World steel production continued to slow in April, falling 1.9% year over year, the World Steel Association reported May 22. The data covers 69 member countries.
Some 153.4 million metric tons of crude steel were produced in April. This was 3 million mt less than in the same month last year and 7.2 million mt, or 4.5%, less than in March. China, with its 86 million mt, accounted for just over 55% of that total.
The world’s monthly production has been declining year over year for the eighth straight month since September 2025, according to World Steel data.
Gains in most of the top ten steel-producing countries failed to offset declines in several major contributors. India’s output grew 3.9% year over year, or more than 500,000 mt. The US, South Korea, Turkey and Germany also posted significant increases totaling almost 1.5 million mt. However, these were not enough to offset a 2.4 million mt fall in China, a 700,000 mt fall in Russia and a 1.4 million mt drop in the Middle East.
The results for the top 10 steelmaking countries over January-April showed highly uneven changes, ranging from a 12% drop to a 9.4% gain.
The world’s total over January-April fell by 2%, or 12.5 million mt, year over year to 613.3 million mt, mainly due to 4.1% lower output in China and an estimated 12% fall in Russia’s output. Over the four-month period, China cut production by 14.1 million mt to 331.1 million mt, and Russia by 2.8 million mt to 20.6 million mt.
The decrease was partially offset by 9.4%, or 5 million mt, higher production in India and 6.6%, or 1.7 million mt, growth in the US. Over January-April, India made 58.7 million mt of crude steel, and the US produced 28 million mt, making them the second- and third-largest steel-producing countries behind China.
The period also saw single-digit increases in Turkish and German production, with the countries producing, almost on par, 13 million mt and 12.5 million mt, respectively. However, the total for the EU-27 fell by 2.2% to 42.8 million mt.
By region, the 12.8% fall in Middle East production, which shrank to 16 million mt, marked the largest decline over January-April, while the largest percentage gain was in Africa, where output expanded 8.7% year over year to 8.4 million mt.
