In 2017, the global apparent consumption of steel reached 1.587 billion tons, an increase of 72 million tons from the 1.15 billion tons in 2016. From the perspective of key countries and regions, China's share reached 46.4%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points over 45.0% in 2016. The apparent consumption of steel in other Asian countries accounted for 15.9%, the EU accounted for 10.2%, and the North American Free Trade Zone accounted for 8.9%.

From the apparent consumption of steel per capita (calculated as finished steel), the global per capita consumption of steel has risen and rebounded in 2017 after falling for two consecutive years in 2015 and 2016.

Judging from the apparent per capita consumption of steel in several major steel producing countries, South Korea's per capita steel consumption in 2017 reached 1106kg, the highest in the world; the lowest in India was only 65.2kg, far lower than the global per capita steel consumption. 214.5kg. However, in recent years, with the increase in crude steel production, per capita steel consumption has also shown a rapid increase, which has increased from 56.0kg in 2011 to 65.2kg in 2017. The apparent consumption of steel per capita in China, the United States, Japan, and Germany remained basically stable.