Evraz, Severstal drop in World Steel ranking, Metinvest climbs to 24th
KYIV. June 5 (Interfax) - Russian steelmakers lost ground in 2011 in the ranking of steel producers that are members of the World Steel Association, while Ukraine's Metinvest moved up two rungs.
Largest steel producers in 2011 (World Steel data):
| No. | Company | Production mln t | No. | Company | Production, mln t |
| 1 | ArcelorMittal | 97.2 | 21 | RIVA Group | 16.1 |
| 2 | Hebei Group | 44.4 | 22 | Valin Group | 15.9 |
| 3 | Baosteel Group | 43.3 | 23 | Severstal | 15.3 |
| 4 | Posco | 39.1 | 24 | Metinvest | 14.4 |
| 5 | Wuhan Group | 37.7 | 25 | China Steel Corporation | 14.0 |
| 6 | Nippon Steel | 33.4 | 26 | SAIL | 13.5 |
| 7 | Shagang Group | 31.9 | 27 | Sumitomo Metal | 12.7 |
| 8 | Shougang Group | 30.0 | 28 | IMIDRO | 12.6 |
| 9 | JFE | 29.9 | 29 | Jianlong Group | 12.4 |
| 10 | Ansteel Group | 29.8 | 30 | MMK | 12.2 |
| 11 | Shandong Group | 24.0 | 31 | Novolipetsk Steel | 12.1 |
| 12 | Tata Steel | 23.8 | 32 | Rizhao | 11.2 |
| 13 | United States Steel | 22.0 | 33 | Baotou | 10.2 |
| 14 | Gerdau | 20.5 | 34 | Jiuquan | 10.2 |
| 15 | Nucor | 19.9 | 35 | Taiyuan | 9.9 |
| 16 | ThyssenKrupp | 17.9 | 36 | Techint Group | 9.5 |
| 17 | Evraz | 16.8 | 37 | Anyang | 9.4 |
| 18 | Maanshan | 16.7 | 38 | Pingxiang | 9.1 |
| 19 | Benxi | 16.5 | 39 | Jinxi | 9.0 |
| 20 | Hyundai Steel | 16.3 | 40 | ISD | 8.9 |
The world's largest steelmaker in 2011 was again ArcelorMittal with output of 97.2 million tonnes, down from 98.2 million tonnes in 2010.
The largest Russian producer in 2011 was Evraz, in 17th place with output of 16.8 million tonnes, down from 15th in 2010 though production was up from 16.3 million tonnes. Severstal plunged to 23rd from 12th in 2010, as its production dropped to 15.3 million tonnes from 18.2 million tonnes. Magnitogorsk Iron & Steel Works (MMK) fell to 30th from 23rd, though it increased production to 12.2 million tonnes in 2011 from 11.4 million tonnes in 2010. Novolipetsk Steel slid to 31st from 22nd with output up to 12.1 million tonnes from 11.9 million tonnes.
The list of the top 40 world steel producers is rounded out by Ukraine's Industrial Union Donbass (ISD) with output of 8.9 million tonnes. A year earlier, Hadeed was 40th with output of 5 million tonnes.
Under the methods used by worldsteel, production figures for 2011 include 100% of output at subsidiaries if the ownership stake exceeds 50%. The parent company holds a blocking stake of 30% to 50%, production is included proportionately, but if the stake is less than 30%, production is not included in consolidated results.
Ukraine produced 35.3 million tonnes of steel in 2011, up from 33.4 million tonnes, according to worldsteel's statistical report. This included 69.3% oxygen converter steel, 4.5% in electric furnace steel and 26.2% open-hearth steel. Ukraine has the highest proportion of steel produced in open-hearth furnaces. The figure is 9.7% in Russia, an average of 14.9% in the CIS (including Ukraine), 0.5% in the European Union and 1.4% in India. The only country that produces all of its steel in open-hearth furnaces is Latvia, with steel output of just 0.9 million tonnes.
Continuous casting machines poured 19 million tonnes of steel in Ukraine in 2011, or 53.9% of the total, compared to 18 million tonnes or 53.8% in 2010. In the world in general, continuous casting machines pour about 95% of all steel produced.
Apparent steel use in Ukraine rose to 6.5 million tonnes in 2011 from 2010, with the per capita figure climbing to 143.50 kg from 117 kg.
The worldwide average for apparent steel use was 214.7 kg in 2011, with South Korea leading with a figure of 1,156.6 kg, followed by Taiwan with 784.4 kg, the Czech Republic with 595.7 kg and Japan with 506.7 kg.
The biggest steel producing countries increased output by 6.2% to 1.518 billion tonnes in 2011.
Ukraine increased production of pig iron by 5.9% to 28.9 million tonnes in 2011 from 27.3 million tonnes in 2010. The country exported 1.8 million tonnes of commercial pig iron but did not import any.
Global pig iron production rose to 1.1 billion tonnes last year from 1.034 billion tonnes in 2010.
Direct reduced iron production grew to 75.1 million tonnes from 71.4 million tonnes, including to 5.2 million tonnes from 4.7 million tonnes in Russia. However, Ukraine does not have commercial facilities that use DRI technology.
A total of 1.82 billion tonnes of iron ore was mined in the world in 2011, and apparent use totalled 1.778 billion tonnes.
The largest steel exporting countries in 2011 were China with 47.9 million tonnes; Japan with 40.7 million tonnes; the European Union with 38 million tonnes; South Korea with 28.9 million tonnes; Germany with 26.4 million tonnes; Ukraine with 26 million tonnes; Russia with 24.7 million tonnes; Italy with 17.2 million tonnes; Turkey with 17 million tonnes and Belgium with 16.4 million tonnes.
The biggest importers were the EU with 35.9 million tonnes; the United States with 26.9 million tonnes; Germany with 24.9 million tonnes; South Korea with 22.8 million tonnes; Italy with 17.5 million tonnes; China with 16.3 million tonnes; France with 14.7 million tonnes; Belgium with 13.3 million tonnes; Thailand with 12.5 million tonnes; and Turkey with 10.3.
Ukraine was the third largest net-exporter of steel in 2011, with 24 million tonnes. It was preceded by Japan with 35.1 million tonnes and China with 31.6 million tonnes, and followed by Russia with 17.5 million tonnes; Brazil with 7 million tonnes; Turkey with 6.7 million tonnes; South Korea with 6 million tonnes; Austria with 3.2 million tonnes; Belgium with 3.1 million tonnes; and Taiwan with 2.9 million tonnes.
The ten largest net importers of steel in 2011 were the United States with 13.6 million tonnes; Thailand with 10.9 million tonnes; Vietnam with 8.3 million tonnes; Iran with 8.2 million tonnes; Indonesia with 7.3 million tonnes; United Arab Emirates with 6.6 million tonnes; Saudi Arabia with 5.5 million tonnes; Algeria with 3.9 million tonnes; the Philippines with 3.8 million tonnes; and Singapore with 3.1 million tonnes.
Global scrap metal exports edged up to 104.5 million tonnes in 2011, from 103 million tonnes in 2010. Ukraine exported 0.8 million tonnes and Russia exported 4 million tonnes, up from respectively 0.7 million tonnes and 2.4 million tonnes in 2010.
Scrap metal imports totalled 104.7 million tonnes, down from 109.7 million tonnes. The figure dropped to 0.1 million tonnes from 0.3 million, while Russia did not import scrap 2011 after importing 1.1 million tonnes in 2010. The biggest importer of scrap metal in the world was Turkey with 21.5 million tonnes.
