The U.S. houses one of the world's largest steel industries. It is rather concentrated in structure, with a few producers accounting for the lion's share of sales. If we add companies engaged in the extraction of iron ore and coking coal for the processing of iron and steel, this industry includes metal ore exploration and mining services, iron and steel foundries for smelting, rolling, forging, spinning, recycling, stamping, polishing and plating of iron and steel products such as pipes, tubes, wires, springs, rolls and bars.
ArcelorMittal (
MT) is the world's largest steel company, with crude steel production of 73.2 million tons in 2009, representing about 6% of the world steel output.
The largest drivers of steel consumption have historically been the automotive and construction markets, which absorb more than 50% of total steel production. Large automakers such as
General Motors (
MTLQQ),
Ford Motor Company (
F),
Toyota Motor Corporation (
TM) and
Honda Motor Company (
HMC) depend upon the steel industry. Other steel consuming industries include appliances; agricultural; converters; containers; domestic and commercial equipment; energy; electrical equipment; and industrial machinery.
Production
World crude steel production has continued to show a steady increase since April 2009 on the back of a moderate rise in demand and the resumption of work at idled facilities. All major steel producing countries -- Brazil, China, Germany, Japan, the U.S., Turkey, Russia and the Ukraine -- have shown peak monthly figures so far this year. According to the World Steel Association (WSA, or worldsteel), global steel output increased to 122 million tons in the month of April 2010, up 35.7% from April 2009. However, month over month, steel output declined by less than 1% from about 122.2 million tons.
Year-over-year crude steel production peaked globally in April 2010. Steel production increased 79.4% in the U.S. to 6.8 million tons. In the European Union (EU), Germany's crude steel production was 3.9 million tons (an increase of 107.2%), Spain produced 1.6 million tons (up 36%), Italy's production was 2.4 million tons (a hike of 57.9%), while Turkey produced 2.4 million tons (a 21.5% increase).
Total monthly steel output in Asia (China, India, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan) remained nearly flat at 77 million tons. In China, steel production stayed the same at 55 million tons. Japan produced 9 million tons (down 4%) and South Korea contributed 4.8 million tons (up 1%). Steel production in the Middle East edged up 9% to 1.7 million tons due to booming infrastructure spending.
Growth Trends
The steel industry recorded high growth rates in both production and consumption over the past few years, benefiting from the soaring steel demand in the automobile and construction sectors before the recession hit.