India becomes world's second-largest steel producing country replacing Japan

India becomes the world's second-largest steel producing country replacing Japan: Details, Highlights

India has become the world's second-largest steel producing country, replacing Japan and after China.

China at present is the largest producer of crude steel accounting for more than 51 percent of production, as per the latest report by the World Steel Association.

Steel contributes two percent of India's national income. The targeted steel build-up capacity in the country is likely to reach 300 million tons by 2030, aligned with the target of National Steel Policy 2017.

Key Highlights

As per the report, India's crude steel production in 2018 was at 106.5 MT, which is up by 4.9 percent from 101.5 MT in 2017.

This rise in India’s crude steel production in 2018 means that India has replaced Japan as the world's second-largest steel producing country, as Japan produced 104.3 MT in 2018, which is down by 0.3 percent as compared to 2017.

On the other hand, China's crude steel output jumped by 6.6 percent to 928.3 MT in 2018 from 870.9 MT in 2017. China's share also increased from 50.3 percent in 2017 to 51.3 percent in 2018.

The global crude steel production reached 1808.6 MT for the year 2018 from 1729.8 MT in 2017, displaying a rise of 4.6 percent.

The other nations in the list of top 10 steel producing countries include the United States, which is at the 4th position as the country produced 86.7 MT of crude steel in 2018, followed by South Korea at the 5th place with 72.5 MT of crude steel, Russia at 6th with 71.7 MT, Germany at 7th with 42.4 MT, Turkey at 8th with 37.3 MT, Brazil at 9th with 34.7 MT and Iran at the 10th position with 25 MT crude steel in 2018.

Among other countries, Italy produced 24.5 MT of crude steel in 2018, France produced 15.4 MT and Spain produced 14.3 MT and Ukraine produced 21.1 MT of crude steel in the same year.