South African steel production fell by 4.2% in 2016 to an estimated 6.141-million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association. This compared to an 0.8% rise in global steel production to 1.6285-billion tonnes. Crude steel production decreased in Europe, the Americas and Africa, but increased in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Africa’s production fell by 4.7% in 2016 to 12.189-million tonnes, so SA’s share of African steel production was just more than half. The largest producer was China, which increased its production by 1.2% to 808.4-million tonnes. It raised its share of global production to 49.6% in 2016 from 49.4%; in some months of 2016 its share exceeded 50%. In the first half of 2015, a time when load shedding was prevalent and domestic demand was poor, South African steel production fell by an annual 7.6%, but in the second half of 2016, when there was no load shedding and there was a rebound in construction demand, stee...
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