World Steel Association shows production increased in Asia and North American, remained stable in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region but that it fell in the European Union. Of the larger individual steel producing countries gains were reported in China, India and South Korea, but declines were noted in Germany and Japan.

China: The Chinese government is set to further restrict imports of metal by-products and scrap in July 2019. The latest rules will control imports of eight types of scrap metal, including copper, aluminium and steel scrap, according to Reuters. Companies that want to continue importing these items will need to apply to the environmental ministry to prove they are in compliance with environmental protection standards. Imports of iron and steel slag were banned at the end of 2018.

World: Global steel production rose by 4.6% year-on-year to 1.81Bnt in 2018 from 1.73Bnt in 2017. Data from the World Steel Association shows that production rose fastest in the Middle East, Africa and Australasia. Asian production rose by 5.6% to 1.27Bnt and North American production grew by 4.1% to 121Mt. European production remained static at 312Mt, with a slight dip in the European Union (EU) balanced by slight growth in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). China remained the largest steel producing country, with 9.28Mt in 2018. It was followed by India, Japan, the US and South Korea.

China: HBIS Laoting Steel has signed a US$247m contract with US-based Harsco for mill services. The 15-year agreement expands Harsco’s partnership with HBIS. The company has provided steel mill services to Tangshan Steel Group, a subsidiary of HBIS, for over a decade previously.

Under the expanded agreement, Harsco will deliver on-site mill services, including under furnace cleaning; slag transport and metal recovery; scrap and tundish cutting; and desulphurisation and ladle slag processing. Harsco also plans to partner with Chinese design institutes to design and build metal recovery and slag processing plants when the steel mill is put into operation. Upon completion, the Harsco-designed system will be able to process 1.42Mt/yr of slag at Laoting Steel. Additionally, Harsco intends to use ‘waste to resources’ technologies to transform slag into products for construction and other purposes.