Steel production increased rapidly during the post-World War 2 era. Many countries developed at a rapid rate with amazing construction booms. Steel making process involves the use of iron ore and scrap. The process includes the exclusion of impure elements like nitrogen, excess carbon, sulfur silicon, etc. In order to obtain various grades of steel elements like vanadium, manganese, nickel, and chromium are added during production. The introduction of Bessemer and Siemens-Martin processes revolutionized production globally.
The capital reforms under Deng Xiaoping gave a big boost to Chinese industrialization. lagging much behind the global steel industry the reforms brought about a paradigm shift and augured production.
By 2011 China became the largest producer of steel in the World. The production rose to over 680 million tonnes accounting for forty-five percent of global production. This is despite stiff competition by major players and unstable prices of raw materials. As per the trend in almost every sector, the industry experienced a price rise within this period.
The production continued to peak until its decline in the year 2016 which resulted in a stock market crash in that country. This came about as a result of other countries exports, especially from Russia and Ukraine.
The largest steel producers in China are Hesteel Group with production being 31 million tonnes which is much below Arcelor Mittal. The latter is the largest steel producer in the World with 116 million tonnes. Other major producers of this commodity are Jiangsu Shagang, Ansteel, and Baosteel groups. India ranks fourth in the production of steel and is undergoing a rise in production along with new entrants like Brazil and South Korea.
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