From The Editor

The numbers are in, and production of crude steel in the United States, and the world, declined in 2022. The report from the Brussels-based World Steel Association showed global steel production totaled 1.88 million metric tons last year, the lowest figure in four years.

In the U.S., production was down 5.9 percent to 80.1 million tons for the full year. Production in North America was down 5.5 percent to 111.4 million tons.

The decline was largely across the board. Among the Top 10 global producers, only two countries saw increases in 2022 – India growing 5.5 percent to 124.7 million tons and Iran up 8 percent to 30.6 million tons.

Production in 2022 fell in all major regions except the Middle East, where it was up 7.1 percent to 3.7 million tons. The biggest decline by region was in Russia and other CIS plus Ukraine, where it fell 20.2 percent to 85.2 million tons. Specifically, Russian production was down 7.2 percent in 2022 to 71.5 million tons, while the invasion by Russian forces cut Ukrainian production 70.7 percent to 6.3 million tons.

China remained the global production leader in 2022, though its 1.01 billion tons were down 2.1 percent compared with 2022. It was the second straight year Chinese production showed year-over-year declines.

Looking for a bright side: global production did show a modest increase in December compared with the previous month.