Production and expected growth
The iron and steel industry has an annual global production of 775 Mt of crude steel in 1998 (IISI, 1999).
Table 1 gives a listing of the 20 largest steel producing countries in 1999, which combined account for
87% of global steel production.
Demand for steel is growing at a moderate pace (+2% in 1998/99 and projected to average 1.6% p.a. to
2005 - IISI 1999). However, steel demand can vary widely from country to country and year to year,
depending on economic conditions. Demand for steel is linked to demand in construction and for
automobiles. The growth in EU and NAFTA countries is expected to be small,
whereas in South America a
large growth is expected. The development in China is hard to predict, but in general a large growth is
expected. A recovery of production (with levels returning to pre-1990 volumes) is expected in the former
Soviet Union.
The three countries that are selected as cases in this study, i.e. Brazil, India and Poland, are all among the
world’s top 20 steel producers. Since 1992, the largest growth in steel production has been in Mexico,
Taiwan, Republic of Korea and China, where production jumped more than 40% between 1992 and 1999.
In the former Soviet Union and Japan the steel production declined over the same period.
