Massive Chinese steelmaking rebound recorded in March

Global steel mills produced 166.1 million metric tons (mmt) of crude steel this March, representing a 2.9 percent increase compared with March 2024, according to the Brussels-based World Steel Association (Worldsteel).

In addition to the year-on-year increase, the March total output in the 69 countries that report to Worldsteel rose by 14.8 percent compared with the prior month.

China, which makes more than half the world’s steel, has an outsized influence on global fluctuations, a factor demonstrated annually when the multiweek Lunar New Year holiday causes industrial activity in the nation to plummet.

In March, steel output in China rose by 17.6 percent compared with February, when much of the 2025 Lunar New Year celebration was taking place.

The massive rebound from 78.9 mmt of steel made in China this February to 92.8 mmt in March was accompanied by smaller production increases in other leading steel-producing nations, helped in part by the three extra days in March.

China’s steel output this March also rose by 4.6 percent compared with its steel production in March 2024. While that could be good for steel sector employees in that nation, producers in much of the rest of the world might not be heartened by the increased output.

Earlier this month, the Steel Committee of the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) released its latest in a series of reports decrying what it considers severe overcapacity in the global steel sector, with much of it resting in China.

The authors of the OECD report said the committee had reviewed its latest subsidy monitoring work, concluding that “significant Chinese subsidization in 2024, including grants, tax incentives, differentiated electricity pricing and below-market borrowing to steel companies in China and other countries, will worsen steel excess capacity problems and trigger further trade disruptions for steel committee members going forward.”

China, which contains about 17 percent of the world’s population, has been producing more than half the world's annual steel total each year since 2015.

In the first quarter of 2025, China has churned out more than 55 percent of the steel made globally, according to Worldsteel’s figures.