Ukraine reclaims spot among top 20 steel producers after wartime setback

Ukraine has climbed back into the ranks of the world’s top 20 steel producers.

According to a recent report from Ukrmetalurgprom, the country now ranks 20th among 71 steel-producing nations, up from 21st place previously.

Steel production in Ukraine increased by 30.7% year over year to 5.27 million tons over the first eight months of 2024.

This marks a significant recovery for Ukraine’s steel industry, which had seen a sharp decline in recent years. Ukraine ranked 14th globally in steel production in 2021, before the war, but had dropped to 25th place by 2022.

Despite Ukraine’s gains, global steel production has declined slightly. Ukrmetalurgprom reports that world steel production for this period totaled 1.25 billion tons, which is 1.54% lower than January-August 2023. China remains the world leader, though its output has decreased by 3.3% compared to the same period last year, reaching 691.41 million tons.

“Ukraine retained its 13th position among 40 countries in the global ranking of pig iron producers, with a production volume of 4.73 million tons (+21.1% compared to January-August 2023),” the report states.

According to Ukrmetalurgprom, since the beginning of the year, metallurgical enterprises worldwide have produced 937.28 million tons of pig iron (854.58 million tons by blast furnace method and 82.70 million tons by direct reduction method), which is 2.28% lower than in January-August 2023.

China also leads in pig iron production but has experienced a decline. Its output of 577.7 million tons is “4.3% lower than the figure for the first eight months of last year.”

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