According to the report, World crude steel production increased 3% last year to 1.607bn tonnes. Owing to the stronger increase in BOF (basic oxygen furnace) production in 2013, the BOF steel share of total world steel production climbed to around 71%.
The developments in steel scrap use as a global raw material for steelmaking differed from country to country last year. According to the 2013 figures, steel scrap consumption declined in the EU-27 (-4.6%), Turkey (-6%) and Russia (-3.5%) but climbed in China (+2%), Japan (+3.2%) and the Republic of Korea (+0.3%). Also noticeable was the unchanged steel scrap usage in the USA. Last year, there was an increase in crude steel output in regions/countries with a high percentage of EAF (electric arc furnace) production such as the Middle East and Africa, as well as some Asian countries like India, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam.
Last year, China used more domestically-supplied steel scrap and reduced its imports, and the USA used more direct reduced iron as a substitute for steel scrap.
The global annual ferrous scrap use in iron and steel foundries has amounted to between 56m and 76m tonnes in recent years. The global external steel scrap trade amounted to 99m tonnes last year (-9.5% compared to 2012), of which around 30% was attributable to inter-EU trade. Most leading steel scrap importers cut their overseas purchases in 2013, including Turkey (-12%), the Republic of Korea (-8.6%), India (-31.1%), China (-10.2%) and Taiwan (-10.1%). Despite its reduced level of buying, Turkey remained the world’s foremost steel scrap importer. And despite a drop of around 13.6%, the USA remained the world’s leading exporter of steel scrap on 18.495m tonnes.
The report is available only for members at the BIR website.
