History of the steel industry (1970–present)

The global steel industry has been going through major changes since 1970. China has emerged as a major producer and consumer, as has India to a lesser extent. Consolidation has been rapid in Europe.

Growth of the industry

Global steel production grew enormously in the 20th century from a mere 28 million tonnes at the beginning of the century to 781 million tons at the end.[1] Per-capita steel consumption in the U.S. peaked in 1977, then fell by half before staging a modest recovery to levels well below the peak.[2]

World steel production in the 20th century

Bethlehem Steel in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania was one of the world's largest manufacturers of steel.

Over the course of the 20th century, production of crude steel has risen at an astounding rate, now fast approaching a production level of 800 million tons per year.

During the 20th century, the consumption of steel increased at an average annual rate of 3.3%. In 1900, the United States was producing 37% of the world's steel. With post war industrial development in Asia that region now (at the start of the 21st century) accounts for almost 40%, with Europe (including the former Soviet Union) producing 36% and North America 14.5%.

Towards the end of the last century, growth of steel production was in the developing countries such as China, Brazil and India, as well as newly developed South Korea. Steel production and consumption grew steadily in China in the initial years but later it picked up momentum and the closing years of the century saw it racing ahead of the rest of the world. China produced 220.1 million tonnes in 2003, 272.2 million tonnes in 2004 and 349.36 million tonnes in 2005. That is much above the production in 2005 of Japan at 112.47 million tonnes, the USA at 93.90 million tonnes and Russia at 66.15 million tonnes. For details of country-wise steel production see Steel production by country.

Growth potential of the industry

Amongst the other newly steel-producing countries, South Korea has stabilised at around 46–48 million tonnes, and Brazil at around 30 plus million tonnes. This brings the focus of the industry to India. Considering a steel consumption of 300 kg per man per year to be a fair level of economic development, India will have to come up to somewhere around 300 million tonnes, if it is to fulfill its ambitions of being a developed country. That, of course, is a long journey from the present production level of around 50 million tonnes but one must consider its past before coming to a conclusion about its potential. India was producing only around a million tonnes of steel at the time of its independence in 1947. By 1991, when the economy was opened up steel production grew to around 14 million tonnes. Thereafter, it doubled in the next 10 years, and then it is doubling again, maybe over a slightly longer span. Steel Production in India is expected to reach 124 million tons by 2012 and 275 million tons by 2020 which could make it the second largest steel maker.[3]

The world steel industry peaked in 2007. That year, ThyssenKrupp spent $12 billion to build the two most modern mills in the world, in Alabama and Brazil. The worldwide great recession starting in 2008, however, with its heavy cutbacks in construction, sharply lowered demand and prices fell 40%. ThyssenKrupp lost $11 billion on its two new plants, which sold steel below the cost of production. Finally in 2013, ThyssenKrupp offered the plants for sale at under $4 billion.[4]

Reduction in workforce

Steel is no more the labour-intensive industry it used to be. Earlier, it was often associated with the image of huge work force living in a captive township. All that has changed dramatically. A modern steel plant employs very few people. In South Korea, Posco employs 10,000 people to produce 28 million tonnes. As a rule of thumb, one can put the direct employment potential at 1,000 per million tonnes. It could be less. However, steel being a basic industry, it generates substantial growth of both upstream and downstream facilities. According to some estimates one person-year of employment in the steel industry generates 3.5 person-years of employment elsewhere. Considering all these, total employment generation will be substantial.

The third quarter of the 20th century witnessed massive growth of the global steel industry. Annual production rose more than three times in 15 years from 1960. In the last quarter of the century, production reached a plateau, rising only by around 100 million tonnes. Increase in production gave way to increases in productivity. See also steel crisis.

During the period 1974 to 1999, the steel industry had drastically reduced employment all around the world. In USA, it was down from 521,000 to 153,000. In Japan, it was down from 459,000 to 208,000. In Germany, it was down from 232,000 to 78,000. In UK, it was down from 197,000 to 31,000. In Brazil, it was down from 118,000 to 59,000. In South Africa, it was down from 100,000 to 54,000. South Korea already had a low figure. It was only 58,000 in 1999. The steel industry had reduced its employment around the world by more than 1,500,000 in 25 years.

Employment in the steel industry 1974, 1990 and 1996–2000

Thousand at end of each amount.

Country 1974 1990 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Austria 44 21 13 12 12 12 12
Belgium 64 26 23 21 20 20 20
Denmark 2 1 1 1 1 1 1
Finland 12 10 7 7 8 7 8
France 158 46 39 38 38 38 39
FR Germany (1) 232 125 86 82 80 78 77
Greece 0 3 2 2 2 2 2
Ireland 1 1 0 0 0 0 0
Italy 96 56 39 37 39 39 39
Luxembourg 23 9 5 5 4 4 4
Netherlands 25 17 12 12 12 12 12
Portugal 4 4 2 2 2 2 2
Spain 89 36 24 23 22 22 22
Sweden 50 26 14 14 14 13 13
United Kingdom 197 51 37 36 34 31 29
European Union 996 434 306 293 290 280 278
Yugoslavia (2) 42 69 17 17 17 15 15
Canada 77 53 53 53 55 57 56
United States 521 204 167 163 160 153 151
Brazil 118 115 79 74 63 59 63
South Africa 100 112 71 70 61 54 56
Japan 459 305 240 230 221 208 197
Republic of Korea n/a 67 66 64 59 58 57
Australia 42 30 21 20 20 24 21
World Production 644 (3) 770 750 799 777 789 848

(1) Includes former German Democratic Republic 1996–2000 (2) Serbia and Montenegro 1996–2000 (3) 1975 total

Totals are rounded. United States figures are average for 12 months. Various other differences in coverage and definition exist, so that inter-country comparisons are of dubious value. E indicates estimate.

See also

References

Appendices

Both appendices are from IISI material, earlier on the web but now replaced by more recent data.

  1. ↑ Appendix 1
  2. ↑ Smil, Vaclav (2006). Transforming the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations and Their Consequences. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press.
  3. ↑ http://www.business-standard.com/common/storypage_c_online.php?leftnm=11&bKeyFlag=IN&autono=30054
  4. ↑ John W. Miller and Ike Henning, "Thiessen gets offers for mills: Final bids for steel complexes in Alabama, Brazil will likely fall short of the company's hopes," Wall Street Journal 1 March 2013

Further reading

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