Leading Steel Production Signals Asia’s Century Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD, FICS

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In the seventies, the European share of the steel production started declining as Asia’s production continued to grow. During this period, South America also became a big producer of steel. In the nineties, Japan became the largest producer of steel. Soon, China surpassed Japan to become the leading country in steel production. South Korea and India have also joined the ranks of the ten largest steel producing countries of the world. Today, Asia produces about 60% of the total steel production of the world.

If we analyze the steel production figures in the last decade, then some trends become obvious:

China has taken the first position and is now leading with a very large margin. Steel production is continuously rising in Asia. American steel production continues to decline. The country which taught the rest of the world how to make steel (i.e. England) does not even make it into the last place of the top ten largest steel producers. India and South Korea continue to produce more steel and their share of the world production is continuously increasing. Relatively, steel production has declined in western European countries compared to eastern European countries. Overall, steel production is moving from the West to the East.

The following tables are the ten largest steel producers in 1994 and 2003 (in millions of metric tons):

1994	2003
1. Japan, 108.4	1. China, 220.1
2. China, 100.9	2. Japan, 110.5
3. America, 100.5	3. America, 90.4
4. Russia, 53.8	4. Russia, 62.7
5. Germany, 45.0	5. South Korea, 46.3
6. South Korea, 37.1	6. Germany, 44.8
7. Italy, 28.8	7. Ukraine, 36.9
8. Brazil, 28.3	8. India, 31.8
9. Ukraine, 26.2	9. Brazil, 31.1
10. India, 20.1	10. Italy, 26.7

Source: United States International Iron and Steel Institute Bureau of mines (Wall Street Journal, March 31, 2004)

China is not only the biggest producer of steel, but is also the biggest consumer. China is buying iron ore from all over the world, including America, Canada, South America, and Australia. China has also setup a steel production mill in Brazil. All of the steel made in this mill is shipped back to China. Because of China buying iron ore, some iron mines in America and Canada which were closed before are reopening now, leading to the hiring of workers who had been laid off.

Another interesting fact can also be observed, that is the steel production is also a good indicator of the overall performance of the economy of the country. For example, both China and India, which have shown a significant increase in steel production in the last decade, have also experienced a big rate of growth in their economies. For China, the rate of economic growth in the last decade has been about 10%. The Indian economy has grown at a rate of more than 5% per year. China is now making about 30% of the world’s steel. The growing steel production is propelling Asia to Asia’s century. There is hardly any doubt that the 21st century will not be called by any other name.