NUCOR STEEL HEADLINESSteel Producers /
Nucor Steel
Baosteel Moves up to No. 3 Position for 2008 Crude Steel Output
Jul. 10, 2009 Baosteel moved up to the number-three position in World Steel Association’s recently announced ranking of top steel producers for 2008. Baosteel’s 2008 production—35.4 million tonnes of crude steel—represents a year-on-year growth of 6.8 million tonnes vs. 28.6 million tonnes in 2007, when it held the no. 6 position among top producers.
ArcelorMittal was again the number-one producer for 2008, with crude steel output of 101.6 tonnes, down from its 2007 production of 116.4 million tonnes of crude steel.
Nippon Steel was again the number-two producer, with 37.5 million tonnes of crude steel (including part of Usiminas), up from 36.7 million tonnes in 2007. Hebei Iron & Steel Group was again ranked as the number-four producer with a crude steel output of 33.3 million tonnes.
The balance of the top-ten crude steel producers for 2008 included JFE (32.4 million tonnes) as number five; Posco (31.7 million tonnes) as number six; Wuhan Steel Group (27.7 million tonnes) as number seven; Tata Steel (24.4 million tonnes, including Corus) as number eight; Shandong Steel Group (23.8 million tonnes) as number nine; and Jiangsu Shagang Group (23.3 million tonnes) as number ten.
Two U.S.-based producers ranked near the top ten, including U.S. Steel (23.2 million tonnes) as number 11, up from its 2007 crude steel tonnage of 21.5 million tonnes but down from its number-10 ranking in 2007. Nucor held the number 12 position (the same as in 2007) with 20.4 million tonnes of crude steel production, up from 20.0 million tonnes in 2007.
Baosteel reports that the 10 largest crude steel producers for 2008 account for 28% of the total in 2008, slightly higher than in 2007, when the top ten accounted for 27.3% of the total. The percentage of total accounted for by the top 20 was 69.1% in 2008, which compares to 67.5% in 2007.