In 2017, global crude steel production reached 1.689 billion tons, an increase of 62 million tons from 16.27 billion tons in 2016. From the data of the first five months of this year, the growth rate of crude steel production has obviously accelerated. From January to May this year, global crude steel output increased by 1.4%, 3.5%, 4.0%, 4.1% and 6.6%, respectively; the cumulative increase reached 4.7%, 0.1 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

According to the steel forming process, in 2017, the global continuous casting steel output reached 1.625 billion tons, accounting for 96.3% of the total steel production. Most countries and regions use continuous casting process to produce steel billets, and the proportion of continuous casting steel is above 90%. Only Slovenia, Sweden, Russia, Ukraine, Canada and other countries have a ratio of continuous casting of less than 90%.

From the perspective of crude steel production process, in 2017, the proportion of crude steel produced by oxygen converters in the world reached 71.5%, the proportion of crude steel produced by electric furnace reached 28.0%, and the proportion of crude steel produced by open hearth furnace and other processes was 0.5. %. Due to the difference in the raw fuel and steel markets in various countries and regions, the proportion of crude steel produced by oxygen converters and electric furnaces is also large. As shown in Figure 4, the output of electric furnace steel in the Middle East, Africa and North America Free Trade Zones is relatively high, more than half, and the proportion of electric furnace steel production in other regions is less than half. From the perspective of the world's major steel producers, the United States has the highest proportion of electric furnace steel production, close to 70%; China's electric furnace steel accounted for the lowest proportion, less than 10%.

In addition, in recent years, China, Japan, South Korea and other countries have implemented steel projects in Southeast Asian countries such as Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, etc., and the production of crude steel in Southeast Asia has increased substantially. The growth rate of crude steel in the region is higher than the global average speed.