South African steel production rose 1.2% year on year in January to 533,000 tonnes, while for all of 2016 it experienced a 4.2% drop to an estimated 6.141-million tonnes, according to the World Steel Association. This compared with a 7.0% year-on-year rise in global steel production in January to 136.5-million tonnes, while the rise for all of 2016 was 0.8% to 1.6285-billion tonnes. In 2016, crude steel production decreased in Europe, the Americas and Africa, but increased in the [Russian] Commonwealth of Independent States, the Middle East, Asia and Oceania. Africa’s production fell 4.7% in 2016 to 12.189-million tonnes, making SA’s share of African steel production just more than half that of the entire continent. The largest producer was China, which increased its production 1.2% in 2016 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 January, China raised its production by 7.4% to 67...
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